So, you\u2019ve reached the point where it\u2019s time for a content spring clean.<\/p>\n
You’ve got hundreds of content assets sitting and gathering dust (doing you more harm!), and it\u2019s time to improve or unpublish these pages. However, this is not something you do on a whim.<\/p>\n
This article discusses the analysis process and how to begin planning for a clean-up. <\/span><\/p>\n Most importantly, how to clean up outdated content without affecting your rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n Before we start, you need to know that not all old content is outdated content.<\/strong><\/p>\n To put it simply: outdated content is no longer relevant or accurate due to changes in time, circumstances, or developments in your field or industry. This type of content doesn\u2019t offer any value to your brand and negatively affects your users\u2019 experience with your website.<\/p>\n John Mueller responded to a Google user question on what to do with old content on his site.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cI think if that\u2019s something that you think is good content that you want to publish with your website, with your name, then I would keep it. Just because it\u2019s old doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s bad.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n However, we suggest fixing outdated content before it affects your site\u2019s ranking and reputation.<\/p>\n Before getting to the details, it would be best to examine the benefits of removing out-of-date content.<\/p>\n Imagine someone clicking on your page to solve a social media problem and discovering your content contains outdated techniques. We don\u2019t need to mention the user\u2019s following action.<\/p>\n Outdated content paints a picture that your site lacks the experience and expertise in that topic and automatically reduces your site\u2019s trustworthiness. Removing this content will improve your users\u2019 experience and reduce your site\u2019s bounce rate.<\/p>\n Search Engine Journal experienced over 60% increase<\/a> in organic traffic and page views after updating and deleting old content. Also, Elite Strategies updated some of its old content, deleted some, and saw an increase in overall search impressions and more traffic to its pages.<\/p>\n Up-to-date content tends to rank high on search engines, and this automatically pulls in traffic.<\/p>\n Someone asked a question: what\u2019s Google\u2019s primary goal?<\/p>\n To provide its users with the most relevant and reliable results<\/a> based on their search queries.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Google ranks pages with the latest and high-quality information.<\/p>\n On the other hand, they penalize sites with outdated content.<\/p>\n According to Google\u2019s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, Google considers content with inaccurate information, i.e., outdated content, as low-quality content. \u201cMain content is low quality if it is created without adequate effort, originality, talent, or skill to achieve the page’s purpose satisfyingly. Mild inaccuracies on informational pages are evidence of Low quality. However, if the page has harmful inaccuracies or so many inaccuracies that it feels untrustworthy, the lowest rating is justified.\u201d Updating or removing outdated content increases your authority and ranking.<\/p>\n Now that you know the benefits of cleaning up outdated content, it would be best to understand how to identify this type of content.<\/p>\n According to Devrix, here are the criteria for outdated content<\/a>:<\/p>\n But how do you identify this type of content?<\/p>\n An SEO content audit<\/a> is an actionable inventory of indexable content organized to determine better what to consolidate (or remove!), what to improve upon, and what to leave as-is.<\/p>\n We recommend that you use Screaming Frog for a complete technical SEO audit. This tool is a website crawler that audits common SEO issues and allows you to analyze the result in real time.<\/p>\n You can use this tool to discover pages getting zero visits. Besides, its ‘Publication’ date feature can help you find the oldest pages on your website that need to be updated.<\/p>\n Most importantly, this tool can be integrated with Google Analytics and Search Console for better-outdated content analysis.<\/p>\nBalancing Outdated and Old Content<\/h2>\n
Importance of Cleaning Up Outdated Content<\/h2>\n
1. Reduces Bounce Rate<\/h3>\n
2. Increases Organic Traffic<\/h3>\n
3. Avoid Getting Penalized by Google<\/h3>\n
Identifying Outdated Content<\/h2>\n
\n
1. Perform a Full Content Audit<\/h3>\n
2. Use Google Search Console<\/h3>\n