Thinking Of Rebranding Your Blog In 2022? Here’s An Easy Guide
So you’ve been thinking about rebranding your blog but are unsure where to start?
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that in 2020, I decided to rebrand my blog. It was a difficult decision because as rebrands go, it was an extensive blog rebrand.
I changed everything from the blog name to the look and content of the blog.
If you are rebranding your blog or thinking of rebranding, this is post is for you. I’ll be sharing my rebrand journey with you, what I learned, the mistakes that I made, and tips to make rebranding easier for you.
First things first, let’s discuss! The big question when it comes to rebranding your blog:
- Do you ACTUALLY need to rebrand?
- And when is it a good idea to rebrand?
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to rebranding. The answer to these questions is up to each individual blogger.
Rebranding your blog should truly be a personal decision.
No matter which way you look at it, rebranding a blog is no small feat. When I was going through my rebrand, it took lots of consideration and wavering back and forth before deciding to FINALLY take the leap with my blog rebrand.
I strongly believe that each blogger should spend some time in reflection before actually jumping in.
Only through reflection on your personal blogging journey will you be able to decide whether you need a blog rebrand and if it’s the right time for you.
You need to understand that not all rebrands look the same!
What does it mean to rebrand your blog?
Rebranding is a process that bloggers may take to change the direction of their blog. A blog rebrand can involve rebranding aspects such as your theme, logo, and blog name.
Rebranding is often seen as a way to re-energize your blog and re-ignite your writing mojo or a fresh start in blogging. A rebrand can also be a great way to update your design making it more professional, clean, and modern.
Ultimately, rebranding is a great opportunity for change! You’ll know best when you feel like you need to change things up.
When I rebranded my blog in 2020, I rebranded everything: the name of my blog, the theme for my blog, and even my logo.
It was a big move, but one that was worth it. By rebranding, I was able to align my blog more with the direction that I wanted to go in. I was also fine-tuning my blog to provide content that my audience was responding well to.
Rebranding is not always a good idea though.
While rebranding s a great opportunity, it’s also important that you are not rebranding too often.
Firstly, rebranding takes a lot of time and effort and you can get into a cycle of constantly changing things instead of making real progress on your blog.
Also, it’s important that your audience gets to know you and your brand. When you rebrand too often, you don’t give people the chance to get used to your brand. You end up doing yourself and your blog a disservice.
Rebranding Your Blog: Step By Step
So… you’ve decided that you want to rebrand your blog. What next?
Rebranding your blog can be a long and often complicated process. Here are the exact steps that you’ll need to take when rebranding your blog to make the process easier.
- Determine the reason for your rebranding
- Decide on your new blog niche and determine what needs to be rebranded
- Talk to your audience
- Choose a launch date + come up with a comprehensive to do list
- Decide what content you will transfer to your new blog
- Migrate your blog to your new domain
- Revise your theme, site colours and visuals
- Change your contact details
- Update your social channels
- Announce your rebrand
1. Determine the reason for your rebranding
The very first thing that you should do when rebranding your blog is to determinine your WHY.
One of the biggest mistakes I see bloggers make when it comes to rebranding their blogs is jumping into it without proper consideration for why the need a reband in the first place.
Rebranding should never be a spur of the moment decision. It’s a big deal that requires thought and lots of planning before you take the first steps.
When rebranding your blog, it is important that you have a clear reason for rebranding. To determine this, you’re going to need to ask yourself some tough questions to determine whether rebranding is the right decision for you and your blog.
Some questions that you can ask yourself are:
- What’s currently working on my blog?
- What’s currently not working?
- What would I like to see more of on the blog? What are my blogging goals?
- Who is my ideal audience and how can I better serve them?
- Do I need a rebrand or am I just bored?
- How will a rebrand help me to achieve my blogging goals?
It takes time to work through this process. At the end of the reflection, you may decide that you don’t need a rebrand to achieve your blogging goals. And that’s okay.
It’s much better to determine this now than rebrand your blog only to realize down the road that rebranding wasn’t right for you.
If rebranding is the decision that you’ve come to then it’s time to move on to step 2!
2. Determine what needs to be rebranded and how
A blog rebrand looks different to everyone, so it’s important that you determine exactly what you want your rebrand to look like.
Do you plan to change your blog completely, by changing the name and the niche? Or are you looking to just change the colours and the logo? or just update the layout of the blog?
It takes time to figure out if you want to do a complete rebrand or if you are OK with what you’ve got with a few tweaks. If your blog is a big one, with many posts, updating it can seem like a daunting task.
Don’t rush through things. Really take your time to make sure that you are rebranding your blog in a way that feels right for you.
