When we launched CanadaCreate, we believed that having more content was always beneficial. We kept every blog post published, even those that were completely outdated. This turned out to be a significant mistake. We soon realized that old and irrelevant content can negatively impact your website’s performance.
The reality is that not all content remains relevant over time. Some articles become outdated, others lose their significance, and some may even confuse your audience.
At CanadaCreate, we have addressed this issue by consistently updating our blog posts and thoughtfully determining when to remove content that no longer serves a purpose.
We have established a systematic approach to decide what content to retain and what to remove. This guide will help you evaluate your old content and make informed decisions that enhance your site’s performance.
What Are the Issues Associated with Old Content in WordPress?
As your website expands, you may prioritize creating new content. However, outdated content can quickly become a liability for growing WordPress blogs. If not managed properly, it can negatively impact your business, sales, and overall profitability.
Depending on your niche, your content may become irrelevant, inaccurate, or unsuitable over time. This can lead to a poor user experience, increased bounce rates, and lower search engine rankings, ultimately damaging your credibility.
In our comprehensive guide on content decay, we discuss the reasons behind the decline in rankings of some older articles. We also provide insights on how to identify decayed content using an SEO plugin like All in One SEO.
You might have older blog posts that are still ranking but feature outdated information. Unfortunately, the only effective way to identify this content is by systematically reviewing all your articles. Afterward, you can determine whether to keep or remove the outdated content.
Should You Retain or Remove Old Content in WordPress? (7 Scenarios)
Fortunately, there are several strategies you can employ to manage old posts, ensuring that your website maintains its performance. The best approach will depend on the specifics of each post, and it usually involves more than just a binary choice of keeping or deleting the content.
For instance, you may decide to retain evergreen content that is experiencing a decline in rankings. However, it’s essential to update this content to ensure it remains current and accurate, which can help improve its rankings.
Conversely, removing old posts that are no longer relevant can enhance user experience and boost your site’s SEO. However, it’s important to set up redirects for these posts to prevent 404 errors.
For the majority of blogs, a mix of strategies is likely the most effective solution.
With that in mind, let’s explore various methods for addressing old content on your WordPress website:
- Plan Regular Content Refreshes
- Share Your Timeless Evergreen Articles
- Implement Notifications for Older Posts
- Temporarily Unpublish Posts While Revising
- Remove or Archive Posts You No Longer Wish to Display
- Set Up Redirects for Deleted, Archived, and Unpublished Posts
- Bonus: Restore Deleted Posts
- Common Questions About Managing Old Content in WordPress
1. Plan Regular Content Refreshes
Regardless of whether your older posts have outdated information, it’s essential to periodically update or rewrite them to maintain their relevance.
This is crucial because Google considers the freshness of content when determining search rankings, generally favoring newer articles over older ones.
At CanadaCreate, we refresh our older content at least every six months. We even schedule updates immediately after publishing new posts.
We advise you to establish a routine for regular content updates on your website.
Make sure to revise any outdated information in the post and include any new insights that were not available when the post was originally created.
Consider adding internal links to your recently published posts and updating the keywords in your article to align with current search trends.
Remember to refresh the images in your post, and enhance engagement by incorporating video content.
We suggest following our SEO optimization checklist for blog posts when updating or rewriting content. This guide includes a section dedicated to optimizing older blog posts.
2. Share Your Timeless Evergreen Posts
If an older post contains evergreen content that remains relevant, it may be overlooked as it gets buried deeper within your website.
By promoting older relevant articles, you can boost pageviews and maximize your traffic potential, providing visitors the opportunity to discover valuable evergreen content.
Additionally, sharing your valuable older blog posts can attract new visitors to your site, ensuring that your best content remains visible to users on your WordPress site and contributes significantly to traffic generation.
Schedule regular time to share your old posts on social media, link to them in your new articles and roundup posts, or utilize an automated plugin like Revive Old Posts.
Revive Old Posts allows you to create a schedule for automatically sharing your older content on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and more, ensuring consistent engagement.
Discover detailed strategies and effective techniques in our comprehensive guide on promoting your old posts in WordPress.
We also provide insights on various methods to automatically share your previous WordPress posts.
3. Implement Old Post Notifications
Once you begin scheduling updates for your posts, it won’t be feasible to update all of them simultaneously. So, what should you do with older posts while you find the time to update them?
For posts that may not be as current as you’d prefer but still contain valid information, consider adding an old post notification at the top. This informs your readers that the content may not reflect the most recent developments on the topic.
Another common practice among blogs is to display the ‘Last updated date’ instead of the original publishing date. This allows readers to quickly identify when the content was last modified.
For more details, check out our guide on how to add an old post notification to your WordPress blog.
4. Unpublish Posts While Preparing to Revise Them
If an old post contains outdated information that you prefer not to display to visitors, you can unpublish it until you have the opportunity to update it with accurate details.
The post will be hidden from your website visitors but will still be accessible in your dashboard as a draft. Once you make the necessary updates, you can republish it.
To unpublish a post, begin by editing it. Then, click the ‘Switch to draft’ button located at the top of the page. A popup will appear to confirm your decision to unpublish the post.
Alternatively, instead of unpublishing an article, some website owners choose to password-protect the content or restrict it to members only. Our guide on how to unpublish a WordPress page provides detailed instructions on these options.
Remember that removing a live post from your site can lead to broken links and may impact your WordPress SEO, so it’s important to consider this decision carefully.
You can temporarily redirect the URL to another relevant page to maintain your SEO rankings. We explain how to do this in the ‘Redirect Deleted, Archived, and Unpublished Posts’ section later in this article.
