When Committing SEO Suicide Is a Good Thing
I’ve just spent the last day committing SEO suicide – and you should too.
Lemme explain.
This blog has been around since 2005. It’s gone through a lot – a domain name change, a move from a subdomain to the root URL. Not to mention countless product reviews, announcements and housekeeping posts being put up. Hundreds of articles had been written in this incredibly fast-paced world of internet marketing, where what technique is hot one month is old news the next and where sites, tools and resources join the deadpool almost faster than one can keep up.
One of the things I didn’t focus on when I got started 6 years ago was considering how evergreen my content would be. That is, if I put up a blog post, would it still be relevant in 6 months or a years time?
Inevitably, no matter how much you consider the future, some things will change in you rmarketplace and will eventually be out of date. And if longevity of your content is something you hadn’t considered (as I didn’t in the start) you’re likely to have a massive archive of articles that aren’t really all that relevant or actionable for your readers.
Consider the scenario of someone new landing on one of your articles for the first time. They find that the content is old and therefore doesn’t answer their question. There’s even a link you embedded to another resource that they click and get a 404. What will they do?
Most of the time, unfortunately, they’ll probably click “Back” and pick another listing from Google’s search results – gone from your site forever.
We want to avoid that.
And to do so, it’s important to keep out sites current so that when new folks land on our content they get good, recent and relevant actionable stuff.
So I just deleted 150 articles from this site. Some were about products and services that are no longer available (like a Web 2.0 property that I posted about as a source for backlinks, that’s since been killed). Some were announcements about a free call I was doing. Some were just comprised of information that was simply out of date and no longer interesting (like MySpace marketing!). There were also some articles that got a decent amount of search engine traffic that could be revamped to be current, and I’ve put those in a Simplenote list to update.
Now all that stuff is gone and the archives are looking pretty bare. I called it “SEO suicide” because it will result in less traffic. I’ve got less articles on my site to bring in those long-tail keyword searchers. But there’s a few ways to help when you’re dropping dead weight:
I 301′d all the pages that I deleted to point to the home page of the site. I manually updated my XML sitemap to let the search engines know. I’m running the Broken Link Checker WP plugin to remove any references to posts or outside URL’s that are no longer alive.
I want people to come here and find that absolute best, cream of the crop stuff so that they have a fabulous first impression. That way the traffic I do get is highly responsive.
As a market leader, you need to aim for that as well.
Leveraging existing content and building a foundation of evergreen content (and how to do both) are just two of the many techniques we talk about inside Always Be Shipping. If market leadership is what you’re aiming for in your market, it’s a course you’ll get a lot of value and insight from.
ACTION STEPS
- Go though your archives and identify out-of-date and irrelevant content
- Check Google Analytics to see which of it, if any, is getting search engine traffic
- Rewrite or update the “old” content that’s still getting search engine traffic
- Trash the old content that’s not getting any traffic and 301 redirect it’s URL’s to your homepage
- Update your sitemap
- Run Broken Link Checker to look for broken and dead links
First!
Michelle , outstanding post! You are spot on and my Hero of the month!
Oh man, more work… thanks.
Oddly enough I’ve just been doing the same thing myself, but it was mostly old scraped junk that was crap in the first place. Even weirder I found all this stuff by running the WP broken link checker! Spooky
great article! Thank you.
We need to clean our house and let go all those things not usefull… why not our blog?
I love this article.
Thanks for reminding us seemingly simple things can develop inertia and take on a life of their own.
I’ve been doing this too! Thanks for the support.
Must be a ripple in the force, because I was going through these very same mental “gymnastics” and taking an inventory of what types of subjects/topics to really focus on (i.e. the evergreen stuff). Great article, Michelle!
Bravo! Gee, I need to make the time to do that too.
Thanks – great advice! Also thank you for the post and not a video! I get about 10 videos a day and it is just impossible to take the time to watch them all. I can quickly scan a post and see if it is worth reading and in this case it certainly was – but then your posts always are
I did this after the Panda update in an attempt to improve the overall quality of the site – the one thing I realised after a bit of over-zealous pruning, was that the tag cloud looked a bit bare and weird when I was done!
Still it felt good (like throwing out loads of junk from the house!)
Just recently went through this with my blog too. Mine got so screwed up that the share buttons couldn’t tell what the real address to that page was anymore! Kinda ironic how things that get old on the web start to break apart just like in nature.
Ughhhh…. Since stopping johncow and just getting ready to start my new blog I have been doing that very thing. Another great post… U r starting to be my favorite blog… Keep it up! The last google+ post was killer.
You’re so smart, Michelle.
Been thinking about doing this too.
Hello, 404-to-start plugin does a redirect on auto pilot for those who cleaned out the trash and leaned up their blog a a bit. I did that and it works fine. I see people landing on my home page that would normally get lost and frustrated. This may be an option for some of you if you do house cleaning.
