Can I start a fresh online store without transferring old website content?

[Abwacky]

Good Morning,

i have a current website, but the company that created it (and allows me to access)  has gone bankrupt a few years ago, but i still can access my website and can change / add content. I would like to add a shopping cart but obviously cannot do that as the company is no longer - this is hopefully where shopify comes in.

I want to open a shopify store so i can sell online - how do i do this - i do not want to transfer over any content - but would rather start a shopify store fresh. Can i do this, will current website pop up on search engines??

i am really not sure about any of this stuff.

[Summer]

Hey, @Abwacky! Welcome to Shopify Community!

That's a great idea. You can definitely start your own store from scratch! Our platform is designed so that anyone can set up an online store and you can build one without a third-party developer helping you. If you no longer want to run your existing website, you have the option to deactivate it and cancel its subscription so you don't have to pay for multiple subscription fees. We have a guide for that here. If you'd like to continue with it, you can leave it as is to keep it open and continue working on the store.

Once you're ready to set up the new store, you can head over to this page to start the free trial. Then, you can refer to this guide. As for the website's visibility, Shopify stores automatically appear on search engine results. While you don't need to do anything for it to pop up there, it doesn't mean it will appear on the first page of the search results. You'll need to work on your SEO or Search Engine Optimization to improve your website's visibility and increase its ranking. We have a blog post on how to optimize your website for SEO here that will help!

Why did you decide to create a new store? Have you decided what it's going to be about?