Update or delete your old content to improve SEO

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It’s time for some spring cleaning on your site. If you have a lot of old content, it is important to make sure that it is still relevant to your website and useful to your visitors. And if it isn’t, you should update it or delete it. Doing so can improve your visitors’ user experience and improve your SEO. Here’s why…

 

Why should you update or delete old content

There are two key reasons why it is best to go back through all of your old content to see what’s worth keeping, what’s worth improving and what’s worth deleting. One of these has to do with Thematic SEO. We have seen mounting evidence that the more content you have under the same theme, the better your chances are for ranking for keywords related to that theme. That means it is important for your site to have focus. Old and outdated content can get in the way of this. If you have outdated or irrelevant pages lurking on your site, even if they aren’t out in the open, Google will still see them. And if you no longer offer a service related to them, you are ruining the thematic relevance of your website.

Another SEO-related reason is that it can lead to high bounce rates, something Google uses as a ranking factor. If a user lands on your site and is greeted with a piece of outdated content, they could leave straight away. If enough do it, your bounce rate will start rising and your ranking will soon start to drop.

Now we know why, let’s look at how.

 

Update it if it is still relevant

If you think your outdated content can be revived and updated then you should definitely do so. There isn’t any point of getting rid of content for the sake of it. The page could carry a lot of SEO value and so updating it with new content is much better than creating a brand new page. Even if it means changing the page completely it is definitely worth making the effort to do so.

Delete it if it isn’t

If you can’t find a way for an old piece of content to get updated, if it is for a service that you no longer offer, for instance, then delete it. But don’t just delete the page in WordPress and forget about it. Instead, find a piece of content that is related to it if you can and use a 301-redirect to link them. If you can’t find a related page, we would recommend redirecting the page pack to the homepage of your site.

Need help with your content strategy?

A content refresh isn’t always easy. It can be difficult to know wha needs updating and what needs deleting. And how best to delete it if so. We can help develop a content strategy that looks at your old content and helps you plan content for the future. Get in touch today.