Mechanics

Why Product Names Change Between Launches

A new name almost every year, and the several reasons that is not what it looks like.

The legitimate reasons

• The product genuinely changed. A course about SEO and a course about Instagram DMs are not the same course with a new cover.
• Clean search results. A new name has no accumulated noise attached to it, positive or negative.
• Affiliates need something new to mail. A list that received the same product name last September will not open the same email again.

The less flattering reason

A late name change also stops affiliates building brand-term positions in advance. Nobody can rank for a product name that has not been announced, so search results start empty for everyone in the same fortnight.

Both things can be true simultaneously, and neither tells you anything about whether the product is good. What it does tell you is that brand-name search results during a launch are almost entirely built in the same week, by people who have mostly never used the thing.

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