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Seo and GSA advice needed

MikeMike
edited October 2012 in Need Help
I've been running GSA on my moneysite URL for four months. Very good results so far - on google page one or two on most of my key searches now.

I now need to modify my site page. Change Title tag by adding and moving a few words, change meta desc, and add some content, add some meta keywords, etc. Not drastic changes and I plan to keep it quality and continue to follow seo guidelines as I did originally (within recommended character limits, etc)

When I publish my web page changes, will this ruin all the backlink work (and good ranking results) that I have achieved over the last four months using GSA? By making these changes am I asking for trouble?
Anybody have any experience as to what happens with ranking results you have already achieved when you make changes to your site page?

Comments

  • senty4lovesenty4love
    Reminder = dont fix it if its not broken

    I have done something like that long time back and google just screwed my site..unless it really necessary and you can afford to loose rank, go ahead..otherwise dont do anything if ur ranking good
  • MikeMike
    i guess I should just build new pages and run GSA on them -lot of work but would rather play it safe. Thanks for the advice!
  • fullspeedfullspeed
    Don't take my word for it -- but OFF PAGE optimization (backlink building) is far superior in Search Engine strength to ON PAGE optimization (changing title tags, description, body copy, etc).

    So my personal viewpoint is that I don't think that you should encounter much change based on HOW MUCH actual backlink strength a given page you are changing HAS.

    SUGGESTION:  Do it for one page -- note your changes -- wait 2-3 weeks -- see if there is an affect.  If not, do the remaining pages that have good backlink strength.

    CONSIDERATIONS:  If you are actually IMPROVING the quality of the content -- that could have an even more positive effect as Google is looking for HIGH QUALITY content that was in the Panda update last year. Their focus is still the same as last year:


    "This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on."

    A month or so after that release -- the chief scientist in charge of the Google algorithm, Amit Singhal, published this blog post in Google Webmaster Center at which time he indicated that another shift in algorithm was made for the Long Tail of search -- when he said that Google could not go as deep to determine the quality of pages on long tail keywords:


    Then -- another month later, Amit published an article on guidance to building high quality sites where he laid out some in-depth questions that can guide you toward creating high quality sites that also can be translated into upgrading existing content on a particular web page.


    So I would say if you read through the questions about what counts as a high quality site and apply that overall logic to the existing web content you are wanting to change -- that might help in making a decision.

    I'm not sure if you are speaking about an actual MONEY PAGE that has this good ranking and actually is a page that causes the visitor to take action and impacts your profits. 

    As an example, I was hired by a client to improve the conversions on one of her pages where she ranks #1 for a keyword term that gets a good amount of traffic -- but the affiliate program she was promoting on the page was only making her around $200 per month average for the last four years.

    I tweaked the page -- removed a bunch of distractions that I felt were impacting conversions, added a little bit of copy -- removed a banner she was forcing visitors to click on and put an IN CONTEXT anchor text link to the actual affiliate program.

    Affiliate Link Clickthrough Results:

    Improvement from .015% clickthrough rate to over 1.3% click through - -which is nearly 10x times more clicks, or 1,000% improvement.

    Affiliate Commission Results:

    The income on her affiliate commissions sky rocketed from $200 up to $1700 the following month, up again to $2300 the next month -- and has since overall averaged out at $1600 a month.

    That's an 800% improvement in her income just for the ONE affiliate program she was promoting on one page.  And this wasn't for some internet marketing type affiliate program -- it's a psychology site.

    She has I believe 2x more $$$$ in the past year since I improved that one page than she made OVERALL the the four prior years.

    This was with the SAME traffic she was getting every single day -- with no backlink promotion or adding traffic to it.

    So as you can see -- while we focus a LOT on ranking web pages, and all the darn distracting changes Google is making and worrying about losing traffic -- all of that is meaningless if your web page is unable to convert visitors into $$$$ -- which is why I believe we are doing this stuff.

    I know some people that do web stuff for pride and glory -- but it doesn't pay the bills and put food on the table.  ;-)

    Just make sure if you do CHANGE the pages, I would make certain to have somewhere in the main body or in an <H1> or <H2> tag the keyword you are ranking that page for.

    Anywho -- that's my ramblings on changing pages and the potential power of it.

    To me -- it really comes down to the fact of whether I can improve the web visitor's experience and also affect the conversion rate of that page and how much money it makes me.

    One of the major Panda updates in there -- that many folks don't talk about -- is bounce back rates.  If you can effectively IMPROVE your bounceback rate for that web page -- which is basically IMPROVING the visitor experience -- that'll also ensure the page remains on Page 1 for that keyword.

    In fact, I think this is one of the MAJOR signals that Google is leaning toward because if a visitor is not hitting the back button on a web page -- it means that Google is serving up HIGH QUALITY results and that's exactly what they and the Shareholders want.  If a site is NOT pleasing the visitor because folks are hitting the back button -- it is certain that such a web page will eventually get pushed down in the results, lots of backlinks and on-page optimization or NOT!

    Okay -- done rambling :-D  
  • MikeMike
    edited October 2012
    I really feel guilty for not sending you a consulting fee for that response! Wow! Thank you for taking the time.

    Our site is for a professional services business and the main goal is to just get new clients to call.
    I spent the whole day debating whether to create a new page, a whole new site,etc, but the best scenario for our business was to just change the home page to add additional services ( with a little content, title, meta description modification). Your first sentence now makes me feel much more comfortable about doing that without losing the rank we have gained with gsa. I will go ahead and mod the home page "carefully" and I will follow every bit of advice you have given. Thanks again.
  • fullspeedfullspeed
    My pleasure Mike!
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