Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, recently said on X (formerly Twitter) that you should not delete old content because it does not help a website’s SEO. From the ensuing thread, we learned that you should only remove content so old that it no longer provides value. However, you can edit it, to add value.
What is Niche Editing?
While it is typically done to remove broken links and add new ones to old content, niche editing also allows marketers and website owners to update old content. Such content could still be valuable but only have a few outdated facts and figures. This means it can appeal to new audiences and become an SEO asset with very little effort.
Also, niche edits can improve the ranking of old content and bring in new traffic by making it relevant to today’s visitors. Note that Sullivan says this does not happen for large websites, but only the pieces of content you improve through this process.
While you can edit one or two articles and add fresh backlinks, the process could be time-consuming and tedious, taking your focus away from other aspects of running your business. Instead, it is better to let professionals handle the niche edits for you.
Freshness and increased traffic are not the only benefits of niche edits. Here’s an overview of more of them.
Niche Edits Can Help Generate Backlinks
People are more likely to link to and share-high quality content. When they do, they provide your website with valuable backlinks that help you rank better. Getting high-quality backlinks shows your website has credibility and high EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). This can help the website or the updated pages rank much higher, bringing more backlinks and traffic.
Niche edits can also help get high-quality backlinks from pages that have already been indexed and have a high domain authority score. The aged content on such pages is very valuable to Google, so the search engine will see your website as an authority if you get a backlink from such pages. You can work with professionals who do such niche edits to enhance your link building strategies with these high-authority links.
It Adds Value To Content
Old content might contain outdated information, not cover the latest advancements in a given field, have missing information, or be targeted towards an audience that has evolved. Niche edits can help solve these issues by improving user experience and making visitors more likely to remain on the site longer.
Updated Content Can Drive Conversions
If the old content drove conversions in the past, there is no reason it cannot do so again. By updating content and making it more valuable, you increase time spent on your website and get more opportunities to convert visitors.
Another crucial consideration is a reduction in bounce rates. A primary indicator of low-quality content is a high bounce rate: the percentage of visitors who leave your website without visiting a second page.
Updating your content reduces bounce rate, meaning visitors visit multiple pages. These could be conversion pages or other valuable parts of the website that propel them along their user or purchase journey.
Google will continue ranking old content as long as it has value and is relevant to a user’s query. For this reason, the company encourages website owners and marketers to rather than delete this content. Doing so has numerous benefits to your SEO and overall website performance.
