Modify existing site or build new?

[swest]

I have an information web site that was originally set up for me about 5 years ago and since then have added quite a lot of content to the site/database.

The site currently uses Perl scripts and a MySQL database
I think I have some sort of CMS, but not sure which one
The site has a dedicated Linux server running an out of date operating system

I am not a developer/programmer and the site has not really been developed over the past 5 years.

For SEO purposes I know wish to re-categorise the content and tidy up the URL structure of the web site and have specific requirements regarding this.

The website has PR5 and a fair amount of pages (40,000+) indexed within Google.

Should I try to modify the existing website (which has proved difficult in the past finding programmers willing to do this) ?

Or have a new system built from scratch in a more commonly favoured programming language such as PHP ?

[bill]

You'll take a big hit in the SERPs if you switch URLs. You may recover, but it will take time. Is it worth it to you to make a change like that?

[maximillianos]

I would not change to php just for the sake of using a more common language. Perl is a widely adopted language as well.

URL structure is not that big of an SEO boost in my opinion. So if your content is good, maybe focus on some on-page tweaks like the page titles, etc. If needed of course.

I run a site that is 10 years old on a custom Perl, MySQL and Apache configuration. We handle over a million visitors a month with no performance problems. So Perl itself should not be a problem as it is capable of handling far more traffic than my sites receive.

I would however investigate upgrading your server and software. Not only from a security perspective, but performance as well.

I would recommend checking out the latest CentOS operating system for Linux. We run CentOS 5.0 with Perl 5, Apache 2 and MySQL 5. It runs very smooth and fast. We also utilize a caching product called Memcached. It is free and helps you improve the performance of database driven sites by using your system RAM as a cache for data and pages. It does require custom changes to your Perl scripts to both store and retrieve data from the cache. But well worth the investment if you plan to scale your site for millions of visitors.