Search engines that once favored content rich websites have apparently changed some of their algorithmic ways and left many a site owner scratching their head about what their next move is. Should you make make moves to 'de-optimize' your existing site? Should you try to remove low level links to your website?
Should you cull through thousands of pages of content and try to distill your message in to something more focused?
While all of these tactics might be helpful in your attempt to 'fix' your existing website, it's worth noting that this will also be time consuming and require you to 'undo' a lot of things you've done over the past weeks, months or even years - depending on the website. In my opinion, this time might be better spent building something fresh and brand new that has a better chance of survival.
I'm sure that you're probably thinking "Why that? My website is 9 years old, has had top search rankings for 8 1/2 of them and I want to get it all back in a hurry."
Of course, that makes some amount of sense but being afraid to try your hand with a new website could be holding you back and might actually be just what the search engine doctor ordered.
Even Overstock.com - a large Internet retailer - was willing to rethink their Internet marketing approach and came resurrected their brand as O.co in early 2011. This was after being known as Overstock.com for 14 years. While your brand might not be as large or as impressive, it certainly is a bit of food for thought.
Since I have your ear, here are a few other ideas that could help your online efforts rise like a Phoenix in the wake of the recent algo changes:
- Select a brand new domain. Despite what you might think, there are still a number of great .com's still available. If you've been in the habit of using keyword laden URL's, try registering a domain that isn't 'keyword-centric' to observe if this helpful or detrimental to your online efforts.
- Don't use Wordpress. I know, I know - Wordpress is easy to use and all, but this CMS is being used to stamp out over 100,000 blogs every day! In a year that's over 36 million occurrences of the same basic website, even if your Wordpress is so customized it has it's own rims. Think of your website as you would a new car. If you have the same V8 engine all the other cars on the road are equipped with there's little chance that you can go from 0-60 any faster than anyone else using the same technology. If however, you're behind the wheel of an Aston-Martin you have a competitive advantage over everyone else that doesn't have a car built specifically to go from 0-62 MPH in under 4 seconds. Get where I'm headed with this one?
- Consider using a different webhost than you usually do. Sure, staying with the host you already have offers a bit of comfortable familiarity, but sometimes a new webhost can offer advantages like faster servers, better sitebuilding software and other technical advantages for your new website.
If your website took a substantial blow during the updates this year, I hope that you'll take some of my advice to heart and try something new - if nothing else, it can help you focus on something positive and forward moving instead of dwelling on what you had.
In a lot of ways, starting a new website is like moving to a new town or beginning a new relationship - it's different, it's exciting, it's new and offers a bright new future filled with endless possibilities. How can that not be a good thing?
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