Modifying Well Established & Well Indexed Content
-
I have a page that is very well indexed and has a 1st position ranking in google. It is the best landing page in my site.
That being said, it's several years old and I honestly think it could be better. The images could be enlarged, the the images could have fancy box enlargements instead of just linking out to flickr, there could be more content about follow up projects that people have done.
I'm noteably nervous about changing such a clutch piece of content on my site.
I do want to improve the content for users, not just make it more SEO friendly (it's already SEO'd), but I'm afraid that any change could cause a set back in ranking.
Am I being afraid of nothing, should I just go for it and improve my content, or should I be extra cautious when editing well indexed content like this?
Thanks for the advice
-
**What about shortening the title tag? **I would drop all of the CMS stuff. Just be sure that it does not change the URL of your page. Check the referral traffic to see if the CMS words are pulling any traffic if you have any doubts.
What about changing the image file names and adding alt tags when they are nonsense or garbage? If you change an image name you will lose all current image traffic for that image. If I had lots of traffic I would not change it. If the traffic was nil I would consider a change.
**What about adding a "finish" picture to the top? **I have no fear of adding that. None. It is huge upside if you have a great image.
**What about making these changes incrementally? **Do it if you enjoy farting around. I don't think it will make any difference at all.
My most important advice. If you are improving the page, keeping it relevant and are not changing the URL, title tag or optimization have no fear.
-
**What about shortening the title tag? **I think that it's correct , I would do the same thing
What about changing the image file names and adding alt tags when they are nonsense or garbage? Normally the alt image must explain what rapresent the images and help the crawler, for me you can cleaner the incorrect tag
What about adding a "finish" picture to the top? I spoke about the content (text) in the top of page
What about making these changes incrementally? Maybe you can try the change the title before and some tags ( alt) and wait some days
-
Read these answers knowing that this is what I do and how I think. On lots of these answers I don't know what google does and what google prefers. I am betting on my gut rather than on something that somebody somewhere said sometime in the past which might be very different now. I only trust what a very small number of people say and realize that google changes their mind about lots of stuff that they said in the past and don't tell anybody anything.
Make sense? lol
Currently it's "How To: Build a Custom Ergonomic Computer Desk - Blog - Projects, Ideas, Inspiration, Kee Klamp, Fittings"
I'd say that is waaaayyyyy too long. I keep mine at about 62 characters or less. Without doing a detailed analysis of traffic that the page is currently pulling I would probably shorten to...
How To: Build a Custom Ergonomic Computer Desk
What about changing the image file names and adding alt tags when they are nonsense or garbage?
Lots of my pages get over half of their traffic from image search. I would not change the image file name or the alt attribute unless I thought that there was a significant upside.
These can be part of the optimization of the page.
I do replace images when I have something better or update a graph, map or photo. However, I always maintain the file name and alt attribute.
Sometimes content update requires images to be deleted and I do that with reluctance.
OMG!
My image tags look like this....
"keyword" is something simple... probably two or three absolutely relevant keywords that describe the image.
giving the files real names and putting them on my own CDN
All of my images are on the same server as the website, in the same folder as the article.... like this...
egolsite.com/article-name/image-name.jpg
Some people have told me to move my images to cloud hosting or a free service instead of my server but I don't want to make it look like I am not serving my own content. I don't know if that makes any difference at all but I gladly pay to transfer terrabytes of images per month to keep them on my own servers. If someone hotlinks one of my images does that help my domain's authority? I don't know... but I got 'em there where I can see what's happening.
But what if I wanted to add a nice "finish" picture to to the top? Would that cause any issues?
I assume you are talking about a nice big image at top of page that will make visitors salivate? If that is what you are talking about then I would say... do it by all means and do it often.
What about making these changes incrementally?
Don't fart around. Go for it.
-
yeah it seems as if the image tag as thrown int out of proportion, I will try to correct.
-
there is a little problem with your text...
-
Ok a couple of followup questions:
What about shortening the title tag? Currently it's "How To: Build a Custom Ergonomic Computer Desk - Blog - Projects, Ideas, Inspiration, Kee Klamp, Fittings". The stuff at the end was added by the CMS and I want to shorten it to "How To: Build a Custom Ergonomic Computer Desk". Is there any fear in shortening the Title tag when I am refining it and make it more potent (e.g. getting rid of the crap)
**What about changing the image file names and adding alt tags when they are nonsense or garbage? **
Here's an example of what's there now:
src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/2770274783_e9c2df4616.jpg"
width="500" />
You can see it's just junk. I could see improve the meta substantially and also giving the files real names and putting them on my own CDN. Doing this of course would cause google to see them as different (but better?) images.
**What about adding a "finish" picture to the top? **Maurizio mentioned not editing the top of the page. But what if I wanted to add a nice "finish" picture to to the top? Would that cause any issues?
