How to handle outdated, unoptimized blog posts receiving little or zero traffic?
-
I'm doing some overdue spring cleaning on our WP blog. Some big visual updates are in the works, but currently I'm working on pruning and updating some poopy and outdated content. Many of the older posts weren't written with SEO in mind and were posted to the blog merely as an extension of our monthly enewsletter.
Here's an example: http://pq.systems/2FkQyVG
This post needs a lot of work to meet our new standards. The content is thin, readability is weak, kw targetting is non-existant, the visuals suck, zero links, and the charting software mentioned has since been replaced with another solution that we are currently promoting.
There are quite a few other posts with similar issues...
Any thoughts on the best way to handle these posts?
From poking around similar Q&A threads, it seems my options are:
- Create new updated post, remove old post, 301 redirect from old to new
- Create new updated post, add blurb & link pointing to new post at the top of old post
- Edit/update old post, add "This post was updated....etc" blurb to top of old post
Any other options or opinions on which solution I should go with would be much appreciated!
-
Good news is that after I did the same tedious process myself, my SEO results went up!
-
Glad that it was helpful!
-
Thanks for the response Lydia! It's tedious, but the process you described is exactly what I ended up trying (https://www.screencast.com/t/ujdst1UxEpqK). Great to know I'm on the right track before continuing to audit 400+ pages one-by-one
-
Hey Sam!
I would try to sort these posts into categories like "posts that could be useful for SEO", "posts that have backlinks but I do not want to keep", and "posts that are of no use at all". For the ones that could be useful I would try to figure out a way to re-target them to make them more useful (since they are not getting traffic at the moment). For the posts that have backlinks, you can pass their link equity by 301 redirecting them to a similar post if you do not want to keep it around. For posts that don't have backlinks and you don't want to keep, simply adding a noindex tag may be your best best to keep it out of the index and from competing with other pages on your site for rankings.
Obviously, each site cleanup has a unique situation and this may not fit in with yours, I am totally open to discussion on this as there is not a definitive "right" answer.
Have a great day!
Lydia
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How Good or Bad is having a blog feed(s) on the homepage?
Hello everyone, I was wondering if I can get some different opinion about having a blog feed on the homepage. Image, title, excerpt I have several feeds on mine which I do not believe it hurts and has helped my rankings but I wanted some superior SEO brains to weigh in. https://www.brightvessel.com Is it good for SEO? When would it be bad? How many posts would be considered too much? On my blog, have the most recent posts which have some of the same feeds. Which is making me question the duplicated content. https://www.brightvessel.com/blog/ Thanks! Judd
On-Page Optimization | | brightvessel0 -
I'm using Canonical URL but still receiving message - Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical
Hello, I checked my site and it looks like everything is setup correctly for canonical url but I keep getting the message that it's not. Am I doing something wrong? SORRY I FIGURED IT OUT! THANK YOU! HOW DO I DELETE THIS?
On-Page Optimization | | seohlp440 -
Neglected Blog SEO help
I am wedding & sports photographer in San Antonio. I've been busy with photographing sports (lots of them) & totally neglected SEO work for nearly 2 years. I know it's a broad question but what is the best way to get back on track? Should I create a strong landing page with keyword wedding photographer? Should i make separate websites - one for weddings, one for sports? Is PPC good way to jump start? Do I have website structure problems etc? If anyone can comment, that would be great. I am willing to hire SEO experts so if anyone knows anybody, please let me know My website is www.soobumimphotography.com Thank you in advance
On-Page Optimization | | soobumim0 -
Advice on related post plugin that doesn impacts on page load speed
I am looking for a related post page plugin for wordpress that doesnt affects to much on page speed Advice on related post plugin that doesn't impacts to much on page load speed
On-Page Optimization | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Homepage title on pages/posts title
I want to see the title of the page/post. Right now it is indexing it like page name / homepage name site:forumlist.info Brief info about site
On-Page Optimization | | csfarnsworth
Build in wordpress
SEO Plugin "All in one SEO pack" Settings snapshot are available below http://i.imgur.com/G278Y1Z.png http://imgur.com/gb0YQUO http://imgur.com/fbXQgd1 http://imgur.com/atj3AS4 Anyone can guide me how to fix it?0 -
Wordpress Post as Slideshow - One long page vs many short pages?
We are working on implementing a slideshow format for some of the posts on a website, and it appears that using this format breaks a long post into several shorter pages. That's what we want from a user experience standpoint, but are wondering if there are negative SEO implications from having the content broken up in this way, and whether search engines will view it as one longer page or several very short pages? Here is an example: http://www.forthebestrate.com/10-cheap-ideas-for-summer-fun/ Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | ILM_Marketing0 -
Wordpress blog duplicate issue
So after looking at the set up of the blog ive found this. http://www.trespass.co.uk/blog/ http://www.trespass.co.uk/blog/category/news/ http://www.trespass.co.uk/blog/category/general/ http://www.trespass.co.uk/blog/category/snow/ Content shown on http://www.trespass.co.uk/blog/ can also be found on the other 3 urls. The permalink structure is set up as /%category%/%postname%/ which I want to change to just %postname% Obviously i want to make things as seo friendly as possible so any suggestions to do this right without losing any indexed pages etc. I have limited access to make changes to plugins etc aswell as these need to be done through the development company who manage our site. Cheers Robert
On-Page Optimization | | Trespass0 -
Changed Blog Name - Duplicate Title Tags - Wordpress
Hi friends, I changed my blog name url from "german-shepherd-blog" to "dog-blog." Now I am getting a large amount of duplicate title tags. How do I tell google I made the change? Is there something on my site I need to change?
On-Page Optimization | | Joshlaska0