Keeping SEO benefit of an old URL by changing content
-
We have a blog written in Oct 2012 that accounts for 30-40% of our traffic (174K pageviews per year/80% bounce rate). We are considering updating the content but are concerned that it will fall off the search engine's map if the content is updated to include information that is not exactly the same, but relevant. The URL would be the same and the original blog content would be shortened with a link to the full blog. The new content would include other FDA products under investigation. Here is the blog: http://myadvocates.com/blog/fda-issues-warning-about-so-called-brain-supplement-prevagen
-
There is a risk, but if the content is relevant its a small one. you could rank better also.
-
When you say "the original blog content would be shortened with a link to the full blog" can you explain that a little bit more? You mean an article like this http://myadvocates.com/blog/fda-issues-warning-about-so-called-brain-supplement-prevagen would be only partial and it would link to the full version somewhere else? And the destination new content is what would contain more FDA products?
Also, it is likely you are getting most of your traffic from only a handful of posts. I would do an 80/20 analysis of your blog content (how I show step by step here) or just eyeball your analytics. To mitigate most of your risk you could leave the top 5-10 posts for traffic the same.
As Cyrus points out here you should be careful with how much you change the contents of the page. Google is good at understanding semantics, which means they are more likely to decide not to pass value through redirects because of changes if those changes are too different than the original content. They also understand document structure, so if you're changing from a full post to another format you should be careful with that too.
-
Keep what you have, but add an update paragraph at the end, this should limit your risk.
-
Google is very good with semantically relevant information and updating posts like this with new results and further information often also provides a fresh content boost. With the volume you're talking about, I'd recommend rolling out the new content in phases so that you can see how it impacts results and decide best for your situation. Cheers!
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
-
Content above the Fold, or Below
Hi, I have an ecommerce site with several categories that I consider good landing pages. In order to get better search results I add content to these pages, usually above the fold, then after the content products are listed. Example:https://www.carburetor-parts.com/Carburetor-Kits_c_568.html I worry that customers get to the page and since they don't see the products above the fold, they move on. Should I be putting content in the footer instead of the header and if so how does that effect SEO? This has been bugging me for a long time. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | MikeCarbs
Mike0 -
Changing site title
I'm wondering what the procedure and implications are of changing my sites tile? I realise that my Having my keyword in my sites title whilst chasing the same keyword in articles may be causing over optimization. The slug also takes on the article title too, in effect giving me the keyword three times before I've even written my article. Example below. Imaginary site title : soap benefits.org Article: The essential guide to making homemade soap Slug: The-essential-guide-to-making-homemade-soap As you can see, soap has now been mentioned three times, not including excerpt/meta description or image alt tags. As most of the article titles would contain my supposed keyword "soap" I'm thinking the best option would be to change site title with allinoneseo (that possible?) and change the slug to something relevant, giving me more room to escape over optimization. Does this sound sensible? I don't have that many articles so if I had to change other things it wouldn't be too much of a hassle. It seems a pity to loose my sites title I picked, but if I end up writing hundreds of articles this would be a problem. Help appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | marangus0 -
Duplicate Content?
Hi All, I have a new client site, a static site with navigation across the top, and down the left side. Two of the menus from the top navigation are replicated in the navigation structure on the left hand side. They have the exact same url structure, they are in fact the same exact page, listed on the site in two areas. My question is - is this a case of duplicate content, or, as they urls are the exact same, will they be seen as a single page? A canonical tag on one would be replicated on the other by the CMS - so do I leave it, or try to get them to re-structure removing one of the links? (I doubt they will do this as its a brand new site they just has developed). Many thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Webrevolve0 -
Long URL's
So I'm super new at SEO and learning a lot. I'm a small business owner and enjoy doing it myself. Are long URL's good or bad? Like this: http://www.farnorthkennel.com/german-shepherd-puppies-the-girls/long-haired-german-shepherd-puppies-lava Is that too long? The german-shepherd-puppies-the-girls is an actual page with actual content. Do those hurt me?
On-Page Optimization | | Joshlaska0 -
Content placment best for SEO?
We currently have a scroll bar box at the bottom of our page with information in but from what I can see scroll bar boxes at the bottom of websites looking a little spammy (a lot of over optimized websites using them) would we be best in using a strategy like this site www.solopress.com/ which implement a show more link that drops information down would this be read as good information for Google or look just as spammy?
On-Page Optimization | | BobAnderson1 -
Status of Ajax and SEO? Changing navigation from plain HTML to AJAX.
We will change an old school HTML drop down navigation for an AJAX drop down one. What's your experience in regards to Google indexing AJAX? I know that Google is now able to read more stuff than in the past, but I need some stories "from the trenches" if you're willing to share. Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | gerardoH0 -
SEO for Japan
Google and Yahoo are the two major search engines in Japan. You can search using Western characters, and you often see English language results with Japanese (Chinese) characters next to them. As I don't speak Japanese, how do I approach SEO for my Japanese-language site? would appreciate any experiences and educational sources on the topic.
On-Page Optimization | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
Change in Product Name
My site - http://www.guru99.com/quick-test-professional-qtp-tutorial.html Currently caters to an automation testing product from HP called Quick Test Professional popularly know and searched as QTP Recently HP changed the product name from QTP to HP Functional Test. Considering this , what do I do with exiting QTP pages and how do I optimize the site moving ahead...
On-Page Optimization | | krishrun0