Editing a WordPress post - Can it effect Google Rankings?

[GoodnightSweetRatRace]

I want to make some small adjustments to a post that is bringing a fair chunk of traffic. I'm just not sure if this a bad idea for SEO?

Should I leave it alone, or is it safe to edit it?

[HeySal]

If you have your WP set so it pings a post every time you edit, it could signal you as a spammer if you edit frequently. Other than that it shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm a frequent editor so my tech has mine set up so that it doesn't ping when edited unless I hit my ping-o-matic button in my toolbar. It only pings a new article otherwise. Don't ask me how to do that - If I knew, I wouldn't have a tech. LOL.

[Newman8r]

Updating your content may actually help your rankings, and as long as you're not doing it too often you're fine.

[GoodnightSweetRatRace]

Originally Posted by HeySal

If you have your WP set so it pings a post every time you edit, it could signal you as a spammer if you edit frequently. Other than that it shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm a frequent editor so my tech has mine set up so that it doesn't ping when edited unless I hit my ping-o-matic button in my toolbar. It only pings a new article otherwise. Don't ask me how to do that - If I knew, I wouldn't have a tech. LOL.

How do I check to see if I'm pinging posts when I edit them? Or is that only something your tech knows

[satrap]

I actually make a point to go back and edit my old posts. Because, when I started posting, two years ago, I didn't know much about SEO and using the right keywords and so on, so as I go along and learn, I go back and fix those posts.

To be honest, not only it didn't hurt, I also ranked a bit higher fro a few of those posts after editing them and also adding an image to them.

[Matt Ward]

The only way it would hurt is if you changed it up enough that it no longer was optimized for the keywords it was originally optimized for.

[Martin Lee Jr]

Hi everyone I agree that adding new posts should help your ranking, as we all know Google loves content.

What you want to watch out for is autoblogging. Google has slapped some websites pretty hard during the panda update, so you should stay away from this.

If you want to remove the option for your posts to be automatically pinged -

Go to settings>then writing>and scroll down to the bottom. It will show the pingomatic address listed. Just copy the address, then delete it.
Then you won't have to worry about your posts automatically being pinged.

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by GoodnightSweetRatRace

How do I check to see if I'm pinging posts when I edit them? Or is that only something your tech knows

By default WP will ping every time you edit.

There are plugins that could prevent it. e.g.
WordPress › cbnet Ping Optimizer « WordPress Plugins

[FreeMeal]

editing the permalink could cause problems.

[tpw]

If you change the words on the page, it could have a positive or negative effect.

Making no changes at all will have no effect, unless you have backlink campaigns running.

You have a choice to do nothing or do something. So make a choice that matches your goals, without much concern for any third-party.

Originally Posted by FreeMeal

editing the permalink could cause problems.

It would only make the old URL lose its rankings and the new URL to replace it.

If the page has rankings as a result of back links, then changing the permalink could cause problems, but only if.

[aneilfever]

So, using 301 technique would figure out the problem of changing the permalink?
Noticed one site was punished by Google, but I place the old site url in the search box, and the new site appears on the top SERPs. How is it work out? Strangely, the new site has good ranks on several keywords.

[Alan Ashwood]

Originally Posted by satrap

I actually make a point to go back and edit my old posts. Because, when I started posting, two years ago, I didn't know much about SEO and using the right keywords and so on, so as I go along and learn, I go back and fix those posts.

To be honest, not only it didn't hurt, I also ranked a bit higher fro a few of those posts after editing them and also adding an image to them.

Likewise. I often go back to old posts to make sure the information is up to date and accurate. While some of the stuff I wrote in the beginning wasn't rubbish, I now have the opportunity to improve it.

It's never caused me problems, and recently one of my site moved from PR2 to PR3 soon after I have changed a lot of articles. Or maybe it was coincidental?

Cheers
Alan

[JimRiley]

Editing old post will not put any bad impact on SEO. But if your are changing the permalink then look for some good redirecting plugin. So that google will easily scan your edited post.

SEO Plugin. These are the some of good plugin you can use.
1) All in one SEO.
2) SEO Ultimate

[warrich]

Don't make a large number of changes on the same post like editing a link or adding one, instead of looking for fresh content on new pages it would end up editing something that was already updated a few days earlier. But if I were you I would make a few small changes to it.