Is It Possible To Rank An Old Website? Do I Need To Start Fresh For The Best Results?
If you have a dated website and you are thinking about marketing it, you are likely wondering if you’d be wasting your time trying to rank an old website as opposed to having a fresh website built instead. So, the question is: is it possible to rank an old website? Read on and we’ll take a closer look…
Is it possible to rank an old website?
Absolutely. In fact, the truth is, Google is more likely to rank an older, more established website than a brand-new one. That said, if you haven’t touched your website in many years, then you are going to have your work cut out for you.
Do I need a fresh website for the best results?
Again, not necessarily. You don’t have to put your current website out to pasture and invest in a brand-new website in order to succeed. However, there is likely an awful lot of work to be done in order to modernise it and align it with Google’s current search algorithm ranking factors.
How to modernise an old website for SEO success?
So, now that we know that old websites can rank well for SEO with a little love, how should you go about modernising yours?
- Give it a fresh design: the first step is to redesign your website. Think about the overall user experience and how difficult it is for users to navigate your website as it stands. How can it be improved? Which features make it harder to navigate? How can you update the colour scheme and font style to match your branding?
a. Ditch textures for solid colours.
b. Lose gradients, bevels, and other old design trends.
c. Remove any search bars that are otherwise useless.
d. Add a favicon.
e. Consider using an existing premium WordPress theme that fits your brand.
2. Make it fully responsive: another critical aspect of a modern website is responsiveness. If mobile users access your website and then have to ‘pinch and grab’ their way around it because it hasn’t been made fully responsive, then you need to fix that immediately. Not only is responsiveness a ranking factor for Google, but failing to accommodate the 55% of traffic that comes from mobile devices is a costly mistake indeed.
3. Refresh your content: conduct proper keyword research and figure out what your ideal customer is searching for / what your competitors are working on and then update your website content accordingly – with SEO in mind. Also, don’t forget that you likely have lots of juicy content on your blog that could easily be modernised and repurposed for even better results!
4. Ditch old stock photos and replace with new imagery: refresh the imagery on your website and replace stock photos with real, authentic imagery of your own. Also, be sure to compress them to reduce their size without compromising quality.
5. Add the appropriate NAP details: add your name, address, and phone number to your website and ensure that it is exactly the same across all other digital platforms, including your socials and local directories, etc.
6. Add video content: consider uploading quality video content, especially product reviews / ‘how-to’ guides to help build authority and up those on-page conversion rates.
7. Increase page load speed: we cannot emphasise the importance of optimizing your website for a fast page load speed. This is part of your technical SEO requirements and is a modern ranking factor. Put it this way: how long are you prepared to wait for a website to load before you abandon the search for another website? We’d wager not very long. Remember, the longer your website takes to load the less likely you will be to convert those clicks into customers!
Final thoughts
These are just a handful of the website modernisation tips that you should implement, however, they are arguably the most important. If you commit to redesigning your website with usability in mind, creating solid internal linking, and ultimately delivering a superior on-page experience, Google will be far more likely to rank you.
So, in conclusion, it is entirely possible to rank an old website, but you will need to carry out an awful lot of technical and onsite SEO in order to bring it up to speed.
If you feel like your website is beyond saving and could do with a brand new build entirely, then we would highly recommend hiring a New York City SEO company who can help you build a fresh website with a long-term SEO strategy in mind. Sync the two and build a site with intention – that’s the key to success.
