Happy Tuesday! Three years. That's how long it's been since my co-founder Morgan Taylor and I recorded a podcast episode together.
Morgan came back for a big one: the real story behind why we killed Jolly SEO. Not the company, the name (the announcement was in newsletter #75, this is the behind-the-scenes).
- Quick aside before we dig in: partnerships came up a lot in this one, and we're hiring a Partnerships Manager to own that whole world. Know someone great? Send them our way!
The Name Stopped Fitting
We started Jolly SEO doing exactly one thing. Seven years and 650+ clients later, answering “So, what do you do?” required a deep breath.
Earned linkbuilding, Reddit brand mentions, onsite content, YouTube for AI Search… “SEO” wasn't wrong, it was just incomplete.
Morgan & I felt it hardest on sales calls. Our old deck was linear: tier one, tier two, tier three, pick your box.
Client needs stopped working that way when AI Search hit the scene. The conversation is now a tree that branches:
(Credit where due: Muskaan is the one who finally pushed us off the couch in Marina del Rey and said it's time.)
The 301 Was Terrifying. We Did It Anyway
Redirecting your own domain is the SEO equivalent of performing surgery on yourself. One client delightfully told me we had balls to do it.
And… there was a period of weeks there where I was frantically refreshing Ahrefs!
But, Morgan said something on this episode that stuck with me: we could have sat there perfecting everything forever.
Watch the full episode here:
One prospect told us it took him a long while of staring at our old site before he trusted us enough to reach out. That was the real cost of waiting.
We Were Late. That's Okay
So, we dragged our feet on this one.
I didn't want to be another overnight GEO expert back in mid-2024. Call it imposter syndrome, but I wasn't willing to claim “AI Search expert” until we had great case studies… and, now we do: https://jollysearch.com/case-studies/
Now we offer our “Own A Prompt” service, thanks to our Reddit expertise, and constant R&D to find new levers to pull (future newsletters will share more).
Why We Kept “Jolly”
We debated dropping the whole name. The conclusion:
“Jolly” is how the community knows us, and that equity is expensive to rebuild.
We also knew we need to reject anything with AI… naming our company after that term in the middle of this industry transition would just mean another re-brand next year.
Nobody Cried Over the Old Brand
When I announced the rebrand here in the newsletter, a dozen of you replied saying the new site looks great. That is super appreciated… but, I was surprised no Jolly client even bothered.
While prepping for this episode, I ran the whole saga through Claude. It hit me with: “The rebrand is for the next 650 clients, not the last 650.”
That hurt, but it just makes sense. Our existing clients already know about our constant R&D to keep up with a changing search landscape. The re-brand was for the rest of the world, not for us.
Until next week,
Greg
P.S. Something big is coming next week to the Jolly Partner program! Refer clients to us between now and Labor Day, and we'll double commission on each of their first payments as a signing bonus. Full details in next Tuesday's issue, so stay tuned!