Taking over a young existing site with problems

Does this sound like a good strategy?

[ppg]

The site in question (travel related) is currently hosted with a small UK based hosting/design company who are pretty mediocre. The main problem is that they're slow, and getting access to the raw logs is a pain. Some further development has been done by another freelance web designer, but the standard of his work isn't great (large file sizes, rough layout, broken links etc).

Current state of affairs:

Site has been live a few months, and has a relevant regional ODP listing and a PR2. No rankings to speak of, and little traffic apart from that produced by adwords, which has produced a few orders. Its a .com, but the business targets the UK market. It has a couple of small directory inbounds.

Heres what I'm planning:

Set up a new site on the .co.uk version of the domain. When the site is live, get the existing hosting company to set up a 301 redirect from the .com to the .co.uk. Get the existing backlinks changed over to the .co.uk. Once things have settled, get the .com off the hosting company and set it up elsewhere, retaining the 301 redirect.

Basically the plan is to cut losses and start again from scratch since its still early days for the site, and little online promotion has been done apart from adwords.

My concerns: Some money has been spent on offline promotion of the .com. I'm hoping the 301 will get round this problem. ODP listing - should we let it stand or see if we can get it changed over to the .co.uk?

How does this sound? Any advice on possible problems with above or other suggestions?

[jbinbpt]

You said it best. You need to cut your losses. If what has been done, is not working, then it’s time for a change.

Try to get the OPD listing changed. They appear to be making progress there. The 301 should work, but it sounds like there is not enough traffic to be very concerned about.

Start fresh. Be bold. Get some press coverage in trade journals because of the fresh start. A little press goes a long way.

Good luck,
jb

[ppg]

Thanks for the feedback jbinbpt, much appreciated

> there is not enough traffic

true, but I don't want to miss even one of those visitors - you never know if it might be one with the credit card out. Plus it would look a bit daft if someone comes to the site from the offline promotion and gets a dns error.

[richardb]

Hi Mate

If it's large and you do not have time to implement all those wonderful 301's try a 404 with a site map on it.

Never got to have a drink but good chatting.

[ppg]

Cheers Richard, thats a nice idea and a lot less messing about! I'll bear it in mind.

> Never got to have a drink but good chatting.

Absolutely. Theres always next year :)