I would like to adjust the title to a popular post, will this hurt the ranking?
Hi everyone, I have just re vamped one of my popular posts, it is ranking on page 1 for it's keyword and #7. If I was to adjust the title slightly would this hurt my ranking?
My heading so far is
professional-callus-remover-gel-that-nail-salons-use
and I would like to change to:
professional-callus-remover-gel-that- professional-salons-don't-want-you-to-know-about
If I can change, do I change the permalink also?
thanks Justine :)
Recent Comments
20
Okay,
I better warn you:
No matter what you do - Dont Change The Url Of Your Post.
You can change the title without having to change the url of your post.
Hope it's clear enough.
Best,
Faraz
Count the characters (including spaces) of your title. Only 60 will be displayed. Your second choice will be truncated after 'professional'.
Better way would be to enter the mile long novel in your description meta field.
Why bother and change the title, since your post ranks on page one, pos 6 with the important phrase "people search for", which is
'professional-callus-remover-gel' without the 'that nail salons use'.......nobody I could think of would search for ........that nail salons use, anyways, or the super long one.
I would leave it as is.....you know "Don't worry, be happy"
Just my logic
John Worthy
Hey Justine -
Just to clarify ('cause I'm easily confused) - don't change the page's URL. Changing the Title is no problem. Changing the content is no problem. Changing or adding images and headers... no problem.
If you change your URL however, your traffic will crash and burn. The links the search engines display will be the old URL, and your site will tell the visitor the page doesn't exist (a 404 error) when they try to visit using the old link.
You should only change the URL if you also create a beast called a 301 redirect, so your site will know how to deal with the traffic which comes from the old URL.
How'd I do? Did I just create more confusion?
Dennis
Okay, so I am confused, LOL, I don't want to have to organise re-directs etc...just wanted to make the heading of the post more attractive, which is the URL, so adjusting that will cause problems?
Apologies Justine!
You can edit anything you'd like on your page or post - except the bit within the red box on the screen shot below. That's what would cause your traffic to crash and burn if you don't create the 301 redirect I referred to.
Any better?
Dennis
Cool thank you!! So if I don't touch the permalink I am allowed to change the title of the post...which in this case for your image I am talking about where it says
'Amazon Link Shortener - Ban Free!!!', I can adjust that without hurting anything?
Can you just confirm that for me , LOL
You're good to go changing that bit Justine!
Your site traffic won't be affected at all!
Dennis
(and apologies for any confusion)
Hi Prestones,
My blog titles sucked. So I decided to change them all so they will catch the readers attention in the search results or on my front page.
I deduced that as long as I didn't changed my permalink this would be fine. However...........
I got nervous about it and decided to find out for sure. Well three days and hours later here I am and I finally have the answer.
Thank you very much Dennis. Your answer has cleared it up for me nicely. Now I can rest easy again.
Barry
You can change the title without changing the permalink. You can make the title longer to be more enticing to readers while keeping the permalink shorter and more keyword focused.
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Wow, I was searching for information about what duplicate content is and I came across this and learned something new. I have actually changed a few URLs so I guess I should create some 301 redirects. How do I do that?
Check the training here: Two Ways To Create A 301 Redirect
Thank you, I will have to check that out. I'll let you know if I have any more questions afterwards. Thanks again!