5. Remove or Archive Old Posts You No Longer Want on Your Site
What should you do with content that you no longer want to display on your WordPress website? Perhaps the post has become outdated, or you’ve decided to take your site in a different direction.
In this situation, you have the option to either delete the post or archive it, similar to how you would manage your emails.
To delete a post, simply edit it and click the ‘Move to trash’ button located in the right-hand menu. This action will send the page to the trash.
By default, WordPress automatically removes items from the trash after 30 days, giving you a window to reconsider your decision.
Later in this article, we will explain how to recover posts that have been deleted and sent to the trash.
To archive a post, you need to install and activate the LH Archived Post Status plugin. Once activated, this plugin will add a custom post status called ‘Archived’ to your posts, pages, and custom post types.
You can archive an individual post or page by editing it. In the ‘Status’ dropdown menu, you will find the new ‘Archived’ post status option.
Simply select the ‘Archive’ status and then click the ‘Update’ button at the top of the screen.
Your post will be marked as archived, meaning it will no longer be visible on the front end of your site. Visitors to your website will not be able to see it.
If you plan to reuse the content later, you can edit it as needed and republish it by changing the post status back to ‘Published’.
Discover more in our guide on archiving posts in WordPress without deleting them.
Whether you choose to delete or archive a post, make sure to redirect the URL to a relevant, active post on your site. Otherwise, users will encounter a 404 ‘page not found’ error when they try to access it.
Refer to the following section for more information.
6. Redirecting Deleted, Archived, and Unpublished Posts
After deleting, archiving, or unpublishing a post, visitors will see a 404 ‘page not found’ error if they attempt to access it through a link or saved bookmark.
This can lead to a poor user experience and negatively affect your WordPress SEO. We recommend redirecting users to a different, relevant page on your site using a 301 redirect.
The easiest way to manage and create redirects is by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) WordPress plugin. It is the top SEO plugin for WordPress and is trusted by over 3 million professionals to enhance their site’s SEO.
On theAll in One SEO » RedirectsOn this page, you can input the ‘Source URL’ of the deleted page and the ‘Target URL’ of the post where you want to redirect your visitors.
Ensure that the Redirect Type is set to ‘301 Moved Permanently,’ then click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.
There are various methods to create redirects, and you can explore them in our beginner’s guide to creating 301 redirects in WordPress.
Bonus: How to Recover Deleted Posts
If you have unpublished a post and want to restore it, you can easily publish it again.
If you deleted a post and are reconsidering, you might be able to recover it from the trash.
Similar to your computer, WordPress places deleted items into a trash folder. This action removes them from your website and admin screens, but they are not permanently deleted immediately.
After 30 days, WordPress will permanently erase the item from the trash and the database. If the deleted page is still in the trash, you can restore it.
To do this, navigate to Posts » All Posts (or Pages » All Pages if you want to restore a page) in your WordPress admin dashboard.
To view all posts deleted in the last 30 days, navigate to the ‘Trash’ tab.
If you find the post you wish to recover, hover your mouse over the title, and you will see the option to ‘Restore’ it.
If the post is not in the trash, you may still be able to restore it from a backup. For this reason and others, we highly recommend implementing regular backups for your WordPress site.
Our comprehensive guide on recovering and restoring deleted pages in WordPress provides detailed instructions on all these methods.
Common Questions About Managing Old Content in WordPress
Managing outdated content can lead to various questions for WordPress site owners. Here are the most frequently asked questions from our readers, along with clear answers to assist you in making informed decisions for your website.
1. How frequently should I update my old WordPress content?
We suggest updating your old content at least every six months. At CanadaCreate, we schedule updates as soon as we publish new posts. The update frequency may vary based on your niche—technology and software topics typically require more frequent updates than evergreen lifestyle content.
Regular updates are essential for maintaining your search rankings, as Google considers content freshness a key ranking factor.
2. Will deleting old posts negatively impact my SEO rankings?
Deleting old posts can negatively affect your SEO if not approached correctly. Always implement a 301 redirect to guide visitors to a relevant page instead of allowing them to encounter a 404 error. However, removing outdated or low-quality content can enhance your site’s performance and user experience, ultimately benefiting your SEO over time.
3. How can I determine which old content to keep and which to delete?
Prioritize retaining content that continues to offer value to your audience, even if it requires updates. Remove content that is entirely outdated, irrelevant to your business, or contains inaccuracies that cannot be easily corrected.
Utilize tools like All in One SEO to pinpoint content that is experiencing a decline in rankings, then evaluate whether to update, redirect, or remove it based on its potential value.
4. Is it possible to recover a WordPress post after deletion?
Yes, you can retrieve deleted posts from the WordPress trash for up to 30 days. Navigate to Posts » All Posts, select the ‘Trash’ tab, locate your deleted post, and click ‘Restore’.
After 30 days, WordPress permanently removes the content, but you may still be able to recover it from your website backups if you have them configured.
5. What is the difference between archiving and deleting old posts?
Archiving retains your content in the WordPress database while removing it from the public view, whereas deleting moves it to the trash and ultimately removes it completely.
Archived posts can be easily restored and republished later without losing any data. In contrast, deleting is more permanent, although you have a 30-day window to recover items from the trash before they are permanently erased.
6. Should I include ‘last updated’ dates on my old content?
Absolutely, displaying ‘last updated’ dates instead of just publication dates informs readers when the content was last reviewed. This fosters trust and assures visitors that they are accessing up-to-date information. Additionally, consider adding notifications for older posts to alert readers about content that may not have been updated recently but still offers valuable insights.
We hope this guide has helped you decide whether to keep or delete old content in WordPress. You may also find our guide on efficiently managing post series in WordPress or our expert recommendations for the best WordPress dynamic content plugins useful.
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