If the search engines like updated sites, what counts as updated? I have 400 pages and to rewrite each one completely would take me 800 days. Do you have any idea whether Google just looks at the uplink date, compares the total text with the cached text, or something in between?
I think it is a comparison with their cached database. So if your page has changed by 20% (guessing) from the last time google cached then they will consider it updated. in the same vain though ... if your pages don't actually update then don't worry about making all your pages update just so google visits more often. getting google to visit more often doesn't mean you'll get higher rankings. when they say search engines like updated sites it just means they will visit more, not better rankings. and they visit more to keep their database up to date.
Thanks for pointing out the difference between position and robot visits. But I am a little surprised that a guess is all we get. I can guess other things, for example the uplink date, one character, one line, one link, a title change, a rearranging of text. Any of these could make sense to Google, for example the addition of a new product to a page could only take a few words , or a few words and a link, or a few words and a picture. Does anyone know any facts?
I think a guess is the best there is. If it was fact it would have to happen everytime if a certain criteria was met. But Google changes so often, and doesn't tell people specifics so others don't exploit them. Google probably wants people to just do their webpages and not worry to much about how the search engine's precieve their site and let Google deal with all thelogic involved. So it's hard to tell. In the end just actually update your site, whether it's an updated link text, a new main graphic, a whole new subdomain, or whatever, just make your site for your visitors first. Google is trying to write an algo that is smart enough to act like a normal visitor, so once their algo knows what a user wants then it can mock that and hopefully give greatly relevant results to users using Google to find infomation. ok that might only make sense in my head, but you get the picture.
My guess is that it takes very little for the site to be considered updated. And it might even help with rankings, why not? Maybe it helps only by little, but it makes sense for Google to prefer a site that is regularly maintained to those that are just left there as they are for years...and for visitors too! So this is where Google's interest=visitors' interest.
there are facts but we are not told them. if we were then the fun would be over! I have over 5000 pages so couldnt keep changing them all, but then I dont run my site for Google I run it for my customers. But we keep the site fresh on our main information pages and that seems to keep the bots coming back each day and also the rankings high. Changing your pages each day won't do much to improve your rankings on its own. Its all about how relevant you are to a particular search and how many other sites think this enough to link to you and your pages. i.e. relevant links. hope that helps & good luck.