Adding dynamic item to static page - good for SEO?
-
We have a static page we want to rank for a competitive phrase.
Would it help, or would it make little to no difference, if we added a small dynamic item to the page so that each time the googlebot visited the page it wouldn't be 100% the same as the last time it visited?
The reason to do this would be because of the belief that Google likes pages that update once in a while.
The dynamic portion of the page wouldn't be as simple as a page counter, but it wouldn't be very elaborate either. A tiny portion of the page. Think of something like current temperature or current CPU utilization (it won't be that, but it will be a small updating number that is not incrementing like current time or a page counter).
Would that make any difference at all? (I know there will be responses that I should add real updating data to the page to make it dynamic; let's take that one off the table for right now --trying to see if there's something I can do that is simpler for now). Thanks.
-
If you wanted to try this approach, the easiest dynamic piece of content you can add to a page is the current date.
In my experience adding dynamic content of the nature you are describing would not offer any benefit at all.
I believe the above information fully responds to your question as presented. This is where I feel compelled to at least explain a bit further regarding the topic you did not wish to discuss, adding "real" data to the page.
I have spoken to people who have said "I read adding a blog to my site would help with my Google rankings. I added a blog and have not seen any benefit at all. Why not?"
Whether you are adding a blog, social networking or dynamic content the point is not the physical structure (i.e. blog software, social icons or in your case a piece of data which changes on a page). The focus is the authentic engagement with visitors.
For a blog, you are offering users the opportunity to generate fresh content by creating articles and responding to articles with comments. With dynamic content, if you link to "latest news", "latest comments", "twitter feed" and other information which is updated daily, then you are adding a real value for your users and Google will recognize that value.
Making a change just for the sake of making a change does not offer any real value, therefore you will not be rewarded with any noticeable benefit.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Shifting target keyword to a new page, how do we rank the internal page?
I have been targeting one keyword for home page that was ranking between the postilion 6-7 but was never ranking on 1st as there were 2 highly competitive keywords targeted on the same page, I changed the keyword to an internal service page to rank it on 1st, I have optimized the content as well but the home page is still ranking on 11th, how do I get the internal page rank on that keyword
On-Page Optimization | | GOMO-Gabriel0 -
More Singular KW Targeted Landing Pages vs. Less Multiple KW Targeted Landing Pages
So my question is... I have a adopted a site which currently ranks quite well for some industry competitive keywords with a number of poor quality landing pages which specifically target a singular keyword. I am wondering if its worth merging some of these pages together into one authoritative, better quality landing page targeting multiple keywords (as the intent for some of these keywords are largely the same). What i don't want to do is jeopardise the existing rankings in doing so. The alternative option would just be to improve the content on the existing landing pages without merging. What are peoples thoughts on this? Are there any positive case studies out there where merging has had a positive effect? Any help would be great. Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | NickG-1231 -
SEO JOB
I am looking to hire someone who could help me to rank my page better: pediatric-dentist.org. If you are looking for a job and think you might be able to help me out please let me know thanks. I am looking to hire someone ASAP who could start ASAP. Good SEO practice for both of us. Thank you,
On-Page Optimization | | help4561 -
"Issue: Duplicate Page Content " in Crawl Diagnostics - but these pages are noindex
Saw an issue back in 2011 about this and I'm experiencing the same issue. http://moz.com/community/q/issue-duplicate-page-content-in-crawl-diagnostics-but-these-pages-are-noindex We have pages that are meta-tagged as no-everything for bots but are being reported as duplicate. Any suggestions on how to exclude them from the Moz bot?
On-Page Optimization | | Deb_VHB0 -
Is this good practise for SEO: www.example.com/testing-once/testing-once.aspx?
My web developer is telling me that it is best practice for SEO to place your keyword in your URL twice. For Example: www.example.com/testing-once/testing-once.aspx. I'm sure that this is not true, could you please help?
On-Page Optimization | | CoGri0 -
Duplicate Page Content on Empty Manufacturer Pages
I work for an internet retailer that specializes in pet supplies and medications. I was going through the Crawl Diagnostics for our website, and I saw in the Duplicate Page Content section that some of our manufacturer pages were getting flagged. The way our site is set up is that when products are discontinued we mark them as discontinued and use 301 redirects to redirect their URLs to other relevant products, brands, or our homepage. We do the same thing with brand and manufacturer pages if all of their products are discontinued. 90% of the time, this is a manual process. However, the other 10% of the time certain products come and go automatically as part of our inventory system with one of our fulfillment partners. This can sometimes create empty manufacturer pages. I can't redirect these empty pages because there's a chance that products will be brought back in stock and the page will be populated again. What can we do so that these pages won't get marked as duplicates while they're empty? Write unique short descriptions about the companies? Would the placement of these short descriptions matter--top of the page under the category name vs bottom of the page underneath where the products would go? The links in the left sidebar, top, and in the footer our part of our site architecture, so those are always going to be the same. To contrast, here's what a manufacturer page with products looks like: Thanks! http://www.vetdepot.com/littermaid-manufacturer.html
On-Page Optimization | | ElDude0 -
Landing Pages
Howdy Guys, We currently have around 19 landing pages that are near enough identical for each make of car. The content on each page isn't identical but you can tell its a template. Do you think we should change this and just target models instead of makes. Thanks, Scott
On-Page Optimization | | ScottBaxterWW0 -
Too Many On-Page Links
I recently took on a website design client and ran his website through a battery of tests using Pro to take a look at the crawl errors. One that seems to stump me is the error "Too many On-Page links" concerning his blog. (http://franksdesigns.com/wp/blog) This is the first time I've seen this error and am rather confused. The report says there are 104 links on this page. However, I'm having trouble grasping this concept or finding the 104 links. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!
On-Page Optimization | | WebLadder0