Web sites and blogs that have been around for a long time will often fill with information that is not only irrelevant, but sometimes wrong. A real problem with today’s search engines is that age and links are an important part of the ranking algorithm. This means this old information is often ranking quite highly in the search results – even though it is outdated. This is one of the major frustrations of search users.

You can help your visitors and go a long way to relieving their frustrations if you take the time to give your site a good spring clean. The process can also be a great opportunity for finding new content to add to your site or blog.

Outdated pages can be rewritten to new pages with either a prominent link advising readers there is an updated version available, or deleting the page and using a redirect to the new content. You could also simply update the old page with the latest information. It really depends on how much information needs changing.

There is nothing new in recycling old information and putting a new spin on it. It has become one of the easiest ways to find content when your stuck for something to write about. Old content has several downsides. Not only is it often out of date, the content or any recommendations could be totally wrong now and could cause readers considerable grief if they follow it. This could seriously harm your reputation and one day will lead to a law suit of some type.

So many sites, and blogs are really guilty of this, have pages added to the point that some sites have thousands of pages dating back three or four years. Imagine a searcher following a link to one of these old pages, let’s say a page on how to optimize for search engines, and the advice is to put as many keywords onto a page as possible (the advice given out four or five years ago). Being a newbie, they follow the advice and then watch as their site falls out of the search results altogether. A simple warning that the advice is no longer relevant with a link to new advice could save all these issues.

Yes, if your content is outdated you could find your reputation severely dented. A integral part of your reputation management program should be to ensure that every page is relevant and providing practical advice to readers.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 3:10 am and is filed under Content Development, Reputation Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.