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Work on Old Website or Start New Website?

by TimS
12 replies
I have had a severe drop in rankings that has taken place over the past few months. According to Google Analytics, my average listings are on pages 10 and 20 for my 2 main keywords. Prior to the drop, I was on page 1. I haven't paid much attention to it because I had plenty of work from larger clients and wasn't looking for more at the time. I like to keep my options open, just in case, so I want to get the traffic back again. The site is clean, original content with no linking schemes or anything out of the ordinary.

The keywords are not overly competitive and the traffic was very light, but it was targeted and worked well.

Should I start adding new content and gather some links or should I just scrap it and start a new domain? Either would take about the same amount of time.

What is your opinion?
#start #website #work
  • Profile picture of the author NatesMarketing
    Well - if your site has not been penalized - go with what you got.

    It looks like it just wasn't maintained...if you continue to maintain it...it should go back up in rankings (of course, quality interesting content...blah blah, etc)
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I would fall back to the old site and see if you monetize it again. You already have content and things on your old site... repurpose it and use them as lead generators and sales magnets.
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    • Profile picture of the author AlfieWhattam
      If its not been penalised then keep with it, if it has however then change it.

      I'm happy to help you out with promotion to get more traffic? I have 25,000+ twitter followers, send me a private message with your website URL and I'll help you out (free of charge), it should help :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author TimS
    Thank you for the feedback. I had already converted it to a blog, moved it to its own ip and connected it to my Google+ account over the past few days. I was starting to wonder if I was wasting my time. I'll start adding content and links.
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  • Profile picture of the author tiimage
    Hi Tim, Have you thought about regularly posting in craigslist? They have a writer service section and the trail of traffic could be much larger than what Google has sent. Also the section does not get a lot of postings so it will last for a while. You can repost an ad every 2 days.
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  • Profile picture of the author parmarjeet
    I would recommend to start with a new one
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  • Profile picture of the author canniffch
    I do not think that you need to start a new website. But you should careful with your site. It needs proper maintain. To make high page rank you have to do something in every day like blog posting, article writing, forum commenting, social bookmarking, keyword searching etc. I mean if you need to increase your page rank you have to do on page and off page SEO for this. So you have to maintain properly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brendon Zahrndt
    Tim,

    I would dump that project and start anew.

    you said you weren't paying much attention to the site after a certain amount of time. Unless the site was raking in thousands, it doesn't sound like it's worth keeping based on your lack of enthusiasm around sticking with it in the first place.

    If this is the case, just ditch it and get into something that will hold your attention longer.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnmags
    I would suggest to go on with the old one and keep on adding fresh contents regularly. Some high ranking sites today were degraded once or more in the past, but they eventually recovered.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    Old websites are more respected by Google. Since you didn't do anything that could justify the drop, you simply have to be patient. After every Google update there is a chaotic period of time. Everything may go back to normal after a while.
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  • Profile picture of the author bloggerd
    I'd stuck with your old one you already have the foundations there you just need to start putting some life back in to it and keep it updated with good content may not happen over time but I'd imagine you would get your rankings back before you got new site ranked
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Originally Posted by NatesMarketing View Post

      Well - if your site has not been penalized - go with what you got.
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      I would fall back to the old site and see if you monetize it again.
      Originally Posted by parmarjeet View Post

      I would recommend to start with a new one
      Originally Posted by AlfieWhattam View Post

      If its not been penalised then keep with it, if it has however then change it.
      Originally Posted by Brendon Zahrndt View Post

      I would dump that project and start anew.
      The usual diversity of wise advice from the WF! Ultimately, of course, we all have to make our own decisions.

      Recently a client rang to tell me that one of my own sites was no longer on P1 of Google. I realised that I had recently updated the site and given it a makeover. In the process I had added a graphic header and turned off the site title. I added back in the H1 site title and also added alt text to the graphic. Magic, back on P1 next day and still there.

      Sometimes just small seo tweeks can restore your ranking. Take a look at those keywords and make sure that your onsite seo for them is as tight as possible. Categories, tags, alt tags on images, H1, etc.
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