Change of content affect SEO ranking?

[GGpaul]

Hey everyone Paul here. I have about 10 keywords, each of them at 1,000 + local monthly views a month and are toggling between page 2-3. One of them is at rank 4, page 1 and that keyword generates about 5,400 views. My biggest problem is that my bounce rate is so high, that I'm at the point where I want to add/change the content of each keyword/article. However, I just want to know will it affect the ranking of the keyword significantly? Thanks all.

[easyrider7]

Having new content might improve your search engine rankings because Google values fresh content. And if the quality of the article is higher and the bounce rate is lower, these things will also contribute to you getting higher search engine rankings.

[nicktyler]

It probably will have an effect on your rankings but I expect you are planning to change it for the better. That can only be a good thing. The only reason anybody would not change their content for the better continuously is time and budget restraints.

[hostingraja]

@easyrider7: here i have one doubt. if "GGpaul" will optimize the content based on some of the keywords. once he is going to change the content replace the old content & going to add some other keywords. here my point is.

Already listed in Google organic old content optimized keywords are chances to go down.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by GGpaul

Hey everyone Paul here. I have about 10 keywords, each of them at 1,000 + local monthly views a month and are toggling between page 2-3. One of them is at rank 4, page 1 and that keyword generates about 5,400 views. My biggest problem is that my bounce rate is so high, that I'm at the point where I want to add/change the content of each keyword/article. However, I just want to know will it affect the ranking of the keyword significantly? Thanks all.

There are a lot of things to consider here. The first one being, how are you monetizing the site? If you are using something like adsense or affiliate links, the visitors are probably hitting your page, clicking on an advert. and leaving, which is what you want them to be doing anyways.

Have you considered adding a related video to the pages? Sometimes a simple video can increase the amount of time spent on the site.

Have you looked at what your competitors are providing in terms of content? If the search term you are ranking for is say, a product keyword and all you have is a page of content about the product, you are not providing people with what they are looking for. In a case like this you could add some amazon products or something to give visitors related products to look at while they are on your site.

The fact is there are a lot of different factors that may be causing this and you need to get to the bottom of the problem before you start making changes. The content may not be the problem at all, in which case, changing it would not improve your bounce rate but could hurt your rankings.

On the other hand, if your content is poorly written, it may be the problem. But keep in mind that a full page rewrite could negatively impact your search rankings if the new content is not as optimized, or over optimized for the search term in question.

I would do a little research into what exactly the problem is before making any drastic changes.

[xnice]

If you change all content, SEO ranking will effect. If you update, add some paragraphs and do some minor change, it will not effect too much.

[tjkirgin]

make sure that you are keeping that keyword density less than 2%. I don't know how you are planning on changing the content, but don't over think the keyword hits on a single page.

[InternetMarketingIQ]

Bounce rate is specific to the page they enter on. Where do they go for the pages they do not bounce from?

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Page Rank ranks Pages.

It sounds to me like you don't have a firm grasp on what people are looking at on your site and what they are doing once there. You just know a lot of them come and leave.

There is no reason to just change things until you fully understand WHY this is happening. Then start small. Start on the pages that are NOT working but generating traffic. Do small tweaks and test to see if it ups conversions.

Unless your site is very popular you may be able to test and tweak before it's even recrawled so if something doesn't convert you can switch back and try again without taking any hit at all.

[paulgl]

Bounce rate is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overrated.

I don't care if people surf in and surf out, so long as
they surf out on a paid link.

I can't see how bounce rate is an indicator of anything,
too many intangibles. Google wants people to click
on their outbound paid links. So someone spends 5
minutes on your site. So what? All that says is maybe
they got up and took a dump or something.

With the advent of new tabs, bounce rate can really
be way of context. Right now I've got 3 tabs open.

Wikipedia. I surf in, get my fact, surf out. All in seconds.
"Facts" in quotes, of course.

In fact, I'd say if a person stays on your page too long, then
they aint finding what they want. And yet they're still trying.
Why?

You articles and pages should be short enough so people don't
even have to scroll down more than once. And your pages should
not be War and Peace.

Like IQ says above, anytime you start messin' with set content,
you can go up or down, or even out.

I would rather add new, separate articles, instead of improving
some. I would keep the old, add new.

I'll second too that if the site is new, then have at it. If it's
well established, I would add new articles, not change old ones.

Paul

[Targeted Traffic]

Agree with Paul.

Just put in some fresh content. Stick to the topic, give visitors what they want, don’t waffle or go on about other topics.

If someone has found your site by searching for blue widgets, and you don’t currently have any in stock, then show them green, red, and yellow ones instead, they might prefer them rather than being disappointed.

[GGpaul]

Alright guys thanks for all the information. I don't want to mess around too much because my keywords are climbing up. I get about 50-60 unique visitors, and I'm monetizing by using adsense. I'm not getting enough clicks,but I think that's because I haven't made custom channels for target-able ads/buyers aren't investing on ads for my site yet.

[krestup]

am having the same problem... for my case i think the articles are not properly written. The visitor are not really getting what they want. Now, i know what they want and write it to suit their need. The article is ranked and getting traffic from over 30 keywords... am thinking its going to drop the article ranking for awhile...

[offshoredataentry]

hi,
Your new content must be better than your old one. Otherwise you will notice a considerable decrease in your ranking.

[jackthomson1]

yah it is best for you because Google always prefer new content and new ideas in your website.