The idea for this post was spawned from spending some time this morning looking at my old posts. I say old I’m only into my second month, but posts from early November late October.
The reason I was looking at my old post was to continue to use them to draw new readers and to recycle the work I have put in. There was a third reason too. I wanted to re-read and edit my grammar, as I’m going back to school to improve my content.
Purging is the mass deletion of your old posts that some consider dead wood in order to keep your site lean, but is it a good idea?
- Lean
The more you write the better you get. My writing style has changed even in the past 6 weeks the site has been live, I think it has changed for the better and when I look at my old posts I think could I do without this post, as it’s buried deep under really popular posts. The very first posts, don’t have many tweets or comments and compared to the front page posts, only receive a fraction of daily readers.
Should I delete it? NO! This is a marathon not a sprint and as such you need fat to burn in reserves. The more content you have the better, although there are exceptions.
- Meat
You can’t make a stew without meat and vegetables, your old posts could suddenly become interesting to your readers. A quick google search reveals a post you have written and forgotten about. That search is done by a very popular social media user and decided to spread the post to their friends and bam…. Old content becomes front page most popular post!
- Service
Instead of deleting the post, you can service it by editing and updating. Delete the non relevant outdated parts and spruce it up with new and fresh content that re-enforces your original point.
There is never a need to purge your site, but back to the point I made about the more content the better. Make sure it’s relevant, quality content with your readers in mind, don’t blind post.
What does everyone think?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I do not think content should be purged — it should be revitalized. New posts that reference and link to past posting can revitalize interest, as well as 2nd and 3rd “editions” with updates. Finally evergreen subjects are important, such as holiday-related post. Evergreen commentary can be used again and again.
Another idea is to have guest bloggers reference older content as well. Purging implies that the author knows the material is not valuable, but value is in the eye of the beholder.
Twitter: theinfopreneur
December 12, 2009 at 12:23
Pierre you are totally right, Purging does suggest the site owner always knew that particular post was rubbish! Thanks for the comment, going to visit your site now
Twitter: rwallace
January 2, 2010 at 22:31
I ran into this a few times on my site…mainly because I had no idea what I really wanted from my blog. I purged maybe three or four times since I started out in 2004. Let me tell you how big of a mistake THAT was…I still get hits from that old content, although it now goes 404 on my visitors and I regret it immensely. Lesson learned.
Rich Wallace´s last blog ..Blogging in 2010: The New Standard is Coming
Twitter: theinfopreneur
January 2, 2010 at 22:38
Yeah lesson learnt big time!
at least you have learnt that lesson though and that is what it’s all about
Twitter: BuildThatListCo
February 21, 2010 at 23:44
Updating is definitely a much better option, because by purging you are risking the loss of a lot of search engine traffic (depending on how old and optimised they were).
Tom | Build That List´s last blog ..The Aweber Code….And Why You Need To Promote It!
Twitter: derekhuether
February 22, 2010 at 04:23
James, very helpful post. I’ll admit, I’ve deleted posts in the past. I now think it was shortsighted on my part. What if Google or Bing indexed the post? What if someone linked to the post? Though I have written some very time sensitive posts, I’m trying to use less date oriented verbiage like “yesterday, today, last week”. Many posts stand on their own and don’t require this little extra detail. Since I’ve gone back and edited some of these posts, I now feel the content can be promoted and I don’t feel the guilt of circulating old material. It also gives me the chance to fix that grammatical error from 6 months ago. Hey, this isn’t print! There is always time to fix our mistakes.
Best Regards,
Derek
Derek Huether´s last blog ..How To Prevent Your Project From Hemorrhaging
Twitter: theinfopreneur
February 22, 2010 at 09:46
Hey Derek,
Yeah very good point you could potentially lose out big time, good comment