Complete website redesign AND provider switch

[nicolaiarocci]

I am working on client's website that demands a complete rewrite/restructure as it is not optimized at all: user experience is Bad, it is very slow and it lacks any form of SEO optimization. The only thing of value there is the domain age. It was registered in 1997 and has never gone offline and never switched owner. The website currently has PR2 which tells a lot about the lack of SEO optimization.

To make things (not) easier on me:

1) They are going to switch to a new provider and
2) The idea of a new domain name has been tossed around. A productname.com domain would be registered, the new, rewritten website would be uploaded there while the current 13yrs old companyname.com domain would remain active as an institutional site.

These are the scenarios I have outlined so far:

1) NEW DOMAIN/WEBSITE/PROVIDER + OLD DOMAIN/WEBSITE CHANGE OF FOCUS
From a practical point of view I'd love this one. It would allow me to upload the new, redesigned website to productname.com while the old site would still be running in all its glory. When the new site/domain is ready we could probably get most of the backlinks updated with some grunt work (there are not so many of them). I would then go back to companyname.com and reset its contents/look as well, making it company focused. It would link to the productname.com and there would probably be some 301 redirects for those pages that were on the old site and are now hosted on the new domain/site. In the end there would be two websites, both SEO optimized, feature rich and well focused. In time the old domain would be moved to the new provider as well.

2) PROVIDER SWITCH + WEBSITE REDESIGN
However I am concerned that moving to a new domain would not allow to capitalize on the 13yrs old domain age. The complete site redesign on the same domain seems a reasonable solution as well. It would not allow to better separate the two entities (company and product) but this has not been a huge concern so far. We could simply switch to the new provider, allow for some time to settle things down, and then redesign/restructure the website 301 redirecting as needed. SEO optimization, fresh, updated content on a well established domain age would probably be a win.

The reasoning behind scenario 1 is also that the current PR is low and the complete redesign/restructure would hit the old domain (I read that complete restructures are worse/comparable to domain change for SEO). In the long run we'd have more chances to climb the PR ladder for both sites and they would make more sense anyways. Option 2 seems more conservative and reasonable in the short run.

I am looking for some expert advice as I cannot decide which option is better (or maybe I am missing something to the puzzle).

Thanks,
Nicola

[goodroi]

welcome to webmasterworld!

imho having a domain registered for many years is not very helpful. having inbound links that have not changed for many years is much more valuable. since you mention the homepage is a pr2 i doubt there are many inbound links and thus i doubt you are going to lose much long term benefit.

a new website can take a few months to get fully up & and ranking in google. it can also give you a chance to fully optimize it, which would be much better than the current situation.

whatever changes you decide to make just make sure you roll them out at separate times. if you change the hosting provider, content & whois you could make google think the website has been sold and lose rankings. it is best to only change of those factors at a time.

ps i am a little curious why a consultant would need to ask this question. i would hope that people who are charging clients for seo advice would already know this information.

[piatkow]

ps i am a little curious why a consultant would need to ask this question. i would hope that people who are charging clients for seo advice would already know this information.

It seems reasonable to me for somebody to have gained a decent amount of experience in the field without having come across this specific scenario before. Also the OP didn't explicitly state that he was hired as an SEO specialist.

[goodroi]

piatkow - you make a good point.

it is probably best if going forward all of us (including me) can keep this discussion focused on the topic of how best to rework an old website for optimal google ranks.

[nicolaiarocci]

Thanks goodroi for your advice, much appreciated. On your question, I write code for a living (client apps, web sites and services, etc.). When I build websites for me or my clients I do my best to follow SEO best practices, that does not make me a 'SEO specialist', something I did not claim to be. I asked for 'expert advice', which (I thought) puts me on the other side of the fence ;-)

It just never happened before that a client wanted to a)revamp his site, b) change domain name, c) SEO-optimize it, d) not loose any jouice in the process (for as little as it can be).

Cheers!

[HuskyPup]

(or maybe I am missing something to the puzzle)

I feel you may be looking at it too complicatedly.

Realistically the original site has never performed anywhere near to the best of its advantage, correct?

If so then I would probably treat this as two new sites and design them specifically for what your clients require now and the foreseeable future.

The good old clean domain will receive an age "bonus" however I wouldn't concern myself with that at all, a good, quality, well-focussed site will still do well almost regardless of domain age, sure they're nice but don't get too hung up on it.

You and your clients have the chance to create something specific right now, don't attempt a mash-up and get it wrong.