I'm stumped and need a second opinion

[halospartan]

Hello,

I haven't been on the forums in awhile. I mainly have always been a lurker. I run a marketing/PR/SEO/Web Design Firm (I just call it a reputation firm) regardless I gained this client last week and out of all of the other clients I have ever had this one has stumped me on what to do and where to start. So here is some background and some issues.

Company (that is now my client) is a successful small business. They employ around 40 people and have no debt whatsoever (hence why I say successful). They are located in a smaller city that is near me and have just expanded to a larger city. They want to provide their services anywhere from point A (the smaller city where there HQ is) to point B (the expansion city) and anyone in between. So I'm not trying to rank them in a broad topic mainly location based. Although there is a few problems I feel like I need to take care of before I link build and that is my main concern.

1) There websites are designed in BASIC html (no CMS whatsoever and it looks terrible and is terribly designed). So they have a web designer they have to call EVERYTIME they have to add new content (you know like people did almost 20 years ago).

2) They have a second website that provides the same services but is named something different because there is a business in the same city they expanded to by the same name.

So my major issue with this is I have never designed a website from no CMS to CMS does anyone have any tips on this? Also they have ranked number one organically for alot of location based search terms. If I redesign the site for better appearance does Google punish their ranking for any reason? Also what do you guys think about the second website? Should I rank it in the location keywords for that new location or should I try to convince the owner that we need to have one website? Even so how do I respond to the conflicting name issue?

Any advice would be helpful in my last four years of being in this business I've never come across a company with issues like these.

Thanks

 

[Ventio]

 

[Masterptc]

I suggest installing wordpress, Tell them to redirect the second website to the first, they can make any subcategories for expanding cities or whatever, which is better both for SEO and visitors (less confusion).
You shouldnt lose any ranking especially if its very niche specific keywords.

 

[halospartan]

I suggest installing wordpress, Tell them to redirect the second website to the first, they can make any subcategories for expanding cities or whatever, which is better both for SEO and visitors (less confusion).
You shouldnt lose any ranking especially if its very niche specific keywords.

So what about the name conflict for the expanding city? Should we just ignore that? I think he was worried about potential lawsuits. I tend to agree about confusion but, I really didn't see many other options.

Thanks

 

[nonhacker]

You can create a wordpress site in a sub directory of their site.
set this new WP site up ( choose a nice theme that will match or be close to their current one.
Use a redirect plugin so that everytime someone ( or a serp) goes to one of the old pages, it will redirect them to the new page.
over time G and other SE will have swapped the pages over.

Put in a SEO plugin as well to help SEO the site..

Then when you have created new site and is ready to go. changes settings and new WP site will be live..

In fact you can even get a plugin that will use same page structure in wordpress as it is now in old site. (Not advisable tho)

so WP will use mydomain.com/about-us
if current site is mydomain.com/about-us.html then use this structure, or just redirect to new equivalent to WP site

 

[jazzc]

Don't touch the site unless they ask you specifically to do so. Suppose you remake it in WP and it tanks. Then you've got to re-rank it and explain yourself. What for?

 

[starki]

Don't touch the site unless they ask you specifically to do so. Suppose you remake it in WP and it tanks. Then you've got to re-rank it and explain yourself. What for?

Absolutely right. Never touch a running system without a very good reason, you'd be amazed how sites created in the last century can outperform a stylish new website, Halospartan. All depends on the audience. Static HTML can also have a significant advantage when it comes to performance and loading times.

Also remember: Blackhat link building definitely isn't for clients. If you burn your own projects fine, but as you stated they have 40 employees, meaning 40 families to feed. So you'd better know very well what you are doing and how to avoid unnecessary risks.