3. Talk to your audience
Once you have made the decision to proceed, it’s time to talk to your audience about your blog rebrand! This can be really hard, but it;s an important step because it builds trust and allows you to communicate better with your audience.
The first thing you should do is re-read all your reader emails and re-look at your comments. You need to reacquaint yourself with what people are saying about you and your blog.
What do they like? What don’t they like? How could you rebrand to meet their needs better?
It’s generally also a great idea to share the news of your blog rebrand with your audience.
You can also get your readers involved by having them vote for aspects of your new blog such as the colours, fonts or even logos.
When you do this, you give yourself even more of an opportunity to get their input. They may be able to give you more insight into what they would like to see more (or less) of.
4. Choose a launch date + come up with a comprehensive to do list
It’s always a good idea to start with the end in mind and then work backward.
Start by determining when you want to launch your rebranded blog. Make sure it’s a date that’s not too far in the future that you are tempted to put it off. It should also be reasonable and something that you can stick to. Finding the right balance is crucial.
Once you set your target, you can start brainstorming and making a plan/ to do list for the rebrand launch date.
You will want to take the suggested steps in this blog post and adapt them based on your rebrand needs.
Include both the big things and the small and seemingly insignificant tasks such as: setting your blogging goals.
Once you have your master list, it’s a good idea to group similar tasks and work in batches.
This helps to make an otherwise daunting process more manageable.
Also, make sure to give yourself time to deal with any technical difficulties that may arise.
5. Migrate your blog to your new domain
If your plan is to change your blog name, you’ll need to change your domain name as well.
Your domain name is the name of your website, for example: yourgreatwebsite.com.
A couple of things to consider when choosing a blog name and domain name:
- Does the name sound good as a blog name?
- Does it rebrand easily? Will SEO suffer by rebranding?
The first two points are very important! Make sure that your new blog name sounds good and rebrands easily. SEO will suffer by rebranding but not too much, you should still be able to rank well for your new blog name if you rebrand properly.
- The name should be simple, easy to spell and remember.
- You should also think about what other famous blogs are called and how people will be able to find your blog from search engines.
- Try to avoid using a name that’s similar to a trademarked name.
- Check to see if your chosen blog name has an available blog URL – .com is best.
- Check to see if your chosen domain hasn’t been flagged for spam.
It is important that you change this as soon as you can before launch day rolls around because changing a domain name can take between 24-48 hours to kick in worldwide! To change your domain name, you’ll need to migrate your blog to your new domain.
This step can often be quite technical, so you want to make sure that you are taking your time to follow the appropriate steps. Otherwise, you may lose all of your old posts.
You will also need to change the domain name within Google Search Console, within your analytics, within WordPress and within any plugins that are currently linked to your blog. It sounds like a lot but it’s not so bad when you work through it.
6. Decide what content you will transfer to your new blog
Rebranding doesn’t mean that you have to start your blog from scratch.
This is great news if you already have a ton of content that you feel would be applicable to your new site.
That’s why this step is so important.
If you have blog posts that are shared on Pinterest, you’ll need to connect that content to your new site so that people clicking on your pins don’t land on an error page.
7. Revise your colors and site design
One of the most fun rebranding steps is updating your site design! Think about what you want your rebranded blog to look like.
Make sure that any new color schemes are cohesive with each other and make sure that the layout of your rebranded site is simple.
Landing pages can be a really great way to rebrand your blog in a beautiful way. You can rebrand as much as you want, but always remember that your color scheme and site design is a very important part of your brand.
In most cases, rebranding means changing the logo, updating the colors, and re-designing the site.
You should keep all of these elements consistent to ensure continuity throughout your rebrand.
8. Change your contact details
If you have a rebranded blog, it only makes sense to update all of your contact details to rebrand with it.
This includes things such as email signature, the about me page, and social media links.
9. Update your social channels
You rebranded your blog, so now it’s time to rebrand yourself on social media!
- Change your Instagram handle
- Re-design your Pinterest profile
- Update your Facebook page
10. Announce your rebrand
Once you have all the previous steps sorted, it’s time to rebrand yourself.
Rebrands are usually announced on whatever social media platform that you are most active on. You should also announce your rebrand to your most loyal supporters- the people on your email list.
It is important that you keep all of your contacts updated so that they can follow your rebranded blog.
Final Thoughts
Rebranding can be a scary thing. You might feel like rebranding means that you’re starting over from scratch and that’s not true at all! Rebranding is an opportunity to build upon your current content and re-launch as a more cohesive, stronger brand than before.
Good luck rebranding your blog in 2022!
