Recover from archive or rebuild from scratch

The site is dead. The decision is restore from archive, rebuild from scratch, or just leave it and start fresh. The right answer is not technical — it is about money.

When to restore

• The site was actively indexed by Google and brought in traffic — restoration keeps your rankings
• Content built up over years and is hard to recreate (articles, portfolio, case studies)
• The design is not visibly outdated and the owner is comfortable with it
• Budget is tight — restoration is typically 3-4× cheaper than a full rebuild

When to rebuild

• Design feels obviously dated — 5+ years old, screams 2018
• The site never brought traffic — nothing to lose
• The stack is legacy — Joomla 1.5, jQuery plugins, no mobile
• The owner wants new functionality that wasn't there before

Hybrid path

Often the best move is to combine: pull the texts and URL structure from the archive, then rebuild the design and templates. SEO survives (same URLs, same content), and the site gets a modern look.

The numbers

• Restoration cost: roughly $700-2 000 for a medium site
• Rebuild cost: $3 000-10 000
• SEO loss on a full rebuild: 30-60% of organic traffic for 3-6 months
• Restoration timeline: 5-14 days vs 1-3 months for a new site

If the site brought in more than $400/month in organic value, restoration almost always wins. Below that, the answer depends on goals and ambition.