Content optimized for old keywords and G Updates

[BobGW]

Hi,

We've got some old content, about 50 pages worth in an Ecommerce site, that is optimized for keywords that aren't the subject of the page - these keywords occur about 8 times (2 keywords per page) in the old content.

We are going through these 50 pages and changing the title, H1, and meta description tag to match the exact subject of the page - so that we will increase in rankings again - the updates have been lowering our rankings.

Do we need to completely rewrite the content for these 50 pages, or can we just sprinkle it with any needed additions of the one keyword that is the subject of the page?

The reason I'm asking is that our rankings keep dropping and these 50 pages seem to be part of the problem. We're in the process of updating these 50 pages

Thanks.

[MoosaHemani]

I am not completely convinced that updates are killing your rankings just because of the page that is optimized for keywords that aren’t the subject of the page. In a way, we can also say that the page is optimized for wrong keywords.

So, will Google kill your rankings just because you have a content that is optimized for wrong keywords? IMHO, not really!

I would suggest you to fix it for right kind of keywords and update! But I personally don’t think, it is affecting your rankings as a whole you should look in to other areas like links, website structure and other to see if there is a problem and fix it accordingly!

Hope this helps!

[BobGW]

Maybe it's the repetition of keywords in the titles and H1 that are causing the drop in ranking, like a title structured (just for example)

brown shoes, athletic shoes | sportsauthority.com

where "shoes" is repeated.