Updating WordPress Posts Ok?

[Mick_Keyou]

For Seo purposes, is it problematic to publish a post and update in the future?

For example, I've had posts where I published them but have then added some additional content, then added some additional pics at another point in time.

Do you have to get it right thr first time you publish your post?

What about tweaking the post title in the future?

 

[Josh]

I don't think there is a problem with changing it, but if you can add more good quality content instead of editing an old post that seems to be more in line with what google is looking for.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I'm not sure if it is a good thing but I systematically go through every post on all of my websites at least once per year and update. You almost have to because information (especially healthcare) changes.

I'm still behind as many of my posts talk about underwriting cancellations and pre-existing condition clauses and Lincoln being shot.

 

[Todd King]

I'm not sure if it is a good thing but I systematically go through every post on all of my websites at least once per year and update. You almost have to because information (especially healthcare) changes.

I'm still behind as many of my posts talk about underwriting cancellations and pre-existing condition clauses and Lincoln being shot.[/QUOTE]


Yeah, you might want to update that. I've seen him in a couple of movies lately so I'm pretty sure the rumour about him being killed is just a myth.

 

[WebEminence]

Definitely a good thing in my opinion. Google wants to give it's searchers the very best content so if you're blog posts are being updated with new content regularly, Google will figure this out one way or another. I like to focus on the reader more than what a search engine will think. If you do this, you usually end up aligning your interests with search engines too.

Sometimes if you have a large update, it would make sense to write a new post and link to it from your old post. Or just tag on a small addition to your original post or make a few revisions.

The only way I can see this being a slight negative is if you totally gutted your post and rewrote it. In this case, it might bounce around the rankings as Google re-evaluates the content.

Having said all that, it still surprises me how many old blog posts and forum posts that are outdated still rank for searches. Just goes to show that if you have a good post that you keep updated, it could rank and be useful to readers for years.

 

[Mick_Keyou]

Let me be a bit a little more specific. Would updating your post several times in its first 2 weeks/month be problematic?

Sometimes I publish my post and tweak the language a few times. Sometimes I add another picture, etc.

 

[Artash]

If we speak about the problems there are no problems at all Google-wise or SEO-wise unless you don't change more than 90% of your original content

 

[Artash]

I don't know where you came up with that. Google couldn't care less if you update a page 1% or 100%. When you make a page better or worse, it will reflect each time Google re-indexes the page. I have over 1-million pages indexed in Google and Bing. I update them constantly. This forum has hundreds of thousands of pages indexed, and they change constantly as replies are added to original posts. Google just keeps chugging along analyzing what it sees, when it sees it.

I mean as far as the content is original (not copied) and you do some minor tweaks it will still continue ranking on Google. Forums are totally different.

I don't know what you mean by ''making better or worse''. Logically I don't imagine a webmaster just going and making their articles worse. Usually by changing content I understand tweaking grammar errors and doing some context updates, otherwise if you change an articles about life insurance to auto insurance of course you will have some serious SERP changes

 

[ltcadviser]

I would love to know the answer to this as well. I have a blog post on a specific insurance policy that ranks high on google and has 101 comments. This past month the insurance company changed the name of the policy in a minor way so the search terms in the future will be slightly different. How do I make sure my blog post stays relevant with the slightly new product name variation? I started to mix in the new name into my old blog post in a couple of places in the hope that this tweak would help moving forward.

 

[Mick_Keyou]

ltcadvisor, I'm not sure if this is the correct way, so take it with a grain of salt.

I have seen blogs where they add on content by putting **Update** and then posting new information after that.

The problem I see with this comes down to keywords.

If you are ranked for "Long term policy xyz" and they change it to "Legacy policy abc".

Your original post title & url will have your original info that ranked.

I have no clue how your new info would rank.

Perhaps you will have to 1) Do the "Update" strategy & 2) Start a new post with the new product/keywords?