Publishing consistent content, like blogs and articles, means you probably have a handful of posts performing organically well. The posts outside that hand, though, might not be performing and are just kind of... there. If you're just continuing to create, optimize and publish new content on top of existing, yet underperforming content, you're making a mistake. That backed-up content may seem harmless, but it could really be doing more harm than good. Now's the time you clean up your old content!
The organic content algorithm has and will continue to change. The SEO tactics that worked five years ago are no longer the case today. The problem is, we probably have a good amount of content that was created five years ago using those outdated tactics. And it's all just hanging around in our websites like stray cats with nothing else to do.
Yet, even if that content is old, outdated, and doesn't bring in any results whatsoever, a lot of people are hesitant to remove content. They fear even bigger SEO dips. But, when done right, this isn't the case.
Massive content cleanup efforts from two big digital marketing publishers show how removing outdated content has helped their SEO efforts quite a bit:
Deleting old, or any, content has to be done the right way. You can't just go on a backspace spree and expect results. It involves a lot of time and effort with initiatives like:
It may sound like a lot to do, but the results are worth it, as we have read in the previous examples.
We get it, deleting old content is lengthy and can involve a lot of back and forth. You might even receive unwanted pushback from your management or clients. So if you're not in a position to delete, focus on giving old blogs a fresh update. This still helps boost SEO traffic and drive even more engaged visits by following a few basic best practices:
Cleaning up, removing, and refreshing outdated content isn't an easy task, nor should it be done willy-nilly. When done right, results can be impressive and significant. It can help break the cycle of just focusing on publishing more new content on top of old outdated content.
If your content could use some refresh and you're not sure where to start, contact our awesome tribes at Tribu. We'll help you liven up your content and get your SEO back on track!