Should I clean up weak content or start over with better content?

[onlinesource]

I'm going to through a pile of sites that I own and operate and several are blogs. Throughout the years, I got in the habit of writing content that could be considered keyword stuffing.

For instance:

Are you looking for t-shirts. I know a great site that sells plenty of t-shirts online, that you will love. Simply visit our website for the finest collection in men's t-shifts anywhere and save big money today on your t-shirt.

Well, maybe my articles were not that bad but you get the point. Some of the articles have anywhere from 200 to 500 words, but the theme was pretty darn repetitive.

For years, Google actually loved this blog and it showed up in all sorts of search results pushing a ton of traffic my way. As the old saying goes, "if it's not broke, don't fix it". Now with recent Google changes, the blog has sort of fallen off the map.

I'm wondering... what would suit me better:

A: Just deleting the whole blog and ignoring it completely. Basically, starting over with a brand new domain and brand new content, done the right way from this point on.

B. Going through each article and essentially cleaning them up by rewriting the old content.

or...

C. Deleting all the old posts but keeping the blog up. Then start creating new posts from this day forward, the right way.

I guess my question, will Google ever go back to the site and be like, "wow, they cleaned up their act and now we will respect them" or is a site that has been ignored for bad habits, sort of unfix-able at this point and it would best to take a machete to it or better yet, burn it down!?! :)

[bwnbwn]

No offense onlinesource this is the type of content that Google targeted and from the post looks like the traffic loss was probably for the most part deserved.
The sites are pretty much done without a huge amount of time invested in them. My best guess is you will let them die, and probably for the best.

[onlinesource]

No offense onlinesource this is the type of content that Google targeted and from the post looks like the traffic loss was probably for the most part deserved.
The sites are pretty much done without a huge amount of time invested in them. My best guess is you will let them die, and probably for the best.

What should I do with this domain, redirect the traffic to another site or just let it die and ignore all the 404 errors via Google Webmaster Tools.

It is strange that some of the sites with shady content are still being spidered by Google and some are getting completely ignored. I'm guessing if Google likes a particular site or scans it for new content consistently, maybe I ought to just let it be.

[mihomes]

Don't take this the wrong way, but can you really read that blurb about tshirts and tell me it sounds like normal speech that someone would say? It reminds me of a commercial where they continually throw the phone number in your face on the screen.

That type of writing has never been 'good' for the web. IMO I would clean up the articles you have written since you already have the core done. It would also allow you to keep the same filenames and what not.

While it might take a while after cleaning up I believe Google would be able to notice the positive difference as this definitely sounds like an algo trigger rather than a manual penalty.

[bwnbwn]

I'm going to through a pile of sites

I was going off the OP post in the quote. The day of running a pile of sites alone is over IMO. I can manage a fair number but no were close to the numbers I was.

[onlinesource]

I was going off the OP post in the quote. The day of running a pile of sites alone is over IMO. I can manage a fair number but no were close to the numbers I was.

I agree that you can really can't properly manage 10+ sites. No doubt about it. At least not alone.

The reason why I did it was because I never ranked well for particular keywords and found blog as a quick way to get instant traffic for a keyword. For some reason, Google loves blogs. I could make a blog article and have it appear in search results in 48 hours. I never hard that luck writing content to a shopping cart.

Sort of like if I owned an electronic eCommerce shop where I sold tvs, microwaves, toasters, dvd players, etc. Let's say the store ranked well for "buy electronics" or "electronics online" but ranked poorly for "microwaves" or "buy microwaves" even on my category page for microwaves. Google just did not give it any juice for that.

So, I'd create a blog all about microwaves, how to buy them, where to find them and use that to drive microwave customers to my electronics shop via banners or click here links.

The idea wasn't my own. I actually stole it from two of my competitors who were grabbing customers I could have. So, I did it. For years, it worked. In fact, some of these sites still rank well today and bring in traffic but some are totally neglected by Google. I mean, I search for the target keyword... nothing. If I copy and paste a paragraph of article content and search for it in Google using parentheses, Google will show the article in its results. So I know Google still recognizes the site and it's content but just do not respect it (if that is the right term).

I wouldn't say the content on the blog is necessary keyword stuffing either, as much as gibberish that was probably written by content spinning or generating tools. It doesn't sound natural at all.

I feel like the sites that are still showing up in search results especially for target keywords, should be left alone if Google still finds time to crawl them. As far as the other blogs not ranking, my concern now is thousands of 404 errors along with just walking away from a domain that is 7+ years old. They say domain age is key, but I don't know why I let it bother me considering that I have had other sites rank after months of launching.

[onlinesource]

While it might take a while after cleaning up I believe Google would be able to notice the positive difference as this definitely sounds like an algo trigger rather than a manual penalty.

So, you think it's best to go through 1,000+ pages and rewrite the content and that in time, Google will come back and appreciate the changes?

I'm trying to get some feedback before deciding what to do.

[mihomes]

Well, either way you are going to have to rewrite those pages. Personally, I would keep my domain, page structure/filenames, backlinks, etc and modify the pages I have to remove the keyword'y writing.

What is your other option? New domain, new site design to make, then write 1,000 pages anyways. Right? Unless of course you just start fresh from zero with a new domain. I would at least make an attempt on what you have.