There is so much conflicting information about SEO and Google ranking and keywords and blah blah blah. It’s exhausting!
So to make your blog life even more complicated, here I am sharing yet another blog post to add to the million others out there about how to keep your blog ranked in Google.
I’m joking (kinda)… What I’m really going to tell you is logical information that will stay relevant and apply to your blog for years to come no matter what changes Google or any other tech platform makes.
No matter what, when you delete and edit your blog content, nothing bad will happen, it will only keep your readers and Google happy. So, if you want to stay relevant in the digital space, your blog has to stay relevant and here are two ways to do that:
#1 Delete old blog posts
Every so often, I’ll do a “content audit” where I go through and completely delete blog posts that are poor quality or are no longer relevant to my niche. This will not only benefit you for Google-related reasons, but it will keep your blog nice and organized for your visitors.
When I switched to WordPress and rebranded my blog, I had a lot of posts from 2011-2013 that were completely off topic and just couldn’t be saved no matter what I did. At the time, I was a new blogger and writing 5 blog posts a week because I thought that’s what bloggers did.
The posts were not strategic by any means; I was just trying to create as much content as possible to keep up with everyone else (luckily I know betterw no). As much as it pained me to delete almost half of my entire blog, it had to be done if I wanted to make this blogging thing work.
Plus, if I kept the blog posts, Google would get confused when it crawls through my page and catch tags like “love”, “spirituality”, and “health”. My Google ranking would be so far gone because my newer blog posts relate to style and blog tips.
Blogger bonus: Delete old Instagram pictures too so your feed maintains a consistent and modern aesthetic.
#2 Edit the content you keep
It shouldn’t come as a surprise when you read your old blog posts and find your writing style has changed, new information has emerged, or you no longer write about the same topics. A lot of new bloggers don’t know much about SEO, Google ranking, and internal linking (I certainly didn’t!), so those key elements are missing too.
If you’ve never done a content audit before, your first housecleaning will take you some time as you’re going through and updating every last detail. Once you do the initial clean up though, the times after will be a breeze.
You’ll need to edit dead links or add new ones, add keywords, and change blog post titles/URLs to make it more appealing to returning readers and new visitors.
The whole point of editing your content isn’t just for Google although ranking is a great incentive. When all your blog posts are high quality and consistent, it creates a user-friendly experience.
Visitors can hop along to old blog posts and feel like they’re reading something brand new even if it is a few months old. This increases the time people stay on your blog because they’re discovering all this new content, and they don’t want to leave! You achieve this when you spread your link juice by linking internally and externally (let me know if you want to know more about linking in the comments!).
You want anyone on your blog, no matter what page they land on, to feel blown away by your content. It’s the meat and potatoes of a blog. Without it, your readers will starve and move on to something else!
Do you have a routine blog checkup? Tell us about it in the comments below!
xx Britt
Follow Me – Blog Instagram Facebook Snapchat @notanothrblonde
Image Source Credits - @nycbambi
You Should Also Read:
How to Use Facebook Ads to Promote Your Blog
3 Tricks to Creating Killer Content When You Have “No Time”
What You Should Never Do on Instagram
