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Modify Content = drop in SERP's?

by RayFinckle
7 replies
Hey guys

I'm curious whether or anyone else has had problems when updating a pages content. This is the second time I modified a pages content and almost immediately had a drop in the SERP's.

I recently removed around 150 words from one of my high quality websites that has had top rankings for it's main keyword for over 6 months. No black hat and no blog networks. The post is still over 1000 words and within 24 hours of removing those 150 words I went from #1 to #7 in the SERP's. It's extremely frusting that this happens?

How can I modify content to try and approve upon conversion and quality when I risk moving down in the SERP's everytime I make a change?

Anyone have thoughts or experience on this topic?

Thanks
#content #drop #modify #serp
  • Profile picture of the author AprilCT
    Have you checked the sites that are now ahead of you to see if perhaps they have (added) more backlinks or done something else you can identify? Just because you got your site to #1 doesn't mean it will automatically stay there. Other sites are just as desirous as you to be #1.

    As for changing your article, did this make a major change? It's just so hard to say exactly what Google might consider as your actions. Isn't it possible that you could have just caused it to bounce around the serps? Perhaps it will be back.

    Check out what you can about the other sites and rather than worry too much about this article, put your efforts into publishing more content.
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  • Profile picture of the author MidlandsMarketer
    Well the good news is that the fast change in ratings is probably because the Googlebot visits your site fairly reguarly.

    It could be though that the 150 words you removed were those that G deemed relevant to place your page at #1 in the results. The length of the article generally has little bearing on the SERPS. (Unless it is excessively short)

    Give it time, you may quickly regain your rankings. If you don't, consider putting the words you removed back and removing another, less relevant paragraph if you still feel the need to cut it down.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marsala
    Rankings fluctuate all the time. You might possibly regain your position in just a few days without doing anything. Then, you might not. You just can't tell. Since you held the #1 spot recently, I would try to send my send a few new links (use variety) without going crazy. That will probably get it back where it was.
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  • Profile picture of the author stephenwaldo
    Seeing your site bounce around the SERPs after adding or updating content is nothing more than a sign that Google is reevaluating your website. This isn't a bad thing at all… It's exactly what you want!

    You would know if you had been penalized in some way, trust me.
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  • Profile picture of the author jakecoop79
    There's no way to know for sure why it dropped. I would watch it for a week or so and if it doesn't come back I would do a little backlinking and see what happens.

    I don't think changing the content is bad, it could just be google reevaluating the page in light of the change and it may come back soon even if you do nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Barrs
    Ray, as Marsala said, ranking can fluctuate all the time.

    But who says it's what you *did* that affected the rankings? What were the other 9 people in the first page results doing that affected the rankings? What were the people doing on page 5 that changed things around.

    The fact that it's still ranking pg 1 is a god thing. Any idea how many people would like plain about pg 1 results

    Paul Barrs
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