Re-Focus Old Site? Or Start A New One?

[Planet13]

Hi there, Everyone:

I am thinking of chasing after a two-word keyword phrase that gets around 60K monthly local searches according to google adwords keyword tool (although I don't know how accurate that tool is).

I can't decide whether to re-focus a ten year old site that is related to it (but doesn't have the keywords in the URL or in any of the titles), or whether to start a whole new site.

Let's say that the keyword I am trying to chase is "vintage cars" (this is just an example), and my site has some pages that rank well for very low volume terms that are related (well say "corvair cars" or "opel cars" just as examples).

I DON'T have a LOT of inbound links to this site, but the inbound links I do have ARE old.

So would it be better to re-focus the original site?

Or would it be better to start a new site with keywords in the domain?

Or should I do both? (And if I do both, how do I avoid duplicate content problems, since they would both be selling the same products?)

Thanks in advance.

[Planet13]

Also, one other option is to start a new site with the keywords in the domain and then 301 redirect the old site to the new site.

[petehall]

I would definitely start a new site and 301 the old domain to it...

[indyank]

It depends on how popular the old site was. Was it a brand well recognized.If yes, I would hesitate moving to a new domain.

Since we know that google is working on keyword domains, i don't think it will be beneficial to move to one. If your old site is still good from google's perspective and has not been touched by the recent algos, you could continue to work on the old site.

[Planet13]

@ indyank:

Was it a brand well recognized.

No, not really. My home page only has 32 FaceBook likes, and I think our FB fanpage has only about 50 followers.

It ranked #1 for some low volume keywords, but that was about it. Although it is 10 Years old and has some aged links, but not a lot.

If your old site is still good from google's perspective and has not been touched by the recent algos, you could continue to work on the old site.

Well, I am not sure what "still good" would mean.

The few keywords that do rank well have done so naturally. No real promotion on my part and NO active link building to the site. So I think google must see some value to the site.

I don't THINK it has been touched by Panda, but I see that a couple of keywords have slipped from #1 to #3 or #4. Is that a sign of Panda?

Traffic in July is down something like 20% over June, before that, traffic had been stable or only SLIGHTLY down.

[bwnbwn]

60K monthly local searches hmm I would do more research with the tool. You can drill down to a better more accurate number. I myself would never ditch a 10 year old site for a new one. Just makes me shudder to lose 10 years of history and start over. You said the site is still ranking, got some old links why don't you take 1/2 the effort, time, and expense it would take to get a new one going and put it into the old one.

[wheel]

+! bwnbwn. Not sure why I would throw away or potentially throw away any benefits the 10 year old site has for a new one that has no benefits.

I luuuv me some old sites. I keep lots around on any topic you can imagine, gathering dust, for the day I need it.

[Planet13]

Hi there, bwnbwn:

thanks for the notes:

60K monthly local searches hmm I would do more research with the tool.

you are correct. After doing exact match, it is only around 15K searches locally. A very similar keyword phrase (we will say "vintage autos" instead of "vintage cars") has another 6,500 local searches.

Of course, it could be the SAME PEOPLE searching for both "vintage cars" and "vintage autos" and that could certainly affect the total number of searches significantly.

I myself would never ditch a 10 year old site for a new one. Just makes me shudder to lose 10 years of history and start over.

That is exactly how I feel. During the Holiday Season, a couple of the products do pretty well. Just not enough to pay rent.

You said the site is still ranking, got some old links why don't you take 1/2 the effort, time, and expense it would take to get a new one going and put it into the old one.

That is the $64,000 question.

What I think it boils down to is this:

Would an exact match domain (or a domain with at least ONE of the keywords in the domain name) do better than an established domain that is on a related topic?

(the #1 site for the keyword does NOT have a keyword in the domain name.)

Mind you, I could easily buy an exact match domain name and set it up and see which one outperforms the other, but the thing is, I only have the TIME to PROMOTE one or the other - not both.

And the other thing is, if the keyword phrase only gets 14K uniques a month, is it really worth chasing?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Assuming you get #1 in Google and it's a keyword that Google places or Google social or Google +1 will not garner most of the attention for you're still looking at 1-5% of 14k uniques which is 700 visitors at best (realistically). A good % of those won't be interested in your content so the answer is probably no.

- Don't base decisions on Google's keyword tool, it's in their best interest that you not know the real figures.
- Don't waste a 10 year old domain.
- Do check your webmaster tools and see where you rank for this keyword with your old site, promote just the best page for that keyword or create a single page for it and promote just that.
- Given the above you should have time to create a fully new site but I'm not sure I'd recommend that ANYONE start a new site these days.

[walkman]

hehehe, my "domain name" has near a million exact searches. I wish I only got 1% of them so adjust your math.

And, yes today I apparently rank #1 again, some megacorp was #1 for a few weeks

[Planet13]

@ sgt_kickaxe:

Thanks for the responses:

Do check your webmaster tools and see where you rank for this keyword with your old site, promote just the best page for that keyword or create a single page for it and promote just that.

Right now, I don't rank at all for that two-word keyword term, because I haven't targeted it yet. So I will probably do as you say and create a single page for that keyword and optimize internal linking to it.

But my other concern is what to do for the title of my home page, because right now the title element for my homepage has basically keywords for some of the items that do sell, but are low search volume. So I am thinking of changing the title element of the home page to better match this new keyword. What are your thoughts on that?