Updating Content on Home Page

adding and taking away content on the home page

[JasonLee]

From what I can gather it is important to add new content to a site on a regular basis. But I have also noticed that changing the home page to much can result in a slip in the serps.

I typically add a new page a couple times a month and put a link on the home page to the new content and take a link off. News related so it keeps fresh. Is this hurting my efforts? Should I update a page a click in, instead?

I hope I am making sense. I have recently noticed that I do alot of changing of the home page and it could be hurting my results.

thanks

[tonynoriega]

My opinion, is that when crawlers, spiders, bots...etc... come to your site, the home page is the first page they capture. They look at a bunch of items in comparison to eachother.. i.e. the title tag, header tags, anchor text and such... and include your content / copy.

if you keep switching out the content on your home page, when the crawler comes back what they thought was relevant once before may not be seen the same the next time...

HOWEVER.. that doesnt mean let it sit for years on end. Its a cat and mouse game. You seem like you are taking a good approach... remember or record what changes you made and record the results.. but give it some time.. dont think that one or two days is the final word...

also consider adding content above what you have already in place..

keep adding internal content and linking to it, if its good stuff... that way the crawlers can follow that link to relevant info, thus the home page looks good.

my2cents

[JasonLee]

thanks, sounds good.

[Fortune Hunter]

when the crawler comes back what they thought was relevant once before may not be seen the same the next time...

I don't disagree with this, which is why the technique you originally suggested of...

I typically add a new page a couple times a month and put a link on the home page to the new content and take a link off.

This would seem that it adds new info, which the SE's want to see, but probably wouldn't so dramatically change the page that it would affect your earlier positioning efforts. Seems it might be the best of both worlds.

[tonynoriega]

so say for instance... you have a page about mini widgets. and your title references "mini widgets - in your town" and you have some header tags that talk about "mini widgets are hot right now"

and copy about mini widgets are the coolest thing since the first generation mini widgets. and how they are going to revolutionize the nation.

you take that copy off, and start talking about "widgets" not mini widgets per se', but widgets in general.

you dont think a SE would look at that as possibly not relevant to the search key term "mini widgets" anymore?

[JasonLee]

In my particular example all I am doing is adding and taking away a link "anchor text" a couple times a month to related, general info. However I have been guilty of modifying the copy on the home page and changing links, adding pictures and I think that has been hurting me in the long run. I may of even had it over optimized. I am just trying to get my ranking to level off, it has been yo yoing all over the place.

[ken_b]

I typically add a new page a couple times a month and put a link on the home page to the new content and take a link off.

I've been doing something similar for several years. Adding links to several pages at a time, and removing links to several pages at the same time.

It's worked great for me.

It also seems to help in getting the new pages crawled promptly.

and copy about mini widgets ....

you take that copy off, and start talking about .... widgets in general.

you dont think a SE would look at that as possibly not relevant to the search key term "mini widgets" anymore?

That's very similar to what a SE might see on my home, and I can't that that I've seen any problems with it.

That said, I wouldn't worry about getting a homepage to rank for to many terms anyhow. I think it's more important that the homepage provide a crawl path to the more specific sub-pages and that those sub-pages rank for their specific terms.

[Harry]

I change the home page every single day, several times per day. If the the crawlers know you're a site on the move, they will crawl appropriately.

[sunsiena]

Changes on the homepage are vital but fewer new links are recommended.

[tonynoriega]

Harry, if you change yoru site several times a day, and you are only visited by the big G's crawler once a day, how are they going to know you are blazing trails with new content?

[Harry]

Oh, trust me they find out! New stuff appears as back link in search results within hours.

It really depends on the type of site one has. For some site, moving stuff in and out is quite relevant and appropriate. It's not even about gaming the system. It's just what the site is about.

I tend to not focus or "fear" search engines. I just do what has to be done which is always to be relevant to our visitors.