If it aint broke, keep fixing it

Conventional wisdom dictates that if you’re lucky enough to have a website that is ranking well, you leave it alone for fear that it will suddenly drop down the rankings if you change something. I think this is an overly simplistic approach that is not only going to see you climb no further up the rankings but might actually see you slip down.

These days ranking is mainly determined by off-site elements like links to your page etc., so messing around with on-page elements is very unlikely to have much of an effect, unless you are making huge, wholesale changes. There’s no reason you shouldn’t keep working to improve the user experience, in fact there’s many reasons why you should, remember getting them to your site is only half the battle.

Also, in today’s internet marketplace, an SEO’s work is never done. I’m sorry to say this, but there is no such thing as a completed website. The awful truth is that even if you do leave your carefully crafted, highly ranked masterpiece completely alone for fear of harming its ranking, it could still tumble down the rankings.

This is because Google continue to change the rules of the game as they update their algorithm, in theory making the whole process fairer, but also making it harder and harder to keep up with what’s required of a good site, the top ranked site one month could be fourth the next.

The long and short of it is that you need to keep updating and updating your site in order to continue adding value for your users and keep up with Google’s latest demands… Sorry.

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