FTP and SEO

[FrancisW]

Is there any use for serps to refresh the ftp manually (every day at the same time). IE: Take down and put back up the same site (even if there is no actual change to content) ?

[tedster]

That's a kind of "old skool" ploy from the 90s. No, in my opinion it doesn't really help ranking today.

And please excuse my lack of manners - welcome to the forums, Francis!

[goodroi]

google likes to see fresh content. knowing this, some seo people many years ago would regenerate their website every night. google is lot more sophisticated today. simply uploading the same pages with the same file size will not significantly help.

if you want to play this game, the current iteration deals with displaying the date on the page.

these tricks are generally just for short term benefits and imho not very big benefits.

[FrancisW]

Does it help then to MANUALLY update the tick box on Google Webmaster Tools (daily) even if new content is not added to the site?

[FrancisW]

And thanks for the answer to the first part of this question. Indeed (if I gave you my real name you would smile).

[tedster]

With Google and the other major search engines, it's not worth your while to look for the minute technical edge ideas. Even if they work (and there's no reason to think this one will) the return is really minuscule.

You're much better off to spend energy building content that is valuable to your visitors, making sure your site doesn't generate duplicate URLs and has a link structure that serves people well.

[TheMadScientist]

IMO Nope, no point at all to engaging in any of your ideas...

Check out this thread and the linked patent:
[webmasterworld.com...]

If you pay careful attention to the section on Freshness you might think it cascades much like PR and has nothing to do with the modified date of the page.

Pretty sure I've got the right patent, if not find the one covering freshness as a factor. IMO and from what I've read freshness is not determined the way most people think it would be, and freshness isn't always good.

[Reno]

Refreshing a url manually or automatically just to look "fresh" is a kind of trick and Google hates tricks.

Print out the quote below, tape it to your monitor ~ it sums up in a nutshell everything about SEO that you'll ever need to know:

You're much better off to spend energy building content that is valuable to your visitors, making sure your site doesn't generate duplicate URLs and has a link structure that serves people well.

[epmaniac]

Refreshing a url manually or automatically just to look "fresh" is a kind of trick and Google hates tricks.

can u elaborate more on this statement?

i have a listing site, and i refresh the content of my pages (links and text) almost daily... sometimes shuffling the links etc

why would google hate it?

[Reno]

I should have been clearer ~ Google hates tricks such as pages being regularly auto "refreshed" for no obvious reason. Adding new content (text, links, photos, etc) is a different story. But if nothing is new, what's the purpose other than to try to score a point with a search engine? As Tedster pointed out, that's an old (and now discredited) technique.

I complain about G with some frequency but I think they've been pretty clear about some things, one of which is "stop trying to game us", and I have to say, that's not an unreasonable position on their part.

.......................

[epmaniac]

then how should one alter/update internal links?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

i have a listing site, and i refresh the content of my pages (links and text) almost daily... sometimes shuffling the links etc

If you are doing this to change and/or improve the content then that's fine. That's all you need to do.

[milosevic]

You're much better off to spend energy building content that is valuable to your visitors, making sure your site doesn't generate duplicate URLs and has a link structure that serves people well.

Excellently put, I couldn't agree more. Most of these sorts of ideas about quick tricks like this seem to come from people thinking that, after 15 years of operation, Google is not very smart, which is pretty wishful thinking.