According to a Netcraft Webserver Survey published in February of 2007, there were about 108,810,358 websites that existed at that stage. Of those websites, one can imagine a fair percentage of them lying dormant. This may be due to loss of interest or, in some cases, that conditions weren't right for that specific site to receive any attention at that stage. Whatever the reason, times change and those old websites suddenly have a new purpose in life.



The major difficulty most owners of dormant websites face is how to bring it back to life. Think about the speed at which the internet is growing and how many new technologies are introduced annually, monthly and even daily. Faced with such a challenge most owners of dormant websites, even if it is just five years old, would probably want to just leave it at that and go back to the way things were done. If this is you, then read on because we've got the 1-2-3 to get you back in the game.

Web Design & SEO

The very first thing you will have to keep in mind is that there's now a thing called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Granted, it was already there five years ago, but today it plays an immensely crucial part of any website's success. It'll therefore make sense to ensure that the revamp of your old website is based on some solid well-founded SEO principles to ensure that you are good to go. This means ensuring that your code is optimized with all the tags and descriptions in the right places, and it also means that you'll have to plan the content of your site to seamlessly integrate with the logical structure.

Look & Feel

Quite simply put, the Look & Feel of a website refers to the visual appeal as well as the way the information has been laid out. Again, SEO principles come into play here, but additionally the 'comfort' of your visitors. Consider the loading speed of your website as well as the various forms and applications that you can implement to ensure that they find what they want at the touch of a button. One thing you'll have to keep in mind is that the average web user is an impatient being, capable of mining through text at light speed to get the information he or she wants and then ready to move on. Ensuring that your website will cater for those super-human capabilities could well count in your favor.

Bounce Rate

Ok, so bounce rate has nothing to do with SEO because it assumes that you already have visitors coming to your website. What it does focus on is how long those visitors stay before moving on. More specifically, it looks at why they move on, what can be done to keep them there and, of course, what changes there are to be made to convert them into paying customers. Aspects of a website that directly come into play include the visual appeal of the website as well as the various interactive features it has such as polls, surveys, etc.

Now to be honest, the above form perhaps the tip of a very large ice berg, one that will require extensive skill and a lot of time spent reading. If you're not up to scratch with all the leading SEO principles as well as the technical side of things, then it could be in your best interest to perhaps enlist the services of one of the many capable companies out there. After all, as the internet grows, so does a website's potential for profit, making the money you spent on revamping your website seem like a drop in the ocean.