Your thoughts please

[tomsk]

I have a company that has a domain that does well for their target keywords but was very dated, they were concern that if I changed the look and feel that would effect rankings so would prefer if I did a stand alone website.

My problem is now that the new site whilst a different domain completely when a client finds the new site and remembers the company name then google's the company name they will find the old dated site first.

So what I am proposing is that when a customer lands on the old site after maybe 3 seconds there is a pop up saying - try our new website etc.

My thoughts are that the old site that there would be no impact on the seo/rankings and the pop up would present customers with the more appealing website.

Customer does not want a 301 redirect fix.

Any suggestions.

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

Sounds pointless to me. I would try to convince them to stick with the original site and explain that although the search engine positions may dip in the short term, the results should ultimately be beneficial. Tell them about the benefits of domain age to SEO and reassure them with your expert opinion.

If they are adamant about using the new domain as well as the old one then try to convince them to use the new domain as a derivative rather than their main site.

 

[jamie1183]

I also would try to advise them against this.
This is always one of the biggest worries if a clients website ranks well, they are always concerned that the rankings will drop, what I normally do is outline to them the things that you will implement into the new website that will only improve the rankings.

In general if you keep the content as close as possible and only improve on the onsite SEO its quite unlikely that they will drop down the rankings.

Im currently working on a rebuild of a clients site that turns over £60K + per month, I had about a 2 hour talk with them on the same matter, as you can imagine they are very worried that a change will drop them down the ranks, what I pointed out is all the flaws and things that would be improved in the new website, if the site is largely ranked from its page rank (Eg amount of people linking to it) even alot of onsite changes wouldn't really affect the ranks.

Good luck and hope they come round.

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

If you're going to get ahead in this business then you really need to try to strongly persuade your clients in areas like this. I know that, ultimately, the decision will be theirs but it's still your job to advise them properly in your area of expertise.

 

[tomsk]

Thanks for the responses and agree with your comments - but really what I am asking is will it effect the rankings doing it this way.

In theory the text, layout, keyword density etc remains the same so should be unaffected?

 

[david64]

Look and fell of a site is not really something that would be useful as a ranking factor and would be pretty ridiculous to implement.

Sites that rank well get totally revamped all the time. So long as the new site has been made or advised on by someone who knows SEO, you are at least going to stay the same and maybe see some increased SE traffic if there is room for improvement.

If you want to go ahead and re-design, I would recommend getting some consultation from someone who knows there stuff. My recommendations would be:

http://www.britecorp.co.uk/
http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/
http://www.redevolution.com/

I've always found Scotts to be very honest folks

 

[jamie1183]

Thanks for the responses and agree with your comments - but really what I am asking is will it effect the rankings doing it this way.

In theory the text, layout, keyword density etc remains the same so should be unaffected?

Its certainly not a good idea to have a site with duplicate content, if you are going to create another website it will be wise to re-write the content, a duplicate of a website even with different design could affect both websites rankings (Although I find it to be rare) this could do more damage than re-building the current website.

What you have to remember is google spiders mainly see the content not necessarily the design, try using a web tool to see how a search engine spider sees the website that could help you.

 

[david64]

In theory the text, layout, keyword density etc remains the same so should be unaffected?

Keyword density is a dead duck:

http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seo-blog/index.php/keyword-density-seo-myth/

If you keep all the content the same, its unlikely that the site will move anywhere. HTML structure & CSS layout is not a major ranking factor.

 

[tomsk]

All the above all good.

But would having a pop up after 3 seconds affect the rankings of the existing site?

 

[jamie1183]

No I wouldnt say that will hav any affect, the problem is though many browsers stop popups by default and ask to allow them so many people wont even see the popup if its going to be there to promote the new site

 

[david64]

No. The only time you are going to get into trouble with pop-ups is if you are using the underlying site to trick the SEs to rank you and then putting something else in the pop up. I am talking about JavaScript overlays here. What new browser windows you be popin' up is your business.

However, you just need to re-build the site with SEO knowledge. As jamie mentions, going down the route of two sites is what could lead you to ranking, trust and other issues.

But would having a pop up after 3 seconds affect the rankings of the existing site?