Clean Up Your Old Content for SEO Enhancement: Tips to Increase Rankings

If you’re like most businesses, you have a lot of content on your website. And, chances are, some of that content is no longer relevant. Maybe it’s time-sensitive and needs to be updated, or maybe it just doesn’t align with your current marketing strategy. Whatever the case may be, outdated content can hurt your SEO efforts and decrease your rankings. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to clean up your old content and improve your SEO ranking in the process!

What is Old Content? Knowing the Signs

Before we get into how to clean up your old content, it’s important to know what qualifies as “old.” Generally speaking, old content is any content that is no longer relevant or accurate. This can include:

Outdated information (e.g., product specs that have changed, statistics that are no longer accurate, etc.)
Broken links. Quality link building is vital to SEO success!
Typos and grammatical errors. This is a huge red flag for website visitors!
Duplicate content. This could get you website penalized!
Content that’s no longer aligned with your brand voice or marketing strategy.

Why is Outdated Content Harmful to Your SEO?

There are a few reasons why outdated content can be harmful to your SEO:

It can make your website seem unreliable and untrustworthy. If users see that you have information on your site that is no longer accurate, they may question the validity of all of your content. This can lead to decreased traffic and rankings.
Outdated content is often less relevant than new content. This means that it’s less likely to show up in search results, which can hurt your ranking.
Old content can also contain broken links, which can damage your website’s link profile and hurt your ranking.

These are just a few of the many reasons why it’s important to keep your content up to date. Now, let’s discuss how you can do that!

How to Clean Up Your Old Content

Now that you know what is considered “old” content, it’s time to start cleaning it up! Thankfully, we have prepared a step-by-step guide on how to do just that:

Step One: Identify the Old Content

The first step is to identify which pieces of content on your site are outdated. This can be a daunting task, but there are a few ways to make it easier. First, take a look at your website’s analytics to see which pages are getting the least amount of traffic. These are likely candidates for old content. You can also use Google Search Console to find out which pages are not being indexed by Google anymore. Once you’ve identified the pages with old content, it’s time for step two!

Step Two: Update or Remove the Old Content

Once you’ve identified the old content on your site, it’s time to decide what to do with it. If the content is only slightly outdated, you can simply update it with new information. However, if the content is no longer relevant or accurate, you’ll need to remove it from your site. This can be a tricky decision, but ultimately you want to keep only the most relevant and useful content on your site.

Step Three: Optimize Your Content for SEO

Once you’ve updated or removed your old content, it’s important to optimize the remaining content for SEO. This includes adding keywords, internal links, and external links where appropriate. You should also make sure that all of your titles and meta descriptions are up-to-date and accurately reflect the current state of your website. These are all some of the most important aspects of a strong and functional SEO strategy, according to Forbes. By taking these steps, you can ensure that your website is SEO-friendly and ready to rank!

SEO Tips for Updating Old Content

When you’re updating old content, it’s important to keep SEO in mind. Here are a few tips to help you do that:

Use keyword research to find new, relevant keywords to target.
Internal link to other pages on your website where appropriate.
Update your title and meta description to accurately reflect the current state of your page.
Add external links to high-quality websites where appropriate.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your updated content is optimized for SEO and ready to rank!

How Often Should You Update Old Content?

There is no hard and fast rule for how often you should update your old content. However, a good general guideline is to update it whenever it becomes outdated or irrelevant. Additionally, you should also consider updating your content if it’s not performing well in search results. If you keep these things in mind, you can ensure that your website always has the most up-to-date and relevant content!

Need SEO Enhancement Assistance?

If you need help cleaning up your old content or optimizing it for SEO, we’re here to help! Our team of SEO experts can assist you with all aspects of content optimization, from keyword research to link building. Contact us today to learn more about how our team at ArticleHub can help you improve your website’s ranking!