3 Tips For Cleaning Content Without Hurting Rankings

Content remains an important part of any SEO strategy. However, when there are several years of content on a website: some of it outdated, some of it repetitive, etc. the content needs cleaning up. Many worry this will affect rankings and if done incorrectly on a large scale, it could. Here are 3 tips for cleaning content without hurting rankings.

#1: Identify The Most Effective Content

Old content can sometimes rank extremely well. Thus, unless it is factually incorrect or outdated, leave this content alone (beyond maybe cleaning up dead links or adding some photos). However, you should not delete this kind of content unless absolutely necessary.

#2: Ensure You Use The Right Redirects

Redirects are not all equal. In theory, redirects do not hurt your site. However, you do not want to have too many redirects to or from any particular page. The best kind of redirect for SEO is a 301 redirect. This signals the content has been permanently moved elsewhere. Having other redirects is not the end of the world, but when cleaning up old content, there is the possibility that many redirects will be created. Use 301 redirects as much as possible.

#3: Condense

Do you have two blog posts that are on the same or similar topics? This does mean combining blog posts on the same procedure. For example, you probably would not combine two blogs on breast augmentation. However, you may combine two on the history of silicone implants and the safety of silicone implants because the content complements each other.

Choose the blog that ranks the best and gets the most traffic and bring the other post over and redirect it to the new combined blog at the URL with more SEO juice.

‍

To learn more and schedule a free marketing consultation, call us or reach out online via chat or contact form.