Website maintenance: clean up old pages and articles
When you maintain a blog, you write different types of articles. Of course, you try to write valuable content articles all the time. The reality is different.
Some items have historical value, others only have monetary value. You have to go through the file glossary from time to time, and clean it up. This should be part of your regular routine. website maintenance.
One way I like to check old articles is to check the XML sitemap. You open the article or page and review them from oldest to newest. There are three possible decisions for each one, keep it, update it and delete it.
Preserve Old Items
You should keep an item if all of the points below are true:
- The content is still valid and true.
- The article is well optimized for your focus keyword.
- The article is getting decent traffic. Decent in relation to the size of your site and how that article could perform if it was well optimized.
If you are keeping items, check to see if you have all the appropriate tags and categories. Maybe you should include links to more recent articles.
Then update the article to make it look more timely. Even a brief update will do wonders for people who perceive the value of the item. You could, for example, add something like:
“January 20, 2016 – This article is still as valid as it was when I wrote it. Here are some other articles on this topic: ”
This shouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes.
Update articles
You should post again if any of the following points are true:
- The content of the messages is no longer entirely true.
- The article is poorly optimized for your keyword.
- The article is performing much less than a new article would. This is often linked to point 2.
At this point, it's usually best to start over. Read your old article, copy some of the good stuff in it, and start writing a new one. Optimize keyword content and review tags and categories.
Now, change the URL of your old post (by adding for example -old to it) and hit update. Post your new post under the URL of your old post.
Link to your new post from other posts more recent than your old post. Then delete the old post and redirect to the new one.
Now, change the URL of your old article (for example adding –“old”) and update. Publish your new article with the URL that the old one had.
Link to your new article from others more recent than your old article. Then delete the old article and redirect to the new one.
Combine old items
I often find myself putting together several old items into one new one. The reason is that old articles are sometimes very short and as time goes by I start writing longer ones.
Also, sometimes a topic becomes an easier topic to explain. You can still do all of the above and simply redirect all the old articles into a new one.
Delete old articles
If the reason for the article was really just temporary, don't be afraid to delete it. When we delete old content, we redirect the URL to the most appropriate URL on the site.
You can also simply decide to leave a 404 error. If people link to your old article and it is deleted or deleted, you will be wasting a valuable link. In that case, it is better redirect URL above, even if it's just to your main page.
Source: Yoast
