A landing page is a page designed to convert website traffic into leads or sales. Most people think this is primarily for driving paid traffic, which can be true. However, this is not always the case and you can certainly have a landing page where the lion share of the traffic come from organic search or SEO (search engine optimization).
Before I begin, let me share with you this screenshot from Google Search Console—I have over 20,000 pages indexed in Google with one of our website properties, so I am qualified to answer this question on SEO.
Just so we’re all on the same page, let me share an example of what an SEO landing page looks like for us, and how the audience would land on this landing page from Google SERP (search engine results page).
Our landing pages on PR Distribution™ show up if somebody types in “ebook press release”.
The short answer to your question is—it depends.
Let me explain what factors would hurt your SEO while replacing the content on your landing page, and what factors would help your SEO.
Content Improvements
If you are replacing your content with an improved version such as a more in-depth and lengthier article with tables and graphics, it will likely help your SEO and you will actually see your SERP (search engine results page) rankings go up!
Title and Heading Tags
If you replace your content, assuming with something relevant to the topic or theme, and you keep your existing title tags and heading tags, it likely will not hurt your SEO.
180 Degree Change
If you are replacing your content with a complete 180 degree change in theme, topic, title, headings and everything else under the sun, it will probably hurt your SEO and you will likely see some of your existing ranked keywords lose its rank in the Google SERP.
Content Age
If your content is relatively new and have ranked for keywords recently, any changes to your content may have a far more pronounced negative impact with your SERP rankings than if this content have existed and consistently ranked in SERP for years for those keywords. Although, please be mindful that a 180 degree content change might void any benefits that come with the age of your landing page so tread carefully.
One of the ways we have re-enforced our keyword rankings in the Google SERP is by using our very own PR Distribution™ platform. We have sent press releases promoting our own platform with the keywords we want to rank for in the headline and anchor text, and it has worked well for us.
Don’t forget, it is always better to make incremental changes rather than abrupt 180 degree changes.
Best of luck with your content replacement or changes!
