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Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Samuel. Definitely some good questions, and a few I hadn't already asked myself. I've made an effort to save press releases where there is definite long tail value. I also agree that point #2 about institutional knowledge is a big one. There are about 1,500 pieces of content in the audit and maybe 1/5-1/4 of that is press releases (dating back as far as 2006), so I won't have time to check all of them for external links, but that's definitely something I hadn't thought about, so I might have to figure out how to work some of that into the timeline. Thanks again.

You'd want to decide pages based on how to best optimize for keyword searches. If you find more people search for drug possession than marijuana or cocaine possession, then it would be better to condense all of that info under one page. It really all depends on what is going to net you the most opportunity. You could have one umbrella page for drug charges and then a couple of sub pages with details on each type of possession charge. Beef up your content with info about potential sentencing/outcomes, what to expect during the trial, etc. That will help you capture additional long tail searches as well.

Have you implemented Rel=canonical tags properly? That might be a contributing factor.

Another thing you might try is going into Google Webmaster Tools and demoting the About page. Sometimes that will help push other pages higher up in priority for SERP.

How rigorous have you been with your keyword research/planning? Are you sure you're optimizing for the most-searched terms? And then optimizing for those terms across all of your page elements (including body copy)? For example, you've partially optimized for "marijuana possession attorney," but according to Google's keyword planner that term has zero searches in the state of Utah.

Also, I agree with EGOL that you need to eliminate the extra blank title tag. That's definitely not helping your cause.

Howdy Moz Community,

I'm working with a client on migrating content to a new site/CMS and am wondering whether anyone has thoughts on the value of old press releases. I'm familiar with the devaluation of press release links from early 2013, but I'm wondering more about their value as content. Does importing old press releases (3-5 years old) create contextual depth of content that has some value for the site as a whole (even though the news contained within is useless)? Or, do these old press releases just create clutter and waste time (in migration). The site has a wealth of additional content (articles and videos), so the press releases wouldn't be covering up for thin content. I'm just wondering whether there's any best practices or a general rule of thumb.

Thanks!

If the intent of the blog on patheos is for people to stumble across that content, or to fuel a feed for users/subscribers on that site (as opposed to having higher search visibility than the actual podcast site), then you can go ahead and direct the canonical to the original podcast pages. Or, simply leave things as they are (so long as it's not creating thin/duplicate content issues).

If your patheos blog ranks higher in search results because it's part of a larger blog network, then you definitely won't want to change the canonical, because you'll want the blog to maintain it's juice.

Have you looked at your referral traffic data lately? How much traffic is the blog driving to the site? Enough to make it worth all the extra effort?

What's the more valuable goal for your traffic: to have people find the blog or the main site? If you point the canonical tags from the blog to the site, then you'll reduce the chances of anyone ever finding the blog in a search, which would waste the extra effort of adding unique content about the podcasts (unless you have a devoted readership who is going from the podcast page to the corresponding blog post in order to see what extra insights you've added).

Is it creating any duplicate content issues to have the posts in both places? If so, that would be a good reason to redirect the canonical refs (or discontinue the blog altogether).

What's the more valuable goal for your traffic: to have people find the blog or the main site? If you point the canonical tags from the blog to the site, then you'll reduce the chances of anyone ever finding the blog in a search, which would waste the extra effort of adding unique content about the podcasts (unless you have a devoted readership who is going from the podcast page to the corresponding blog post in order to see what extra insights you've added).

Is it creating any duplicate content issues to have the posts in both places? If so, that would be a good reason to redirect the canonical refs (or discontinue the blog altogether).

How rigorous have you been with your keyword research/planning? Are you sure you're optimizing for the most-searched terms? And then optimizing for those terms across all of your page elements (including body copy)? For example, you've partially optimized for "marijuana possession attorney," but according to Google's keyword planner that term has zero searches in the state of Utah.

Also, I agree with EGOL that you need to eliminate the extra blank title tag. That's definitely not helping your cause.

You'd want to decide pages based on how to best optimize for keyword searches. If you find more people search for drug possession than marijuana or cocaine possession, then it would be better to condense all of that info under one page. It really all depends on what is going to net you the most opportunity. You could have one umbrella page for drug charges and then a couple of sub pages with details on each type of possession charge. Beef up your content with info about potential sentencing/outcomes, what to expect during the trial, etc. That will help you capture additional long tail searches as well.