In previous blog posts we have kind of alluded to the simple fact that SEO is a rather complex business due to what appears to be its ever changing nature. It seems that new theories and ideas as to what works and what fails are popping up all the time and that just makes things even more difficult to understand as a result.
One such example is the theory that your old content could actually improve your SEO and this seems to go against a number of theories simply because it was previously believed that old content would be too laden with keywords for it to now be effective. Well, to some that is no longer the case.
How To Take Advantage.
You see, in the past it was all about sheer quantity, or that is what people thought, but that particular game has certainly changed now as quality of content reigns supreme. However, this is where you need to be slightly ruthless with your old content in order to then benefit from it.
What people are now saying is that you have to go through the content and unpublish those articles that just do not come up to the standards that you would expect. This is going to clear out a lot of deadwood in an instant and then you are left with the content that you are then able to work with.
At this point you then need to see if the good content requires any additional editing just to further improve the quality at all. This may sound like a lot of work initially, but all that you are doing is refreshing old content, making it relevant again, and then the likes of Google will pick up on it being new and reindex it.
You see. The old content that is no longer relevant is also going to have an impact on the speed at which your website loads. The faster the loading speed then the better it is for your visitors and then Google is going to love you even more and it certainly helps where your website then ranks.
Also, here is another tip that is also going to help things along even more. Whenever you delete old content you should make sure that there is a 301 redirect put into place on that page for the sake of sending people to a new page that has updated content. This is going to help with keeping them on your website for longer and clearly that is also going to also help your SEO as Google love happy people that spend longer on a website.
Furthermore, when you are examining the old content, it is certainly better if you check the way in which your keywords are being used. Look at the long tail keywords that are bring used and then make sure that they are making sense and appear naturally in the content. This is important as it was not always the case with old content where the key was to really stuff in as many keywords and combinations as possible. The problem is that this did not always make sense and yet that was not as important in the old days.
Well, that is no longer the case because of the issue of quality over quantity that is now the important part in all of this.
Look at the facts that are included and perhaps just update the points that are being made to make sure that they are still relevant or even making sense. Google may love fresh new content on a regular basis but the cool thing is that by updating old content it comes across as being refreshed and is now relevant again and yet you still get the benefit of its history as well. In other words, you are really getting the best of both worlds and that is only going to be beneficial to you.
So, what we are saying is the following.
When you have quite a lot of content on your website and that content has been built up over a period of time then it is now the time for you to look at having a clear out and just freshen it up so that you can still get the benefit of it and indeed improve your ranking at the same time. This is something that Google now expects and the best part is that it is also not going to cost you a fortune to do.
Remember that SEO is something that does change and you need to stay on top of it all and to stay abreast of what the new updates are meaning for your website. However, what this post shows is that there is no need for you to make major wholesale changes at all and instead you can just make some minor adjustments that can then have a profound impact on your ranking.
