Confused by "Web Consultants"

[Peter]

Hi All, got a query on web design for search engines. At the moment our website ranks very well (top 1-10) on Google and Yahoo for a variety of search terms and a large range of our products, this is down to a lot of effort in making sure the pages comply with what is generally been discussed here. And importantly no paid advertising or placement having been bought.

However the marketing team our now speaking with a new company to redevelop the site into basicaly "pretty ware" with no content and saying to achieve good rankings we have to pay for it.

To me this sounds like a very poor plan and a facelift will be better than scrapping everthing that has already been done and destroying the rankings, or have I missed something? do the engines remember where your sight used to be or something miraculous perhpas. what do you guys think?

[bwelford]

I agree. It sounds like a very poor plan. The general wisdom is that the click through rate is higher for unsponsored (i.e. Organic) search results than for sponsored listings. So if you can get on the same top page through organic search, why pay anything at all for a position on the same page that may well deliver a lower CTR.

[happygolucky]

However the marketing team our now speaking with a new company to redevelop the site into basicaly "pretty ware" with no content and saying to achieve good rankings we have to pay for it.


I would keep the current pages. However why not agree to go along with the marketing and get a new domain for them to experiment with. If there is little content google won't penalise you for duplication. Or alternatively have an option for users to see the "pretty ware" from the current home page