Websites can become very personal endeavours and particularly when we invest a lot of our time, effort and money in making them a success. As such then, when things go wrong and our sites suddenly fall down the rankings, or get bad reviews from people, it can be literally crushing and difficult to deal with. What’s even harder though as a result, is knowing when to let go and when to say goodbye to our hard work.
Nevertheless though this is something that we should learn and that can save us a lot of money and a lot more wasted time. Here we will look at why it’s so important to know when it’s time to say goodbye to a website and how to take the edge off of it a little bit.
Why You Need to Let Go
When your website starts struggling, a natural impulse might well be to refuse to see sense and to try and direct more attention and effort into it to get it up and running again. Of course we don’t like letting our hard work go to waste, and so we’ll tend to try redesigning the site, looking into what went wrong, and investing lots of money into SEO and marketing.
Often though this will simply prove to be a waste of more time and money. If your website has suddenly experienced a drop in performance then chances are that this is for a reason and that you’ve been blacklisted by Google. This may be because your content was seen as spam, or it might be due to a negative SEO attack. Either way though, this can take a long time to undo and in the latter case even if you use Google’s Disavow Links tool it still means there’s someone out there gunning for your site and they could do it again.
Generally, it’s easier to get a new site to the top of Google than it is to convince the search giant that a site it’s previously viewed as spam content is now worth reading. And while it’s possible that you could turn tings around, there’s no guarantee that you won’t just be pouring your time and energy into a black hole.
Alternatively of course it may just be that your website was ill-advised from its inception, and that it was never going to succeed. If you’ve been plugging away for years with no success then it might be time to simply draw a line under the project and accept that people don’t need it.
A Brave New Start
More to the point, starting again from scratch is actually a great opportunity – it means you can take the lessons from your old site and make your new one even better and more successful. Having had a previous website in the same niche is the best possible market research, and it’s a great way to ensure that your next site is an absolute winner.
And starting a new website doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch in the traditional sense either – you can use your old site still to promote your new website by telling visitors about it, and you can still use elements of your old design/code to make your new site more quickly and efficiently.
Of course you shouldn’t drop your website at the soonest sign of trouble, but it is important to know when to call it quits, and to try something new. On this occasion it’s crucial to follow your head and your business sense rather than your heart and your sense of nostalgia…
Ben Austin is an SEO expert at SEO-Positive.co.uk and has optimized many business websites.
Nevertheless though this is something that we should learn and that can save us a lot of money and a lot more wasted time. Here we will look at why it’s so important to know when it’s time to say goodbye to a website and how to take the edge off of it a little bit.
When and Why Does It Make Sense in Giving Up on Your Website?
Why You Need to Let Go
When your website starts struggling, a natural impulse might well be to refuse to see sense and to try and direct more attention and effort into it to get it up and running again. Of course we don’t like letting our hard work go to waste, and so we’ll tend to try redesigning the site, looking into what went wrong, and investing lots of money into SEO and marketing.
Often though this will simply prove to be a waste of more time and money. If your website has suddenly experienced a drop in performance then chances are that this is for a reason and that you’ve been blacklisted by Google. This may be because your content was seen as spam, or it might be due to a negative SEO attack. Either way though, this can take a long time to undo and in the latter case even if you use Google’s Disavow Links tool it still means there’s someone out there gunning for your site and they could do it again.
Generally, it’s easier to get a new site to the top of Google than it is to convince the search giant that a site it’s previously viewed as spam content is now worth reading. And while it’s possible that you could turn tings around, there’s no guarantee that you won’t just be pouring your time and energy into a black hole.
Alternatively of course it may just be that your website was ill-advised from its inception, and that it was never going to succeed. If you’ve been plugging away for years with no success then it might be time to simply draw a line under the project and accept that people don’t need it.
A Brave New Start
More to the point, starting again from scratch is actually a great opportunity – it means you can take the lessons from your old site and make your new one even better and more successful. Having had a previous website in the same niche is the best possible market research, and it’s a great way to ensure that your next site is an absolute winner.
Of course you shouldn’t drop your website at the soonest sign of trouble, but it is important to know when to call it quits, and to try something new. On this occasion it’s crucial to follow your head and your business sense rather than your heart and your sense of nostalgia…
Ben Austin is an SEO expert at SEO-Positive.co.uk and has optimized many business websites.