Hey everyone. I'd just like to tell you my story of how adding fresh content to my site really made or broke my SE ranking. I made the site TNA Wrestling Blog maybe 2 weeks ago. After like 4 days, I already ranked #9 on Google for 'TNA Wrestling'. Pretty sweet, right? I thought, hell, this site is worth something. So I put it up on DP. I got a buyer for $250, and I was ready to sell. On Saturday (today is Friday), I wrote a preview for the show on Sunday. After I got the buyer, I thought 'this will be my last post. I got the SE ranking and I'm all set.' I hadn't heard from the buyer for a few days, but I noticed he hadn't been on DP, so I figured he was just on vacation or something. Anyways, he drops me a message on Thursday stating he was ready to buy. I gave him my Paypal, and he then messaged me back 5 minutes later saying 'I was just about to buy but the ranking is gone.' I was pissed. I had no idea what happened. I used Shoemoney's SERP tool to find out what happened, and I ranked 79 on Google for the term. 7 frickin 9. I dropped 70 places in just 3 days! I thought it was because the site hadn't been updated since Saturday. I was correct. I wrote 2 articles for the site (didn't really take long) and I submitted these articles as a news story to Digg. I got two Digg backlinks (note: it was a news style anchor text, not the words 'TNA Wrestling'), and today I wake up to find my site has returned to the #9 position. All in all, I hope this can motivate you to keep updating the site with fresh content. It helps you keep your rankings because Google knows that no one cares about an old site.
Rubbish. There are plenty of sites out there that rank highly, and that haven't been updated in years. Think about sites publishing historical data. Do they need updating regularly? NO! Nothing has changed. If it makes sense to update your content (i.e. if your subject matter has changed, or you can improve what you've already written) then do so. Otherwise leave it alone. Certainly don't update content thinking a search engine will automatically give you a mystical boost.
I agree Twan, Because the site is in the sandbox it has to be updated very frequently to rank well for things. I've seen this effect on lots of my sites in the past. If a site has quality back links and plenty of age most of the time is doesn't requires updates to rank well.