conundrum

[ELS Landscape]

I may have actually timed this just right but I have a few questions to mull over and request some feed back.

My original site ELS Landscape was all hand coded and created some 8 years ago if not 9. I have pretty much ranked well in the lawn service and Lawn care search just under the ads and local listings. I have someone with duplicate content pretty much word for word right down the meta tags.

I think he also does more paid advertisement but we often would switch back and forth.

I purchased elandscaping.com because I think that is what most people called my company. IE look at the Turf Mag interview and they cited the company name as els landscaping. I got a truck lettered and they put landscaping on it so what the hey... I typically just had that URL redirected to he main domain.

I started playing with drupal and decided to use that domain. I have blown up that site about 4 times. Right now it is half baked with maybe two month old pages on it.

Then I decided to make a clean break from the ELS name. I left ELS Landscaping sitting at that point. Has to do with an old partnership. Wife hates the name and wanted to change the name 2 years ago.

Today I decided to do a local search and. Low and behold the els landscaping.com site is doing the best. I did not see the competitor or my old site.

The reason I did the search is I was going to post those pages to unlinked pages except to home on an archive of the newest web page and set up a 301 in google webmaster tools.

Now I wonder if I should even bother?

Should I move the content and redirect or no? What are you guys seeing for lawn care / service in Grand Prairie texas?
Pretty sure elslandscape has some value Godaddy said it was worth between 150 and 500. Almost that much for landscaping.com

I have considered selling them later this year as there are about 3 to 4 other ELS Landscape companies around the country.

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by ELS Landscape

The reason I did the search is I was going to post those pages to unlinked pages except to home on an archive of the newest web page and set up a 301 in google webmaster tools. Now I wonder if I should even bother?

I would. If you have something that's currently working, it will help keep you from losing the ground you've gained. If you have content that's currently part of your total ELS equation, I would absolutely move it and throw a 301 redirect on the old site. You'll also want to keep your url naming the same as the old. Besides helping search bots, this also helps maintain any backlinks you might have.

Should I move the content and redirect or no? What are you guys seeing for lawn care / service in Grand Prairie texas?

I'm seeing you for "lawn care", page 1, 4th in the 7-Pack. "Lawn service", I don't have you on the first couple of pages, but see you at the "J" slot in the local results. I personally wouldn't give that up without a fight with the new domain name.

Pretty sure elslandscape has some value Godaddy said it was worth between 150 and 500. Almost that much for landscaping.com

I have considered selling them later this year as there are about 3 to 4 other ELS Landscape companies around the country.

I don't imagine there's much value in the name, beyond what another company may be willing to pay to simplify their own naming. You might contact them to see if interested, but only after you can comfortably do so.

[tonygreek]

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...nt-to-new.html

[ELS Landscape]

Thanks again. The concern is I used to have the top 1 or 2 and seem to be getting dinged more and more as this guy keeps re-pasting the content on various listing pages to get back links.

Very nice of you to review and provide feed back

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by ELS Landscape

Thanks again. The concern is I used to have the top 1 or 2 and seem to be getting dinged more and more as this guy keeps re-pasting the content on various listing pages to get back links.

Very nice of you to review and provide feed back

I would still bring the content over to the new name, 301 the old, let it index, and then you can start working in your new content and/or materially changing the old.

[ELS Landscape]

Originally Posted by tonygreek

I would still bring the content over to the new name, 301 the old, let it index, and then you can start working in your new content and/or materially changing the old.

After reading the artcle you linked and maybe a link or too. They said not to port content to a massive new site.

I am no where near massive but I will bring over the materials and sit on the webpage for a while.

Already working on some of the better back links.

I suspect I can work on the site provided I do not go over 20 or 30 pages it should be fine.