abbeyvet - 1:27 am on May 5, 2007 (gmt 0)

I have been running two blocks of randomly rotating content on the home page of a site for at least 2 years. In each case the text is about 160-180 characters long, and there are between 70 and 100 random snippets in each - a number which itself changes regularly. In both cases they are essentially teasers with a small image, linking to longer articles.

In addition the home page has linked titles of the four most recent forum posts, a teaser for the latest blog item and other headline sections some of which change weekly and more monthly. Only about 20% of the page is constantly the same.

I doubt if Google, or any spider, ever sees exactly the same page twice, but it is all on topic content. It has had no negative effects at all that I can discern and the both site and the home page rank very well in Google.

Stability and a rarely changing home page may suit some sites, but freshness suits others.