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Can you change a theme midstream?
Ok enough joking around, I am interested in learning if you can change a website that has been about selling a specific product for years into something else? It is my understanding that you might have trouble changing a website about dog gift baskets into a site that sells auto parts but if you changed it to something related to “dogs” could you successfully build off this in less time? I have no doubt that sites are “flavored” in Google and that it is much easier to keep the same taste in algorithms.
What would happen if I removed all the content on this blog about SEO and started blogging about solar energy? Would the PR and incoming links be worthless because they are unrelated to the subject? Could I gradually change the theme to a solar blog over time?
How about people who buy old websites for pennies, is it easy to build them into something completely new or is it just like starting over if the new theme is very different?
I am pretty much done with my study of website repair, this area of reconfiguring sites midstream is certainly not boring and will be a good addition to my toolbox once lessons are learned.
If anyone has any information about this subject please let me know, thank you.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
The question I have is…why would you want to? You rockin’ dat SEO shizz, homeslice! (Yeah, I used your word.)
March 29th, 2007 at 4:29 am
SEFL – I am changing the site flavor of a failed business site but also have a couple other ones that are in shallow waters and need to change course. SEO Buzz box is my playground. ;)
March 29th, 2007 at 6:59 am
If you change the whois details and the content, you’ll “reset” the data for the domain. Of course, that applies to “good” data, as well as “bad” data
March 29th, 2007 at 10:20 am
TallTroll – So what is all the advice I read out there about buying old domains?
What if someone buys an old domain but doesn’t change it’s flavor and just continues on building it in the same direction?
Like for instance, my buddy has an old SEO website that we both worked on, I pay the hosting, now he is thinking about getting out of the business. Are you saying that if I get that domain transferred to myself Google will treat it as a new site and it will lose something just from the transfer of ownership?
March 30th, 2007 at 1:59 am
>> Are you saying that if I get that domain transferred to myself Google will treat it as a new site and it will lose something just from the transfer of ownership?
If both the whois data and the content change substantially, yes. Since I assume you’d probably want to keep it as an SEO site, I think you’d dodge the bullet there.
I did exactly this for a client in the travel industry who acquired an excellent domain, that had been used for hosting information about an educational program. It had some decent links (.edu’s etc), but they were all way off topic.
The change of whois and content have “reset” the site for the travel industry, where it now has excellent first page rankings for competitive, 2 word generic terms, I’m happy to say, and no visibility for the old educational terms
March 30th, 2007 at 5:01 am
So the “excellent first page rankings” had nothing to do with the domain history and all to do with your content and SEO?
March 30th, 2007 at 5:19 am
No – the domain history would have been a positive impediment. It’s also worth noting that the original educational terms that the domain DID rank very well for, it’s now nowhere.
Whilst those links do occasionally show up in data, I think they are demonstrably not being counted, else you’d still see rankings for the original terms. I’d allow that the domain age may have an effect – it is an older domain, but the link data is gone.
Note that if you don’t change one of the whois or content significantly, you don’t see the effect. As another example, I bought a fresh reg domain that acquired some links (which is kind of wierd, since the domain NEVER had any content on it – you got the server default page), and later added content. The old link data got reset. Since the domain was a fresh reg, by me, I know for certain it’s history etc, and I think it’s a pretty clear cut case. The whois “changed” (the registration), then later the content – and bam, reset the data which had been stable for years.
March 30th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Excellent thanks for the great first hand knowledge on this, it “resets” a lot of incorrect data being offered elsewhere. Adding you to my blogroll…got a first and last name?
April 11th, 2007 at 1:00 am
>> got a first and last name?
Brendon Scott… although I rarely use it anywhere. TallTroll has such “brand recognition” as I possess