Will it hurt to rearrange the keywords on a home page meta title and H1?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  John Pitcher: Will it hurt to rearrange the keywords on a home page meta title and H1 and also to add a FEW extra keywords into the home page content of an ALREADY INDEXED site? That is, will Google see this as manipulation and penalise?
  
  The title is "builders town1 town2 county" and I now want to change this to "builders county town2 town1" as the address is directly in the middle of the 2 towns and so I feel that the physical location is counting against him. I also want to rewrite the original copy he gave to add "builders" in a couple of times (NOT spam the keywords, just write the content now in a way that I would have done had I written the content to begin with.)
  
  The site - a builders website - has been indexed for about 4 months and is not performing well. (A lot of this is due to decisions the customer has made such as not to have a G+ page, not to get directory or any other links, not to have his address on the website or elsewhere on the net, not to get testimonials, to have very short content etc - and I will now review these decisions with him - but my question right now is whether changing/tweaking the keywords in existing content will trigger a penalty.
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  Benjamin Dona: Would like to hear the expert answer!
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  Brent Wildman: I doubt it will trigger a penalty, it might shake things up a bit though as far as rankings are concerned. If you want to see results though stop fiddling with minute changes to your on page and start concentrating on off page. You're not going to rank without back links and you're not going to show up in local without reviews and citations.
  
  You should have a real sit down with your client and tell him he will never see results without some real off page work. No point in spinning your wheels on a campaign that will not perform.
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  Mark Pitcher: Fine to make the changes, also match the meta title to your h1. If the h1 is your key phrase use synonyms of the phrase in your text.
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  Paul Lovell: Hi +John Pitcher changing your on site coding will definitely juggle things around in the serps but as +Brent Wildman said concentrate on your off site stuff. One of my golden rules is to make it readable. If you make your title and description tags unreadable this will probably reduce your CTR 
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  Daniel Olvera: +John Pitcher What's the concern if the page is not currently ranking well? If anything, making the changes you suggest has the potential to bring it up. I wouldnt worry about being penalized. You are not doing anything wrong.
  
  A good question to ask yourself when in doubt is: would I feel comfortable explaing this change? If the answer is YES for the sake of usability then by all means, go ahead.
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  Brian Ahle: I doubt it will hurt you. The SERPs will probably be a little weird the next couple of months, but it will settle.
  
  I would not focus on offsite SEO, before having your onsite to be spot on. So I disagree with +Paul Lovell ; and +Brent Wildman . You cant have a good and reliable car that is a mess inside, tho your outside is being repaired and having a custom paintjob - a different situation, but still the same.
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  Paul Lovell: But on the same note +Brian Ahle once you have some good quality links this will speed up getting re indexed and seeing what changes in the serps, you have made with your recoding
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  Brian Ahle: +Paul Lovell : True. But who would like to have bad content indexed in a hurry? - Not me.
  
  Onsite first, then comes offsite.
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  John Pitcher: Many thanks all for answers.
  
  +Brian Ahle ;Have you had personal experience of SERPS dipping and then settling back down after changing keywords in content and/or coding? (Would be reassuring to know). As said, it is not actually adding new keywords into the page, more - possibly - changing the relative importance of the keywords in the title/h1 and also - probably - rewriting the home page text in a more SEO-friendly way (the customer was given written and verbal instructions but chose to write the content his way - this is COMPLETELY his right as it is his own site but the signs are so far that the home page should be rewritten).
  
  +Brent Wildman ;and +Paul Lovell ;- am about to send another email with instructions for off-site work (eg G+ page, local and niche directories, customer reviews etc) as I feel that this is a site that will need that.
  
  +Mark Pitcher ;Many thanks; H1 and title are pretty much matched already (I don't always make them identical although always include keywords in both) ; but it's definitely worth pointing out.
  
  Has anyone else had experience with changes to content and/or changes in the order of keywords in the title/h1 coding causing or not causing problems in the SERPS? If so, were any problems temporary?
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  john writer: +John Pitcher i have suggestions, u want change content change it but ur new para or content place above old content with bold font or give h2 with new keyword use in title.
  Change description with match with new content … i dont give lots of dreams about this *i have get lots of profit from this techniques * after on page just PING once .
  Off page techniques support on page tech please prabhakaronline.com
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  Brent Wildman: +Brian Ahle ;If we're using the car analogy; then you have a car with a spotless interior but you didn't buy gas. The only person who's going to see that car is you and not other people (users).
  
  He's not talking about creating content or making literal "on page" changes. He's talking about rearranging the title tag, which frankly sounds a little spammy. ;
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  Brian Ahle: My point is, that it won't give him a penalty. Maybe a dip in serps with the suffix he's writing, but no penalty. Ofcourse Google will see it if it is already indexed, it just takes a little longer if you dont have any backlinks at all.
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  john writer: +Brian Ahle +Brent Wildman ; u both , +John Pitcher want some change in Meta but i already give suggestion for this . when u make change for fast indexing submit for ping on Fetching. for off page ; Just publish ; service through #Google page , how ? change About us .
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  W.E. Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 00:24:56 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/will_it_hurt_to_rearrange_the_keywords_on_a_home_page_meta_title_and_h1