Safe options for updating outdated website

Any website can benefit strongly from fresh and original content that is relevant to the business and the products or services provided. Not only does this help to attract more organic visitors and traffic to the website, but it can also increase the authenticity of your brand and business, leading to an increase in sales and sign ups. But what about out of date or older website content that needs to be updated? Well, there are a number of safe options for updating outdated website content, and these can help ensure the best possible results for SEO and your business online.

What counts as outdated website content?

Outdated website content can fall into a number of categories, including:

• Product or service content that is no longer relevant to your company or industry- this can be the most difficult to decide what to do with, especially if the content is performing well on the Search Engine Results Page. However, if it is not relevant to what you offer anymore, it may be necessary to remove it altogether, after all, much of the traffic generated from these links may be increasing your bounce rate, or lowering your traffic to conversion ratio. As a result, you should probably opt to remove this content instead of updating it.
• Content that no longer has the best advice/solutions- this content is more likely to be blog content, and is more likely to be a bigger issue for industries that are fast moving and changing. If you have released a guide or a piece of explainer content that has information that is no longer true, it is best to update this as soon as possible, as there are a several issues that could arise. For example, any potential customers or clients that read this information may follow instructions that no longer apply, leading to an increase in frustration and a negative impression of your company overall. Alternatively, others may see that the information is outdated immediately, and this will again lead to a negative impression of your business.
• Content that is more than a year old- on the internet, a year is a long time. This means that you can generally stick to the rule that content over a year old may need to be refreshed. This is not the case for all types of content, but for those discussing trends, industry news, or patterns, keeping this fresh may mean updating on a more regular basis. However, this will need to be determined on a case by case basis, as some content that is well over a year old can still be highly useful and valuable to your SEO.

What are the safe options for updating outdated website?

If you have content that needs to be updated, like content that no longer has the most up to date details on a relevant topic, you will need to update this safely, without ruining your existing SEO. You should consider:

• Adding an updated time stamp- to take your original content, make changes and improve it is very beneficial for the quality of the content on your website. And adding an updated time stamp can indicate to your website users that the content has been checked and re-edited recently, to make sure it is up to date. As a result, potential customers and clients will be more likely to trust this content. The updated time stamp should sit below the originally published time stamp. This will not hurt your SEO.
• Combining older articles- you can also consider combining related older articles into one new article. This can involve updating and refreshing the content in each of the older articles to create a longer, more detailed piece that looks at the topic from all angles. You then use redirects to direct traffic from the old page, which they may find through the SERP, to the new page that is up to date.

Here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and content marketing professionals. We provide valuable web design, SEO, and marketing solutions to a range of clients, across the North West, including Southport and Wigan, as well as Manchester. So for more information or advice about SEO, keywords, content marketing, and professional web design, get in touch with the experts here at Pumpkin Web Design.