Name change

[Tanya Kurnik]

I recently seperated from my husband and want a divorce. I started a small side job business with photography and I have a website with my married last name. I was wondering, if I were to remarry in the future would I have to keep that name I started with or can I change it?

[KongeTorsk]

You are allowed to change it if you like, or don't if you don't want to.

I know someone (probably several people) who still used their married name after they divorced because it sounded better.

[Tanya Kurnik]

Ok. I was just thinking it would look bad for business and might confuse people if they googled my name. What a pain in the butt!

[SwissJon]

Depending where you host your website you should be able to point two (or more) names at the same website. Meaning you can have people come to {married name}.com and see the same site as {another name}.com and you will only have to keep one site up to date as users will see the same site, no matter which name they put in place.

I suggest you chat with your ISP about it, I'm sure they'd be happy to advise you. I would avoid in future using a married name in your domain name, instead use something like tanya{something}photography.com or something like that.. you can always put your married name buried in the header information for search engines. I would also suggest you learn how to use google analytics to find out when your old clients start using your new web address so you know when it's safe to drop support for it.