It's easy to get rid of outdated website content. You can redirect it or delete it.
But, if outdated blog posts still bring in website traffic – do you really want to get rid of it? Decisions can be costly in terms of leads, sales, and bottom-line profit if you don't check a few key metrics before deciding.
I don't like removals or redirects from an SEO perspective. It can make sense as a business decision. If you think an article or case study is harmful because the information is outdated or inaccurate, you could say: “Having facts and data that isn't helpful is a nice sight. If we don't address this, we could cause a potential customer to question our value. ”
I help CMI with SEO and I appreciate that CMI keeps many blog posts. Kim Moutsos, CMI's editorial vice president, offers some insight into CMI's approach to updating old content in Why, When and How to Republish Blog Posts .
The reality is that there are no hard and fast rules. Some marketers argue that new content is the most important and will be rewarded by Google. They lock into thinking that Google likes updated sites. And some marketers may easily question how old sites meet Google's ongoing requirements for quality. this is in contrast to inaccurate or poor quality content.
There are no hard and fast rules for deciding which blog posts to delete and which to redirect, @MikeOnlineCoach said via @CMIContent @Conductor. #SEO Click to Tweet All are relative. Ideally, all of your content should be timely, insightful, and engaging enough to make a great first impression or even convert visitors – whether it's a phone call, a demo request, Sign up for the newsletter, or more.
Before removing or redirecting content, determine your situation and consider actions that can protect your website traffic and the business those visitors bring you.
1. Test your assumptions
How do you know old content is no longer useful? useful ? Track bounce rate, time on page, and conversions.
Bounce rate, time on page, and conversions will tell you if old #content is no longer useful, @MikeOnlineCoach said via @CMIContent @Conductor. #SEO Click to post a Tweet Does the old site content still contribute to the goal? yours are not? Check if conversions from organic search are increasing or decreasing. Newsletter subscriptions may be strong, but completing forms tied to products and services has dropped. Is that acceptable based on what you're trying to achieve?
To find out your page's performance, refer to the conversion goals for the pages you set up earlier in Google Analytics . Here's the initial path to follow to see which URLs are doing their job:
2. Analyze your rankings
Content you are considering removing or redirecting with ratings good not Looking? Has it locked down some highly competitive phrases? How comfortable are you with losing search engine visibility for those terms if you remove old content or if the content you redirect to also doesn't rank?
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3. Review Google Search Console
You can see substantial information about site URLs and search queries. Track click data over time for older content and uncover any new trends. In other words, did the number of clicks drop drastically at a time? Do they increase over time? Spending time on URLs, clicks, and keywords in Google Search Console is a great way to check the health of your site from an SEO perspective.
4. Review Website Traffic
Is the content still getting the same number of visitors as it used to? Have you adjusted for unusual factors that could affect website traffic – like any traffic impacts of the pandemic?
Are you still getting visitors from your geo-targets? Are the most important languages rejected? Again, you can track visitor behavior on organic search and other sources. If you have fewer visitors from a particular location, it's worth exploring. Sometimes it helps to look at metrics more deeply than just URLs.
Recently, a company I know redirected some blog posts to a newer version. Newer blog posts get traffic, but not as much as the original ones did.
Without context around what organic search visitors did when they got to those pages, it's difficult to gauge whether redirects will affect results in the long run.
In other words, traffic is not everything. Before you make moves that could affect visitor numbers, be sure to understand whether your site's previous visitors are a good fit for your content and goals. If you've considered contextual factors, you'll have a much better basis for evaluating visits to potential traffic.
How to deal with outdated content that you want to keep
If you choose to keep or redirect your content, there are several steps you can take to make it more fresh.
1. Use it to point to new content
When your old content is taller than your newer content, add an editor's note to the top and direct visitors to your latest piece on the topic. You keep your site's rankings and help direct visitors to new content.
Keep your old blog post URL and use an editor note at the top to direct visitors to a new page of articles on this topic, say @MikeOnlineCoach via @CMIContent @Conductor. #SEO Click to Tweet
2. Claim new backlinks
Research referral traffic to your existing pages to evaluate backlinks from websites, blogs, news media, etc. An older page may perform better as it has been around longer and has accumulated a significant number of backlinks.
Reach out to referring sites to claim those backlinks pointing to your new content. While a drop in backlinks can affect the rankings of old articles, new content will also gain a ranking advantage.
3. Refresh old content
Rewrite the intro update the oldest references (i.e. cite a more recent study), embed the current video, refer to a timely infographic, mention a new resource, etc. Move some Your resources for taking this step could be more than helpful create new content.
The Content Marketing Institute follows this practice but uses the new URL because it uses the year and month in the URL structure. It includes an editor's note in the original URL that points to a newer version. I no longer recommend setting up sites with a date URL structure. That's tough for long-lasting content in the future. CMI isn't the only site organized that way. Fortune, TopRank Marketing, and Search Engine Watch all use URLs with dates.
If you have a date structure and choose to drop it, expect a big swing in traffic while Google handles all the new 301 redirects.
If you have a year and a month in your URL structure and choose to give it up, expect big changes in traffic while @Google handles all the new 301 redirects, says @MikeOnlineCoach via @CMIContent @Conductor. #SEO Click to Tweet
4. It's not necessary to sweat over duplicate content
If you keep the original page or blog post, you can refresh the content without significantly harming search engine rankings. When you have thousands of pages (or even hundreds), a few duplicates are unlikely to lower your rankings or cause Google to remove your site.
Old content will always be a release
Old site posts and pages can stretch the limits of new content.
If they're still ranking well and bringing in leads — and sales — think about keeping them a little longer. If you redirect website content to newer content, you may not get the expected performance. Then how do you fill the measurable gaps with website traffic and revenue (instant conversions and sales based on a long-term customer formula)?
At the end of the day, keeping old content or redirecting it is a call of judgment regarding your brand reputation and business practices – not just SEO.
Old content can make all the difference. Store data and organize pages and posts until you say goodbye.
Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski / Content Marketing Institute
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