So what happens if when a website needs replaced and there is absolutely, positively no backup to be found? With time enough online or luck, there will be copies of the site at the Internet Archive to use. They do need to be cleaned out a bit, but for the most part the code is intact from the time it was archived, and there may be multiple dates saved depending on site popularity and activity. Between the different records, there is usually enough to get a copy of a small website.

Looking at older pages and code is definitely a good way of gauging the progress we've made and lessons learned that are now being used in site design, especially SEO. Mistakes we thought we the "Golden Rule", or "Golden Goose" at least, are laced so tightly through the source that complete rewrites seem necessary. So now that that site is up, it means more work toward making the site more useful for visitors and code compliant too. All the sites and pages in the world aren't going to make search engines more attentive if they aren't unique and have some value to the traffic they send. And that, it seems, is the bottom line; The more honest work that goes into a page, the more honest results it will receive. That's no golden rule either, just what seems to produce the best results