Been on my mind, Michelle…well, the blog clean up, and well, yes you too
Thanks for the reminder…adding to my To-Do list now.
The funny thing is – even “evergreen” content needs updates too.
)
I got a good visited blog on personal development (in German) and its been around since May 2008.
At the moment I am adding mails to my follow up (yes, I really do this
), because I want to bond with my new subscribers more.
So I am reviewing my posts of the beginning of the blog – and even they need some rewriting although most of them are “evergreen”.
I made a development in the last 3 days – my writing has.
So when I give “older” content to my new subscribers, I also do rewrite it.
So there is always work…
)
Thanks for sharing, Michelle.
Greets,
André
I apprecite the action steps! This is something I need to do, too.
Very interesting Michelle! This is REALLY “thinking outside the block”! My personal blog need a lot of work. I have “plans” for it… just very busy… money sites, media buys etc.
I like the way you said that you personally did the work. Outsourcing is GREAT! However, how many of us spent hundreds if not thousands “out sourcing” a $200-$300 project… because VA’s dropped the ball, or did the job half way.
Cheers Michelle on another ROCKIN Post!
Antonio Easter!
Oh yeah Michelle, maybe you can help with this. My personal blog was a PR4 for a long time. However, about 3-5 days ago my page rank dropped to a PR1… I wonder why?
Not too important… but those page ranks can stroke that little entrepreneurial ego inside of us humans. lol!
Sorry, for the double post. Thought I’d ask… cuz I know you know your stuff!
Take care!
Great post Michelle! A virtual spring clean is always in order. Come to think of it I have a few “timely” posts on my own blog -and its only a few months old.
house cleaning the blog is always a good thing, but 301 redirect those old pages to new stuff so you don’t lose the link luv.
Best headline ever.
I am about to do the same too. Thanks for the guideline.
thanks for the article you posted, maybe this is just my experience in writing articles, if in my opinion, write an article or a comment on it depends our own favorites – each. many articles that I read on the internet just rely articles from other blogs and not from his own creativity. and I believe that the Internet is creativity without boundaries.
Good post. Thanks for sharing.
I know about 301 redirect but how do you do it for each post link?
This is a great reminder to us all and a great tip to new bloggers.
Sensible thing to do, Michelle. Been working on this too. Thanks for the guideline.
Sadly it is something that has to happen. The trauma that goes along with the cutting out of old pages and posts is huge. My traffic dropped on a massive way, but it did recover, as I then added a lot more content than usual for a few weeks. My history online is only 3 years, and really busy for the last two years – and still I had a huge amount of old and outdated posts and pages.
In fact – I deleted about 50 websites at the same time.
With the newer algorithms it has become necessary to be more involved on my sites personally.
Michelle, please change “you rmarketplace” to “your marketplace”!
A great set of tips for anyone who wishes to overhaul their website and what to do about their broken links.
Thanks Michelle for another great article. Some time ago, I did delete a few pages without using the 301 but Google crawlers are still finding them out there from old links and returning the dreaded 404. Any suggestion how to correct this?
I’m a Newbie in this business, trying just to get started. Sounds like I may learn something from here, so I guess I’ll wander for a while. I keep running into you name, so I’m hoping I may be on the right track. Good luck with your clean up exercise, it sounds logical. Keith
Thanks a lot Michelle..I use the “redirection” plugin…as well as broken link checker.
I’ll add my thanks, as well, Michelle. I’ve been reading your posts for a while and they’re very common sense and easy to implement.
Excellent advice Michelle! I have had to do this exact process on several blogs recently, and it is a necessary activity. I have found this to really help with visitor loyalty over time.
Thanks,
Jon
Have you thought about adding an opt-in form to old pages instead of deleting them? Perhaps you could convert them to lead generating pages. On the other hand, you could just make your 404 error page a lead-gen page and point all the old ones to it.
I feel rather silly now- I thought I would have to create the page again to add the 301.
Thanks as always.
I always seem to put off the tasks you mentioned to “last on the list” I do like your checklist and hope it will spur me to get going on updating things I need to update on the web sites.
good idea to scrap to old contents………http://bit.ly/jobs-on-line.
Been thinking about this also… My site is from 2004. Time for a pruning.
Now this is really good advice… I guess we just get too busy and let things pile up. Time to clean up!
The recent Google ‘Fresh’ update could just as easily been coined ‘DEATH BLOW’ cuz that’s exactly what is – the biggest demotion ALL your older blog content or stale static pages will ever receive. Time-stamped content now almost implicitly gets a Kiss On The Cheek – and a slowly penetrating time delayed Knife-In-The-Back simultaneously. 2012 is going to be a rough, rough year for the naive AND the seasoned internet marketers. Oy!
Thanks for the great content as usual Michelle, but “sexy pants?” LOL! I long for the day I run into this “problem,” then I am coming back looking for the answer! Don’t 301 it!