How Important is Fresh Content in Site Rankings?

[Krisme3]

How important is it to regularly update your content? If you have a site of basic information that really isn't time sensitive and isn't going to change, is this going to hurt your ranking?

(I'm not asking about the obvious benefits of fresh content for your visitors, I'm curious the effect it has on spiders)

Thanks,
Krisme3

[netchicken1]

In the sitemap there is a place that records how frequently the page is updated, that may just be to give google an indication on how frequently to check it, but I wonder if it includes that as aprt of the serps as well.

[caveman]

Fresh content has the effect, in part of encouraging both users and SE's to return to your pages/site, but in many cases there are no real reasons to update specific pages. Best then is to keep adding interesting relevant pages of new content over time.

That said, there are some sites that are pretty much set and don't necessarily warrent new work being done. A comprehensive and definitive guide to Shakespeare for example. IF the site has the best content and the best backlink profile and the best onsite SEO in the category, it might stay at or near the top for an indefinite period. In that case, sometimes just a low level ongoing program to encourage new links can be enough.

Basically though, the faster and more clever your competitors are being at generating new content and marketing programs, the more you'll need to do to keep your site ranking well.