Does a web site that is not updated often

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   Ohmaposted 14 years ago

   affect the authors search engine rankings on other pages, blogs, or websites?

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   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   Umm, no, if I understood you correctly. Why?

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   Ohmaposted 14 years ago

   Hi Misha!
   I have a Family Tree website on Blinkweb that gets very little traffic. I have linked to it a couple of times here on different articles and I was just wondering if those links could cause me trouble with the search engines? Also because of the nature of the page it does not need updating often. Mainly I keep it for a quick reference guide when I am visiting family.

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   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   Hi Ohma . A definite no. Link freely - search engines don't care if link target is updated or not.

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   Ohmaposted 14 years ago

   Thanks I appreciate the info!

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   viryaboposted 14 years ago

   Thats so good to know.

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   Greg Cremiaposted 14 years ago

   I have some websites that haven't changed in 5 years and they still show up on the first page of google. While updates help, not updating doesn't bring on a penalty of any sort.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'm confused!  If that's the case, why are we recommended to include things like News capsules to keep the content of a Hub "fresh"?

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         Greg Cremiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         For the readers?
         
         I am not sure g gives much credit to news feeds anyways. After all, it is still duplicate content.

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   Ohmaposted 14 years ago

   Greg
   Thanks I am glad that it isnt hurting I really do not want to take it down.

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   lyricsingrayposted 14 years ago

   I would like to know also

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      TerryGlposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Generally, a rule of thumb is the page with the appropriate links will get the top position on the search engines.
      
      There are a lot of "content" sites with rapidly changing content - read as "made for adsense sites" - and they rank poorly, for example.
      
      I agree with Greg, if the site slips a little, then a few more links often gets it back to its rightful position, Number 1.

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    Jeanne Grunertposted 14 years ago

    Yes, if you mean the site itself's search engine rank.  If you have a website and don't update it often, that does hurt its page rank. If you link into such a site, say from another URL, it shouldn't.
    
    For example: Site A is updated only 1x per month.  You own Site B and link to Site A. You update Site B 1x per week.  Just because Site A isn't updated often will not hurt Site B's rank.
    
    Just an fyi, updates DO count towards Google page rank...on a site such as Hub pages, the site itself (hub pages) is updated so often it isn't a worry. On your own personal sites or blogs, you should update with keyword rich text at least 1x per week. I recommend to my marketing consulting clients that they update blogs 3x per week and have a blog feed into their website; that counts as an "update".

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       Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Care to link to the source?

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       Greg Cremiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       You are mixing terminology here. Page rank (PR) has nothing to do with updates.
       
       Search engine placement 'is' enhanced by updtaes.

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    Jeanne Grunertposted 14 years ago

    Oh and for the person that said his site ranks on the first page of google and he hasn't updated in a year or more - that's certainly possible. There are approximately 100 items Google uses to figure out page ranks. Updates are just one of them.

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    Peter Hogganposted 14 years ago

    Old content on its own is probably not a major concern. However if that content (or page) also contains broken links and inbound links are decreasing it might indicate that the content is out of date or the page has been abandoned. This will cause rankings to fall.
    
    So as long as you build links to the page and ensure that any links on the page work properly there wont be a problem, but if you could update the page occasionally all the better.
    
    @Jeanne Grunert, What do you actually mean when you refer to page rank?
    
    @Greg Cremia, if you have pages that have ranked for 5 years without updates or backlinks of any kind you must be in an very uncompetitive market or targeting terms way down the tail. Although what you are describing is possible it's not the norm and that needs to be made absolutely clear. By that I mean if you were in a market where competitor pages are fresh, updated regularly and constantly gaining links, your stale content would disappear very quickly!

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       Greg Cremiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Not if the competition has fresh non-relevant content and links. A link is not a link and content has to be relevant.
       
       Also, a lot of the competition is trying the shot gun approach and going after multiple markets with one site.
       
       I am in a very competitive market going after very competitive keywords with niche sites targeted to those keywords and nothing else.
       
       The real estate industry is very competitive on the web and I am beating out the big dogs like yahoo, trulia, zillow and the local competition.

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          Peter Hogganposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Hardly sounds like a competitive market if your competition is made up from non-relevant content and links!

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    Ohmaposted 14 years ago

    Thanks everyone I think I understand it now sort of or well maybe.

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    Rayalternatelyposted 14 years ago

    Old content that is "evergreen" (for example, a well written article on a historical event) will move up through the SERPS if it's of high quality as it will garner more back links over time and become a trusted source of knowledge on the subject. In this scenario, updates and news aren't particularly relevant as the most relevant page about Henry VIII, could well be the best page on the subject for years.
    
    Content that is opinion based, or can evolve (e.g science, medicine, fashion, etc) is a moving target, so this type of content has relevance within a much tighter time framework. An article about what the coolest shoes to wear are, how OCD makes you line your pens up in neat rows, etc. is treated differently and in these  areas updates, commentary, and the like provide a clue as to whether the content remains relevant.

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       Greg Cremiaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Exactly. I have real estate websites that are targeted to very competitive niches and the lack of updating not only has not hurt their placements but they continue to move up in the searches.
       
       I was advised against doing this end everything I have learned says it shouldn't be happening but it is. I would post some links but I don't want to get banned or snipped.

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    Peter Hogganposted 14 years ago

    You could put a link to your website in your profile or let us know what terms you are targeting.

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    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    I don't think you have too much to worry about herre, an update every few months should help negate that particular website suffering at all though!

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    Rada4Healthposted 4 years ago

    It was useful question!

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       theraggededgeposted 4 years agoin reply to this

       Nine years old though

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