[X-Newbies] continual update and tweaking is good

[Tony Johansen]

On 11/10/2005 5:53 AM, "Carter Tomassi" <carter at messyoptics.com> wrote:

> Tony,
> What kinds of changes are the search engines looking for? For
> instance, is an update notice at the bottom of a page enough (i.e.
> "Last update: Oct. 11, 2005")? What about a main page change that
> links to 100 sub-pages that do not change? Or how about adding an
> additional page to the 100+ sub-pages?

The 64 million dollar question here. The general idea of change is relevant,
but the specifics are harder to pin down since search engines are doing
their best not to inform us of exactly how they work.

> Reason I ask, google's robot is hitting me nightly. I have over 100
> pages with one photo per page. I change the text under some of the
> photos periodically and put a new date at the bottom of the page, for
> my own benefit. However, about 8 pages off the main index page have
> not been updated in three years.

Sounds like you got their attention
 
> I have noticed a drop in readership over the past several months
> although most of the site was revised between July and Sept. Several
> outside sites have links to my site which I know is a good thing. And
> Google is still a main source of traffic to my site.

Ah, it ain't easy to get it right, and generally it is hardest to get it
right for all engines at the same time. Change is good generally, but...
It's also easy to take away something they liked. The best all round rule
here is the quality of content is the most important thing. When the traffic
drops consistently it's time to tweak those revisions...

> Thanks,
> Carter
> http://www.messyoptics.com/