Changing Content = Dropped Rank in Google?

[randy]

I have this theory that pages that remain unchanged slowly climb the ranks in google, however when the content is changed, even if it is more relevant to the keywords, it seems to drop completely and has to start over. I have pages ranking high, as in the first 5 results on the first page, then when I change the page and that content gets re-indexed, ...gone!

If thise one of those "Duh, Randy, everyone knows that" or did I discover something? Anyone have any thoughts?

Randy

[webmastery]

Most of my pages change content and still retain rankings.

Anchor text is what makes pages rank in Google.

[randy]

Originally Posted by webmastery

Anchor text is what makes pages rank in Google.

Can you expand on that? For exmaple:

<a href="http://www.url.com">Is this anchor text?</a>

[Thanol]

Originally Posted by randy

Can you expand on that? For exmaple:

<a href="http://www.url.com">Is this anchor text?</a>

Yes, that's exactly what anchor text is.

[spidersam]

Welcome to Toad's Wild Ride.

[compar]

The convention wisdom is exactly the opposite of what you suggest. Most people feel that nochanging paged are considered stale and eventually slip in rankings.

This school of thought says that you must constantly be making changes or additions to your pages to keep them high in the rankings and have Google visit and update them frequently.

I'd be interested in your specific data. But I think there are other factors at work. Change is normally a good thing.

[bcombs]

What I've seen concurs with Bob's statement. When I change a page, there seems to be a temporary boost in the SERP. Yes, it's anacdotal, but it does seem to behave this way consistantly.




Brian