How can I change my website's content on specific pages without affecting ranking for specific keywords?

[ryanperea100]

My client's website (www.nursevillage.com) content has not been touched for 4 years and we are currently ranking #1 for "per diem nursing". They do not want to make any changes to the site in fear that it might decrease our rankings. We want to try to use utilize that keyword ranking on specific pages (www.nursevillage.com/nv/content/careeroptions/perdiem.jsp ) ranking for "per diem nursing" and try redirecting traffic or placing some banners and links on that page to specific pages or other sites related to "per diem nursing" jobs so we can get nurses to apply to our new nursing jobs.

Any advice on why "per diem nursing" is ranking so high for us and what we can change on the site without messing up our ranking would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[EGOL]

Your rankings are mainly supported by title tag, keywords in on-page text and inbound links. If you do not change these you should be able to make page modifications with little risk of rankings loss. If you work to improve your site in a way that attracts relevant links that should strengthen your position.

[RyanKent]

Hi Karen.

I can appreciate your desire to keep your #1 ranking, and not make any changes to the page. Your fears are valid as any "improvements" you make to the page can impact your ranking. It's a tough spot. Google wants to provide users with the best experience, but by making changes to improve that experience you risk the #1 spot.

I took a look at your page and your SERP and have a concern. Your title in the results page shows as "Per Diem - Nursing news, career resources, RN jobs and nursing..."When I visit the actual page, the title is "Nursingvillage.com - Career Option". If that was a recent change, I would suggest it is a bad one and should be corrected. It would be a reasonable cause to lose your #1 ranking.

A reasonable title for the page would be "Per Diem Nursing | Nursingvillage.com". The rest of your title would be best left for your meta description.

As far as why you are ranking #1, the term "per diem nursing" only receives 3600 global searches per month according to AdSense. It's not that competitive. Compare that with the following keywords which receive more global monthly searches:

nursing jobs - 1,000,000

nurse employment - 673,000

nursing job employment - 550,000

nursing positions - 301,000

jobs for nurses - 246,000

"Per diem nursing" is a long tail keyword phrase which is why you are ranking so well.