Advice needed for a client

[Monna Ellithorpe]

Hi everyone,

It's been quite a while since I've posted but I read and try to keep up as much as possible.

I'm wondering if I can get some advice.

I have a client who wants me to build a wordpress site for him. After talking with him, I see that he has a site already set up but it is not branding his name.

I want to be fair and do right by this fellow. I am torn between telling him to keep the seasoned site he has had for about 2 to 3 years but whomever built that for him has not helped him optimize it at all and somehow blend his branded name to the sight.

Or should I advise him to start all over with a new blog branding his name and just leave this site as is and help him with optimization?

I believe with some help with his SEO, plugins that are non-existent and some other work, his existing site could do well and maybe add his branding to this older site.

Any ideas or suggestion? This is his site now; http://www.inspireroad.com/

[jedha]

Personally I would stick with the seasoned domain as it may already have strength in the search engines, so in that respect with a bit of tweaking and SEO will probably rank faster overall.

I don't think it matters if it's branded with his name. If Inspire Road is still relevant to what he is selling then just like Lynn at Clicknewz here. It could be Inspire Road with "Bob Brown" and then the website tagline. On the other hand if it's completely irrelevant then starting a new domain would be the way to go.

Hope that helps :)

[gailjrichardson]

I would stick with the older domain because I believe that the seasoning does matter. His name shouldn't matter if his website is still targeting the same keywords.

You could do the tweaking and SEO for him and show him how much his site can improve. SEO services have a good price tag so you both could benefit.

If he is strictly wanted to brand his name then that's different but if he is just wanting his site to do better,I would work on it.

Just my 2 cents
Gail:)

[ChristineCobb]

There are a lot of pages that would have to be redirected. I agree with the others to improve the existing site. Right now this is a nameless, faceless website except for all the experts they are using to try to get some search traffic. Since it is already a Wordpress site, you can do what you had in mind for a new site. If he wants to advertise his name.com in other places, just redirect it to this site.

[Monna Ellithorpe]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I believe that is pretty much the best way to go and I really appreciate the extra ideas that have been given.

I have talked to him about it and he is acceptable to it, now just getting the work done. Normally I just set up a basic site to get them started, so this one is going to be a little bit of a challenge, but I can do it.