Any risk in revising page titles & descriptions?

DavidO · 08-14-2009, 07:51 AM

I'm doing a spring cleaning on my website and I've got a bunch of old articles with poorly worded titles and descriptions. I want to change these meta tags but not the page urls.

For example, some of my titles are not optimized for keywords. Some of the titles are duplicates - they weren't changed from the page I used to copy the article on to.

Is there any risk in this, i.e. penalties from Google and other search engines? It might seem like a ridiculous question but I'm concerned that they might interpret this as some kind of Black Hat attempt to claim new content from old.

I've been penalized before for something I genuinely thought was innocent and so these days I'm really nervous about everything I do with my site.

dvduval · 08-14-2009, 08:32 AM

I think it is a great idea to do that. It might be good to check your stats first and see if there are any pages that are getting a lot of traffic, and see if it is a result of specific keywords that you wouldn't want to change. Otherwise, go for it. It is probably worth your time.

DavidO · 08-14-2009, 08:38 AM

Thanks. Yeah, I think it's a good idea too. I wrote many of these articles before I had a clue.

But I'm still worried that the big G could misinterpret my changing these meta properties. Could they think I'm trying to fool them that I've got new content?

FrankPinch · 08-14-2009, 09:16 AM

Like David said (great directory software by the way David!) check stats before, but you must already know what pages are bringing in volume. Changing this info usually produces a change in rankings, but if you improve your tags, you will get better results for sure, maybe see a temporary set back, but you will climb back!

yourwebgurus · 08-14-2009, 09:58 AM

Spring Cleaning is a great idea! I always clean up page TITLES and META tags even on more up to date pages, sometimes changing them just a bit every couple weeks even. It's just another way to keep the spiders interested in your website and it may even give you an edge. But especially if you have old articles/pages that need optimization, just do the optimizations. In this case there should be no risk of penalty. The only time you may run a risk is if you have tons of traffic coming into your articles and want to make changes. Then I would say tred lightly.

08-14-2009, 07:51 AM	#1
DavidO Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: United Kingdom, Spain Posts: 2,031 Thanks: 10 Thanked 101 Times in 58 Posts	Any risk in revising page titles & descriptions? I'm doing a spring cleaning on my website and I've got a bunch of old articles with poorly worded titles and descriptions. I want to change these meta tags but not the page urls. For example, some of my titles are not optimized for keywords. Some of the titles are duplicates - they weren't changed from the page I used to copy the article on to. Is there any risk in this, i.e. penalties from Google and other search engines? It might seem like a ridiculous question but I'm concerned that they might interpret this as some kind of Black Hat attempt to claim new content from old. I've been penalized before for something I genuinely thought was innocent and so these days I'm really nervous about everything I do with my site.

08-14-2009, 08:32 AM	#2
dvduval phpLD master War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Silicon Valley Posts: 2,970 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 44 Thanked 307 Times in 259 Posts Social Networking	Re: Any risk in revising page titles & descriptions? I think it is a great idea to do that. It might be good to check your stats first and see if there are any pages that are getting a lot of traffic, and see if it is a result of specific keywords that you wouldn't want to change. Otherwise, go for it. It is probably worth your time.
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08-14-2009, 08:38 AM	#3
DavidO Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: United Kingdom, Spain Posts: 2,031 Thanks: 10 Thanked 101 Times in 58 Posts	Re: Any risk in revising page titles & descriptions? Thanks. Yeah, I think it's a good idea too. I wrote many of these articles before I had a clue. But I'm still worried that the big G could misinterpret my changing these meta properties. Could they think I'm trying to fool them that I've got new content?

08-14-2009, 09:16 AM	#4
FrankPinch Active Warrior Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Montreal / Lima Posts: 69 Thanks: 4 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Any risk in revising page titles & descriptions? Like David said (great directory software by the way David!) check stats before, but you must already know what pages are bringing in volume. Changing this info usually produces a change in rankings, but if you improve your tags, you will get better results for sure, maybe see a temporary set back, but you will climb back!

08-14-2009, 09:58 AM	#5
yourwebgurus Warrior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Any risk in revising page titles & descriptions? Spring Cleaning is a great idea! I always clean up page TITLES and META tags even on more up to date pages, sometimes changing them just a bit every couple weeks even. It's just another way to keep the spiders interested in your website and it may even give you an edge. But especially if you have old articles/pages that need optimization, just do the optimizations. In this case there should be no risk of penalty. The only time you may run a risk is if you have tons of traffic coming into your articles and want to make changes. Then I would say tred lightly.
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