Google: Improve Low Quality Content than Delete it

For anyone running a website today, one of the most important things that you can do is improve old content. While in the past it was recommended that you merely tear down that old content, today the advice is much more positive. Instead of the scorched earth approach of just burying anything that your site might not want to display, working to fix it is best.

There is no real reason as to why removing low quality content would make sense, anyway. For one, content is there to inform your readers. It helps to convince people to use your website and to make the most of it. Without content – even ‘low quality’ content – you cannot convince anyone. If you start to remove every piece of writing on-site that isn’t to the highest standard, what are you left with?

The latest advice from Google’s John Mueller via Google Webmaster Hangout is to improve low quality content. Whether that’s using popular plug-ins such as Yoast SEO to help improve readability, or simply adding detail, is your choice. What no longer is a choice, though, is the idea that ‘bad’ content should just be thrown to the trash.

Your website needs as much detail on-page as it can. Content that does little for you today could, with improvement, do a lot tomorrow. There has to be a conscious decision made to start spending more time looking at improving content. This includes:

1. Developing new ideas and refining the quality of the writing.
2. Improving the message and modernizing it to a new audience.
3. Utilizing keywords naturally to help improve ranking.
4. Making good use of headers and similar formatting tools.
5. Adding images, outbound links and improving the overall data provided.
6. Referencing recognized sources and giving the reader more value than beforehand.

So, at this point, you need to be ready to start improving content based on the ideas above. If you were about to initiate a content purge, it might be time to take a deep breath and think before you do so. Instead of tearing it all down, look to see how it can be improved.

Not sure how to do so? Then outsource the writing. Send your old articles to a writer on freelance websites or agencies. Let them improve your old content and get it ready to meet with the latest changes.

There’s no reason to just remove your old content. With a bit of refinement, it could be much more positively suited to the intended purpose.

Source: Search Engine Journal