Does Google Penalize Sites for Repeatedly Tweaking Homepage Keywords?

[webbington]

After creating a website, I found that it was turning up on Google's fourth and fifth search page for various keywords -- which generated only a handful of visitors. So I tweaked the keywords various times -- and lost ground!

Now I'm wondering whether it is smart to keep tweaking or if Google penalizes websites that change keyword configurations a half dozen times in as many days -- adding keyword phrases and variations to text, putting pages in a keyword-named folder, and so on? (I know I may have added too many keywords also, but I wonder if multiple changes like this are also penalized?)

Thanks

[webbington]

And does it penalize sites that tweak keywords more often than that?
I should also mention that I resubmitted my home page URL to Google after each set of changes.

[colinstead]

Be wary of keyword stuffing! Google actually likes fresh content so it shouldn't be a problem

[netchips]

Afaik, there's no harm in doing that actually but it did seemed you overdid it and hence you got served by Google.

[webbington]

I think this is an essential issue because it tells us whether people working on websites can keep making keyword-oriented changes,
and can (or need to) keep resubmitting to Google.
Or, after a few tweaks, are people stuck with the keyword configuration they've created for a while?
I assume there are a lot of qualified web designers out there with firsthand knowledge of this.
Can any web designers and/or people with reading-knowledge shed light on this with some specific information? -- Thanks.

[colinstead]

I've also been wondering whether or not I need to change product descriptions every now and then. If Google sees no changes at all does it penalise you?

[webbington]

My experience tells me the answer to that question is no. I have a site that has been up since the early days of the Internet and, through many years without changes, it maintained high rankings in Google. But it has a large number of links around the Internet.

Also, if you already have a good ranking, the best advice might be - if it's not broken don't fix it. Making changes could hurt your ranking.

[~CReed]

Originally Posted by webbington

Now I'm wondering whether it is smart to keep tweaking or if Google penalizes websites that change keyword configurations a half dozen times in as many days -- adding keyword phrases and variations to text, putting pages in a keyword-named folder, and so on? (I know I may have added too many keywords also, but I wonder if multiple changes like this are also penalized?)

Do your inbound links support the changes or are you diminishing their value/upsetting the balance by changing the page's content?

[webbington]

This site is relatively new and the page was just created so there aren't any inbound links yet.

[ameerulislam]

Originally Posted by ~CReed

Do your inbound links support the changes or are you diminishing their value/upsetting the balance by changing the page's content?

Good point, but I'm thinking how Google treats the homepage of a random wordpress blog that talks about various subjects every time. I'm pointing to the home page as the latest posts are usually found in the home page. May be there some thing to do with rel="canonical" here?

[~CReed]

Originally Posted by webbington

This site is relatively new and the page was just created so there aren't any inbound links yet.

It's not uncommon to find "new" content ranking well initially (Google likes fresh content) only to fall to where it should rank over time. Work on obtaining quality links to support the pages' content. Continually changing the content of the page is not going to give you the results you're looking for.

[charlesgan]

site can be excluded from their result page for unclear reasons, and there are ten or hundreds of criteria to met. Some silly mistake will caused the site drop. we have seen competitor sites comes and goes quickly, some are lost and never seen again.

Reason for this is unknown, but its happening, very often.

[trishseo]

Well yes and no at the same time. You definitely want to update your site but bear in mind ehow and about are always near the top of SERPs without changing a thing. It's okay to tweak but new sites will bounce all the time regardless of what you do. As you get 1000s of links, you'll stabilize more. It's probably more of the "google dance" than it is from your on site.

[gazraz]

I constantly tweak my sites keywords to remain competetive, as long as you dont stuff to many keywords it should be ok.

While your at it, add some new content with the odd keyword, and remember if you change your header tags, regenerate your sitemap files and re-submit.

I found that if I did this, google updates the index nicley as well.

[colinstead]

That's an interesting tip - I don't bother re-generating my sitemaps and resubmitting them. Is there a benefit or does Google re-index the new pages anyway once it knows your site is there?

[balivillas]

As long as you put your priority or general keywords available in your homepage/index page, the tweaks in your keywords concerning changing contents in your homepage would not affect that much your keyword search rankings.

Having fresh content would in fact help you with crawling and SE bot visits. You just have to work more on your off page optimization to qualify your keywords at the top ranking position in search results.

[jono]

And where goes the line between "keyword stuffing" and to optimize your page for a specific keyword? Any ideas/experience?

[agmgroup]

In my experience i have found that by constantly updating the text in your site you will be seen as more relevant and therefore higher ranked. Beware going over the top and basically losing the grammar and readability as i have been informed this does get flagged by Google.

[Frankyh]

Even if you add some new content on a strange keyword, and remember, if you change the title tag, and submit your site to relive again.

[SinghVineet]

it all depends on how you have implemented the changes.
You have changed the URLs. Did you use 301 redirect for your old to new URLs? If not you will miss the old rankings.
You have added the keywords. Did you over abuse the keywords?
Does your site content is changed as per the targeted keywords? If not you must co-relate the targeted keywords with your site content.