How to Change Your Name Without Ruining Your SEO

There are plenty of factors to consider when debating whether to change your name — and most likely, SEO ranks pretty low on the list. But if you are someone who cares a lot about your brand online, a name change could hinder search results and what has taken long to cultivate

My colleague Christina Warren, who has been married for more than a year now, is among the many who decided not to change her byline after years of building a collection of published work online. I was faced with the same question recently following my own nuptials.

I decided my name would be Samantha Murphy Kelly, no hyphen. This would keep me largely findable by people and sources I've worked with before and not completely confuse all of my contacts. Plus, how often do you fail to recognize people in your Facebook news feed because their last name has changed? For me, that happens every single day. Read more...