**What about making these changes incrementally? **Would it be better to make a little change. Like change an image a week or something silly like that, or make all the changes at once.
-
The changes are always dangerous when you have a good position in Google.
But I always think if you avoid touching the tag in the page type:
meta Title
meta Description
Meta Keywords (only if you were already there!)
and finally, I would not change the content at the top of the page but only the graphic design.
I was afraid too when i did the same for many customers, but i did always so and never i lost a positions
Ciao
Maurizio
-
I improve pages all of the time and have great results. Traffic always goes up and rankings often go up. (A drop is very very rare.)
Adding content to an existing page can significantly increase your longtail keyword traffic.
These are what I use as a guide
-- don't do anything that will change the title tag (unless you are targeting different keywords)
-- don't do anything that will change the onpage optimization (unless you are targeting different keywords)
-- don't change image file names or alt attributes
-- add as much new content as possible
-- revise existing content without fear
-- add additional images whenever you have them
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does javascript generated content consider as regular content?
The website mentioned below, the content is generated using javascript, and content is something to do with Unicode char. The Unicode content creates as you scroll down. Will this content affect SEO https://www.myweirdtext.com/
On-Page Optimization | | teenmass423230 -
Duplicate page content
These two URLs are being flagged as 98% similar in the code. We're a large ecommerce site, and while it would be ideal to have unique product descriptions on each page we currently don't have the bandwith. Thoughts on what else might be triggering this duplicate content? https://www.etundra.com/restaurant-parts/cooking-equipment-parts/fryers/scoops-skimmers/fmp-175-1081-fryer-crumb-scoop/ https://www.etundra.com/restaurant-equipment/concession-equipment/condiment-pumps/tablecraft-664-wide-mouth-condiment-pump/ Thanks, Natalie
On-Page Optimization | | eTundra0 -
Page title contents
In my page title, I have my product name. Is it beneficial to also include another keyword like: Buy wedding dress online Australia: e..g. (page title) amelie wedding dress | buy wedding dress online Australia. Or is it better just using: Amelie wedding dress
On-Page Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Duplicate Content - Bulk analysis tool?
Hi I wondered if there's a tool to analyse duplicate content - within your own site or on external sites, but that you can upload the URL's you want to check in bulk? I used Copyscape a while ago, but don't remember this having a bulk feature? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | BeckyKey0 -
Redirect closing established site to another established site.
We have 2 ecommerce websites with duplicate product/category content that have been around for years. "Site A" since 2004 and "Site B" since 2011. "Site B" doesn't generate many sells and we want to close the site in fear that it may look spammy to google and since we don't want to upkeep the site. Couple questions:
On-Page Optimization | | Tuurbo
1. Is it possible that "Site B" has damaged "Site A" with google since they are so similar?
2. Can i 301 redirect all of "Site B" to "Site A" without hurting "Site A"?
3. If question 2 is ok, should i use the "Change of Address" tool in google webmaster tools to point "Site B" to "Site A"? Thanks!0 -
International SEO (USA & UK)
Hi I have a client project site thats been operating successfully in the UK now for a few months and looking to expand offer to USA. Their dev team thinks best to have a UK & US subfolder with IP sniffer serving up the relevant version depending upon ip location Apart from price differences and some spelling differences content will likely be duplicate. Please can anyone offer advice in regard to the above such as links to latest international seo resources/articles etc (i have seen Aleydas great WBF). If anyone has any experience of above scenarios (i.e. knows of probs with ip sniffer method in regard to seo or essentially having dupe folders for uk & usa just with local differences) then any advice comments will be much appreciated ? Many Thanks Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Duplicate Content Issue in Magento
Hi I need help in resolving the duplicate content issue on my magento site I got a product My main product url is https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/shop-by-product/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest and it got variation of url see below that are causing duplicate content issue , I have inserted the canonical tag on the below url and my main url is https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/shop-by-product/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest but still moz is showing it as duplicate content. Help Please <colgroup><col width="1003"></colgroup>
On-Page Optimization | | Adnan.Hassan.Khan
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/product/oak-bedroom-furniture/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/6/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/17/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/shop-by-range/boston/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/42/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/63/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/67/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/46/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/79/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/88/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/75/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/90/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/92/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/33/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/27/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/shop-by-range/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/50/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/22/ |
| https://www.oakfurnitureking.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/45/s/boston-solid-oak-4-drawer-chest/category/74/ |0 -
Split testing and dupe content
Hi Everyone, good to be here. I'd like to do split testing in Adwords, currently with a clients site we are selling from a normal site with navigation. The site has about 5 specific products, I want to dupe one of the products and create a funnel without navigation distractions right to checkout. Then A/B test the same product pages in Adwords, one with nav and one without. Will the dupe content be ignored do you think? I'm only slightly concerned as the product pages rank well at the moment.
On-Page Optimization | | eonicWeb0