In this multi-part series, we have purchased an abandoned URL on GoDaddy. It still gets upwards of 100 SEO visitors a day from Google alone. We have identified this website as a great opportunity to show our members:
- How we go about recovering lost websites that don’t have backups
- A demo of our BePro Listings plugin and BePro Directory Theme
So we will rebuild the website using WordPress and our suite of plugins and themes. The result to end-users should be a fully working update of the previously working website. Our goal is to recreate the value to visitors
About The Website
QuebecKayak.com is a resource for kayaking related information in the province of Quebec, Canada. So the domain name is as focused as you can get. Also we are a Canadian company so this domain was of particular interest. It comes with a wealth of content including:
- PDF Documents
- Articles
- Kayak Location details
The locations section of the website is where we will be integrating our BePro Listings plugin. This will allow us to showcase the existing location information while adding the ability to search and filter through them.
The website was connected to social media and had comments on articles. So we know that the website provided value visitors. Once we purchased it, we implemented google analytics right away to measure our assumptions about its traffic. Our original goal was simply to confirm that we could resurrect a website in this way and have google recognize the site as valuable. Even with a partial copy of the website, the site began performing better than any of our other properties. Gold mine you say?
The Dilemma
The website has a few issues from when it was built. Of course, that means we have inherited those issues and need to address them during the rebuild. Aspects of concern include
- It wasn’t mobile compatible
- No obvious way to change the language. Yes, it’s actually english and french
As technology evolves at a rapid pace, we not only need to fix the issues but also enhance it with new features. Aspects like the following are no longer ok
- Use of iframes
- No obvious monetization options except maybe sponsored links which are now frowned on by Google
Secondly remember, we are rebuilding a website that doesn’t actually exist. This is made possible by archive.org. They keep a partial copy of the internet. So we have a partial copy of the website. We will never recover 100% of what the website was; however, we can recover most of it and patch the lost aspects.
Monetization
With a website this niche, it definitely has some monetization options. As far as we are concerned, everyone in the province of Quebec that kayaks is our potential customer. As such, we will implement the following
- Affiliate: Amazon comes to mind
- Lead referrals to local companies: People want to rent kayaks
Any website without a monetization plan has a limited life. Websites run on infrastructure which takes time to update. One way or the other, someone pays for that website. After hard lessons learned, we start all of our projects with a clear monetization plan.
Conclusion
In this series, we will walk you through all the steps we take to rebuild this website. We will show you everything from analyzing the website to launching the new version. The result will be a demo for our plugins and themes, as well as a new revenue stream. You can do the same.
We will review various concepts within the series like, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Online marketing, WordPress development, visitor analytics, excel, 404 & 301 redirects, accessibility, security, & website design.