I have a site that I'm currently redeveloping (www.amazingmusicbox.com) and currently im ranked somewhere between 100 and 200 on Yahoo, MSN, and Google for the keyword "music box". For more specific keywords such as "reuge music box", my site is listed much higher, such as #4 on Google. As I'm redeveloping my site, I have a feeling that Google and Yahoo have penalized my site. In fact, I was blocked before from Google for trying artificial ways to increase keyword relevancy, but my site is now supposedly unblocked. It is important to note that I was never listed very highly on google for the main keyword music box. I was once listed ~#10 on Yahoo for music box, but now i'm not even in top 500. So I'm wondering whether it makes sense to go with a new domain. The problem with going with a new domain is that it's going to take the site a while to reach the top of the SERPs because all the other top sites have domains from around 2001. And my current domain is from 2001. Also, of course since I've been in business for 5 years, I already have a loyal customer base. So the two options are either: 1) Create new domain and upload completely new site and leave amazingmusicbox.com for past customers 2) Completely redesign and redevelop amazingmusicbox.com and stay with the domain
Would a subdomain have any effect on how the SEs see your site? I don't know, but maybe it'll work...