If you’ve ever done a Google search and come across irrelevant content that hasn’t been updated in years, you know the impact of removing outdated content.
Not only for the search experience, outdated content also has a negative impact on your website’s SEO. This happens because Google, like other search engines, prioritizes a good experience with its results and understands that a website with outdated information does not offer real value to users.
You may think that it doesn’t make a big difference to maintain this content, but in practice, keeping outdated posts or pages on your website can harm your brand’s visibility and reliability.
And this is where the practice of content pruning comes in — or the removal of outdated content — an action that is becoming increasingly common in Digital Marketing and that can improve not only your ranking strategy, but also the user experience and the authority of your website.
Today, I’ll show you how it works and how you can use this technique to your advantage!
The best content for SEO
For Google, the best content is content that is useful, relevant, trustworthy, and of course, up-to-date. When you create content with these factors in mind, you are putting User Experience first.
This is a reflection of the main practices recommended by Google itself, which values websites that consistently deliver experience, expertise, authority and reliability to their visitors.
Keeping old, outdated articles on your website is like trying to impress your guests with food that’s been left in the back of the fridge: it doesn’t smell great, no one wants to try it, and if someone sees it, it will look really bad for your reputation.
And Google sees it! That’s why it tends to penalize websites that don’t update their pages regularly, decreasing their rankings and brand trust. If you don’t remove outdated content, your SEO strategy can be harmed in several ways:
- Compromising User Experience;
- Reducing engagement rate;
- Increasing the bounce rate;
- And most importantly, affecting your position in SERPs (search engine results pages).
So, when we talk about SEO, removing outdated content is essential to avoid leaving your page looking old and neglected.
Consequences of outdated content
Now that you know that outdated content can hurt your SEO strategy, it’s important to understand how it affects your brand and user perception. Below, I’ll detail the main consequences of not removing or updating content regularly.
Impact on brand perception
When a user visits your website and finds outdated content, such as old data or irrelevant information, they may get the impression that your company is not committed to providing the best service or product.
This can damage your brand perception and drive away potential customers. In a competitive market, trust is key to converting visitors into customers, and outdated content can have the opposite effect.
Loss of experience
Users don’t like wasting their time on outdated information. This can lead to frustration and lead them to quickly abandon your site.
User Experience is directly impacted by the quality and relevance of your content, and when visitors can’t find what they’re looking for, they tend to leave in search of more up-to-date sources. In turn, this can increase your bounce rate and decrease the time spent on your site.
Impact on conversion rates
Outdated content can also directly affect conversion rates. Imagine you’re offering a product or service and your content mentions a promotion that’s already ended or a discontinued product.
This can lead to user confusion and frustration, resulting in a lower conversion rate. A lack of clarity in information leads to a less effective customer journey, impacting your bottom line.
Benefits of removing outdated content
Removing or updating outdated content is an essential practice for any SEO strategy that wants to remain competitive. Below, we will look at the main benefits of this practice.
1. Improved User Experience
Here it’s a bit obvious – if one of the drawbacks is affecting the experience, one benefit of removing outdated content is that it improves it.
When you ensure that the content on your website is up-to-date, you keep your audience informed and build trust with your readers. Outdated information, such as old statistics or broken links, can lead to a frustrating experience.
When you update content regularly, you help to avoid this frustration, creating a smoother and more enjoyable journey for visitors.
2. Increase in organic traffic
If Google values relevant and up-to-date content, this means that by removing outdated content, you increase the chance of your site ranking higher in the results pages.
With this improvement in positioning, organic traffic increases and you attract more qualified visitors, those who are truly interested in what you have to offer. In addition, updated content has a higher click-through rate, which also contributes to increased traffic.
3. Reducing the bounce rate
Old and irrelevant content causes users to leave your site quickly. This leads to a high bounce rate, which is a red flag for Google.
By removing this unattractive content, you tend to decrease this rate and increase the time spent on the site. Google interprets this as a sign that users are engaged and find value in your content, which can positively impact your positioning in the SERPs.
4. Ease of link building
Imagine your website as a big city, full of avenues (the main pages) and smaller streets (the blog posts). Internal link building works like traffic signs, helping visitors navigate quickly and efficiently between related content.
However, when you have outdated content, it’s like keeping streets blocked or destinations that no one wants to visit.
To clear these bad pathways, you need to remove outdated content. This will simplify the path and ensure that internal links take users to useful and interesting pages.
Furthermore, a website with lean and well-aligned content makes it much easier to structure internal link building. Instead of creating links to pages that have no value or are outdated, you focus clicks on where they really matter.
It’s like transforming that confusing maze into an organized map, with paths that lead directly to the solution the user is looking for.
5. Strengthening domain authority
Having an optimized blog is like building a good reputation in a neighborhood: when your “houses” (the content) are clean, well-structured and constantly renewed, you attract more visitors, who not only want to explore what you offer, but also trust the quality of what they find.
Google acts as a vigilant janitor, keeping an eye on whether your domain is up-to-date and relevant. By removing outdated or irrelevant content, you send a clear message: your site prioritizes value and trustworthiness.
This helps to strengthen your domain authority, as the remaining pages — well-structured and with useful information — are seen as more reliable sources.
A website that cares about the quality and currency of its content demonstrates commitment to its audience, which generates trust, increases engagement and reduces negative metrics, such as bounce rate.
How to remove outdated content from Google?
Now that you know the benefits of removing outdated content, it’s time to learn how to put this operation into practice.
I’ll start with the tools used to identify content. There are several systems that help you monitor and review your website’s content, including:
- Google Search Console: The essential tool for monitoring your website’s performance on Google. Through it, you can see which pages are performing poorly and need updates.
- Semrush or Ahrefs: Tools like these help you analyze the performance of your content and identify which pages are ranking low because they are outdated.
- On-Page SEO Tools: These tools help you review and optimize your content, ensuring it follows best practices.
Removal methods start with content refreshment. For content that still has value, the best option is to refresh it, and you can do so by refreshing relevant data, links, and information.
If you identify that the content is no longer relevant, but you have a better page to replace it, use a 301 redirect. This tells Google that the page has moved permanently.
If the content is completely out of date and there is no reason to keep it, deletion is the best option. Google will remove the page from its index, and you can ensure that the incorrect information does not harm your reputation.
Post-removal best practices
Removing outdated content is a good way to clean up your site, making it lighter and more functional, but the work doesn’t end there. To ensure that your site remains relevant and organized after cleaning, some strategic actions are essential.
After removing old content, it’s crucial to review the internal links that pointed to those pages. Replace those links with relevant, active pages to ensure that visitors always find what they’re looking for.
When updating your website, make sure the tone and message align with your brand identity. A cohesive, well-structured website reinforces credibility and trust with your audience, as well as making navigation easier.
After removing outdated content, monitor metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, and time spent on pages. This analysis helps identify areas that can be adjusted or improved, ensuring that the changes are positively impacting your strategy.
These best practices are what separate a simple cleanup from a truly effective SEO strategy. Remember: keeping a website relevant is an ongoing commitment, and every step counts towards ensuring a strong and sustainable digital presence.
No more bad content!
Now that you understand the importance of removing outdated content and the benefits of doing so, it’s time to take action. Remember that your SEO strategy needs to be constantly reviewed and adjusted to ensure that your website is always offering the best content to your users.
This can be done effectively through monitoring tools, data analysis and content review. After all, updated content means a more relevant, more reliable and, of course, better positioned website on Google.
If you want to learn more about how to optimize your content for SEO, feel free to contact a Digital Marketing agency.
Start with the Content and SEO Diagnosis with Orgânica and we’ll understand where to start!
