Hi, really need some help with this. I have 15 large posts on my Wordpress site. I'm ranking in Google okay for search terms relating to the content, now I know a few others have copied/quoted the content online but this isn't an issue because Google clearly recognizes I'm the owner due to using webmasters and Google Authorship and submitting it first. However what happens if I now go in and renew my content - Will Google now see these as brand new content and put me in last place then as regards "the first to post the content"? Please offer me some advice as my posts are really in need of an update regarding hyperlinks, pictures and content changes but I don't want to do it in case my rankings drop. Really appreciate any advice or feedback, thanks.
why dont' you write new posts? isnt that better, why make changes on something that is already ranking well? ( other than facts/figures) why test google gods.
You can rewrite them and repurpose them. If you're too lazy to do it yourself or if you value your time, ineedarticles.com/ does super cheap re-writing. Copyscape proofed. Sometimes their English isn't that great. Just do a little editing, polish it up with a kick ass title, add some new infographics and there ya go. You get the benefit of having new content.
Roughly a 10-20% change in contents and that too without changing the URL or the post should not have any adverse effect on your rankings. Go for it if you really need it and have no other choices, else write the new posts.
Thanks for the reply - The current content is not ranking "that" well, but ranking none the less. The reason it needs to be updated is due to a number of small errors, but if I update these posts I am concerned that Google will then recognize the updated content as "new content" and drop the rankings? I'm not an SEO guru yet, so only hoping to get some help on the forums in addition to my study on the matter. Thanks.
You will be fine refining and improving your content by editing it and even more so if you show update times in your meta info just to help ensure edit details are more easily recognised IMHO. I know a plugin that does this and it is the "Add Meta Tags" plugin which you might like to take a look at and if it does not suit you can always find another that does. It may just be that Google and others like Bing etc already know such info about your pages but to know for sure you would need to find and prove such with evidence so unless you can do that it's nice to be able to be sure the info is there in the pages meta tags.
well, renewing will not get you into any trouble but i would say, better to keep on writing the new content rather than rewriting the previous one. If you are wondering about your ranking than i don't think you have to think about it more if the content from your side belong to you because at the end Google knows that ! I will say that you move forward with writing the new one rather than refreshing the old one.
Thanks for your reply, I'll definitely try this plugin, I notice on wordpress.org that it gets a lot of praise and has been maintained a long time. You hardly think that it would conflict with plugins such as "Yoast SEO" or "All In One SEO"? I was considering 1 of them and I know they include Meta Tag options etc.
I know it's always a good idea to keep fresh content coming, but in this case while the content is ranking reasonably well, it does have a few broken links, outdated images, you name it . So in this case a huge revamp is needed! Thanks.
You will be fine. I always recommend updating content to reflect changes in the markets, search queries and the overall intent of the searcher. Do you have pages that rank well, bring traffic but the bounce rates are higher than typical? That's usually because you aren't targeting the searchers intent. Which means that with updating content you can target those searchers better and see higher conversions. Go for it. Google will not penalize you unless you really modify the content. I'd recommend cleaning up the content and adding some but don't remove a ton of content from the page or you are risking losing those rankings.
I use it instead of those plugins @Domoner I stopped using Yoast SEO in favour of All in One then stopped using All in One in Favour of SEO Ultimate and then about 4 years ago changed to Add Meta Tags as prefer it personally but of the other 3 I mentioned my preference was for Ultimate SEO though there are many settings I would switch off or use very very carefully. Every has their personal favs for their own personal reasons...