Randomizing Links

SE problem or not

[Jon_King]

In an effort to 'spread the clicks' across more outgoing links, I'm thinking of a daily routine that will randomize a link list. (most clicks obviously go to the first links on the page)

I will start using an alphabetical sort that flips between ascending and descending every other day, or possibly a random sort every day.

Since the page will 'appear' changed everyday, due only to different outbound link ordering, will this be seen as a new content page and possibly dropped from the serps in any of the SE's? It is the exact same content, just rearranged but I'm not sure how the SE algos will handle this situation. Your insight is appreciated.

[ryan26]

Way too much work for what will be a very minimal return. There are many other basic techniques that you could implement if you're trying to show a fresh page to the bot. Why don't you try to cut down on the amount of outgoing links per page and add a news feed to keep it fresh?

[Lord Majestic]

Since the page will 'appear' changed everyday, due only to different outbound link ordering

Good search engines should not count change in links as change in content since links are used to discover new pages and calculate rankings rather than being actual content people are searching for.

So you should be fine from that point of view, however you should consider that people who return to your site might expect to see link they seen last time in the same place, and they might not find it.