Random content to keep page fresh

would random content affect rank

[kevin3d]

Ok, first, I may be basing this question on a set of erronous assumption, but here goes.....

My understanding is that search engines like pages that are frequently updated...is this correct?

If so, I was thinking of using php to pull random quotes from a databse and post them on some of my pages, so that each time a page is visited it will have a different quote. Would a search engine consider this to be an "updated" page?

Thanks!

[howiejs]

I am not sure what percentage of content needs to be updated for it to "matter"

Is a few quotes enough?

[kevin3d]

Thats is a good question. I really don't know.

[stuartc1]

I really do not think it matters to update existing pages and leave it at that. Search Engines like sites that create new pages. But if you are looking to have existing pages reindexed then making some changes may help a little, I think getting new incoming links to these pages would be better. Search engines like to monitor traffic to your site, so if they noticed lots of new visits to certain pages, they will visit, index and give higher value.

[kevin3d]

Thanks, Stuart. That makes perfect sense.

So based on that, having a random quote feature would only really help SEO if people were coming back to the site/page to see the quotes.