Should you keep old content on your blog?

Writing a blog post can be a challenge. It's hard work, but afterwards you are probably proud of what you have created. And especially out of question for you to throw away your beautiful articles.

But what should you do with blog posts that are really, really old? Should you keep them all?

In this article, we'll tell you why you shouldn't keep from the old content. Also, we will explain what types of content you should keep on your website and what types of articles should be removed.

Why you can't keep any Your content

Even if your content is really great, you need to do a little cleaning up. Otherwise, you will hurt your own chances of ranking on Google. You see, there are only a limited number of places in Google's search results pages. For a specific query, Google only displays 1 or 2 results from the same domain in its search results. If you are a high authority domain, you could get away with three results.

If you have written 3 articles focused on the same keywords - or very similar - you are competing with yourself for those limited places. This is why you should not write endlessly on the same content and leave it. You have to do some content management.

Update, delete or merge?

There are three things you can do with old content. You can keep it, delete it or merge it. You do not know what to do ? It all depends on your content.

1. Update valuable content

Is an item still very valuable?

Is it still getting a lot of traffic from Google?

Old content that is still very valuable should, of course, be kept on your website. Make sure this content is updated regularly. Your most important articles should never contain outdated information. You should set reminders that will allow you to update these from time to time. It's a great way to make sure your content is always up to date.

Sometimes it's enough to just change a phrase here and there to update an article. If you need to modify an existing article, the plugin Yoast Duplicate Post might be helpful. It allows you to clone your post and work on updating in the one that was cloned, so you won't have to post your changes right away. You can simply copy and paste your new content into the existing post when you're done.

To go further read how and why to duplicate a post in WordPress.

Resolve with website structure

Keeping the content of your website or blog up to date comes at a price, especially if you write on similar topics. Make sure to add some structure and hierarchy to your website. If one of your pages or posts is much more important than the other, you should treat it as such.

Place this important page higher in your hierarchy. The link between less important pages and your most important page. that way, you are going to tell Google which article you want to rank highest while keeping both articles.

2. Remove (and redirect) obsolete content

Is an item out of date? Does it contain invalid information? Does it contain information that is no longer useful?

Every once in a while you write about an upcoming event or announce something new. After a while, these articles will become unnecessary. These types of articles should be deleted. Make sure to redirect them to something similar (or to the homepage if you can't find an alternative).

3. Merge content

Have you written multiple articles on the same topic?

Are they pretty much the same?

Are they classified for the same subjects?

These types of articles must be merged. Make a really awesome article on the two (or three) you've written. Then delete (but don't forget to redirect) the old articles.

In this process, the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin is a lifeline. Merging two existing posts usually takes some effort and working in a clone allows you to work on it when you have the time.

Clone the post you want to keep, then add the essential pieces of the one you are going to make disappear. Take your time to make it a cohesive story. When you're done: copy the content of the clone to the post you want to keep, update it, and then delete the clone and redirect the other post.

Read on: Find and fix keyword cannibalization in 4 steps

Repost your updated content

Updating and merging your old blog posts is never a waste of time. But if you really want to reap the benefit of refurbished content, you need to repost it on your blog and repost it on your social media. This way, you will make sure that your content is not forgotten and you will probably attract new visitors to your website.

If you make minor edits on a recent post, you can choose to just hit the Update button. In WordPress, the last modified date will then change, but the publish date will remain the same. When you've completely merged or rewritten content, you can also choose to change the published date. By doing this, your article will appear as if it is new.

Share it on your other marketing channels too and it will surely get the attention it deserves!

If you do the latter, remember to delete old comments on the post or even hide the comment date, as it might be odd to publish an article with 5 year old comments.

Continue to clean

Checking, updating, structuring and removing old content should be part of a process. Just like you need to clean your kitchen cupboard every now and then, you also need to clean up your old contents.

Also discover the ultimate guide on: Keyword research for SEO

As your website grows, you need to clean up the content and maintain the structure. It really has to be a central part of every SEO strategy.

Discover also some premium WordPress plugins

You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.

We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.

1. WooCommerce Ultimate Multi Currency Suite

WooCommerce Ultimate Multi Currency Suite is a very advanced multi-currency plugin for shops WooCommerce. It allows you to set custom prices for your products and derivatives, as well as coupon amounts, in multiple currencies

The plugin automatically sets currencies using geolocation; or it gives the possibility to your users to choose their preferred currency using a currency selector. They can thus make a choice among the currencies made available by you in the plugin settings.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

2. AP Pricing Tables

AP Pricing Table is a WordPress Plugin premium which makes it easy to create feature-rich price lists with intuitive interfaces. It offers 35 predefined templates and an unlimited number of options.

With this WordPress Plugin easy to use, designing a stunning pricing table with just a few clicks will be very easy. It allows you to create unlimited price grids by providing the ability to add rows and columns, set column border, column space, column width, and much more.

This plugin also allows you add audio content, video and Google Map.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

3. SEO Friendly Images for WordPress

SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress Plugin premium, which optimizes the referencing of your website, thanks to the images of your website.

It has a free version that offers basic features, but its pro version boosts the performance of your website thanks to the technique of Lazy Load-progressive content download-. You'll also be able to optimize it with Alt and Title attributes.

Its functionalities are: automatic filling of the Alt and Title attributes, lazy load support, optimization of hypertext links, support for images, thumbnails and other plugins, the support multilingual, automatic updates and much more…

Download | Demo | Web hosting

Other recommended resources

We also invite you to consult the resources below to go further in the grip and control of your website and blog.

Conclusion

Here ! That's it for this tutorial, we hope it explains why and how you should keep old content on your blog.

However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on WordPress blog creation.

If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments. Do not hesitate to share with your friends on your favorite social networks.

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Should you keep old content on your blog?

Why you can't keep any Your content