One isn’t born a great content writer. One becomes a great content writer.
Read that again.
Like any other skill, content writing requires time, practice, and patience. It isn’t something you can master overnight. It also isn’t something you can entirely master because there’s always room for improvement.
Undoubtedly, there’s some outdated content on your website that you can’t even read, let alone share with your current audience.
So, what does one do with old and irrelevant content? Delete it? Edit it? Just leave it be?
As it happens, I have all the answers you’re looking for, so keep reading.
A few things about old and irrelevant content
You might feel all types of ways about the old content on your website. However, before you start erasing all the traces of your previous writing efforts, it might be a good idea to look at different features of your old content.
Quality
One of the main things you should consider when thinking about what to do with your old content is its quality. Just because your content is old doesn’t mean it’s terrible. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good either
Still, let’s look at it positively – it doesn’t mean it’s poor-quality content.
Relevance
Another feature you should consider is relevance. How relevant is the content piece, and does it relate to your brand or business?
Since there’s plenty of evergreen content out there, there’s a good chance your old content is still relevant today.
If it is, removing it would be pretty unfortunate since you can benefit a lot from it. Nevertheless, that’s not the case if you’re working with irrelevant content no one would read today.
Optimization
With the growing importance of SEO, published content is worth very little if it’s not properly optimized. Optimization essentially dictates how well your content piece will rank in SERPs, which directly determines the number of content readers and website visitors.
What to do with old content
Now that you know more about the aspects from which you should examine your old content, you’re surely curious about which content is worthy enough to be repurposed and which you should delete from the internet once and for all.
Low quality
Even if the newer content is probably better than the old one from a quality standpoint, several tweaks and changes are often enough to give old content a new look.
However, if you find the old content significantly worse and it would be pointless trying to make it work, deleting it might save you time and resources.
Irrelevant
You can easily edit or repurpose evergreen content. However, no one is interested in reading irrelevant content.
Try to archive the irrelevant pieces or refresh them by comparing them to a relevant topic that closely connects to your previously published content piece.
Poorly optimized
If you’re working with old content, the chances are your posts are poorly optimized. The primary reason lies in the ever-changing ranking algorithms that call for regular upgrades of SEO efforts.
Luckily, optimization is something you can quickly improve. Just search for the relevant keywords to implement in your content, insert a couple of authoritative backlinks, and you should be good to go!
How to repurpose old content
If editing or deleting isn’t an option, you can always repurpose your old content. Keep in mind this process will take some time and effort, but it will be worth it!
I highly recommend content repurposing if you have some quality content you wish to present in a more readable and shareable format.
- Guides
If you have old blog posts about some interesting topics you could repurpose, try creating an insightful guide using the information from those existing posts.
Guides have become an increasingly popular format because they’re simple, straightforward, and equip readers with mountains of helpful information. If you haven’t started publishing guides yet, it is time to do it ASAP.
- Case studies
Having internal data isn’t helpful today if people don’t know what to do with the published information. So, think about how you can transform the internal data posts into detailed case studies.
For instance, if you did an experiment and used the acquired data for internal purposes, sharing your findings with your readership will help you establish a strong connection with the audience.
- Blog posts
Each company or brand has a list of FAQs somewhere on the site. You can use those questions to write in-depth articles as they will address your target audience’s pain points and needs.
Generally speaking, questions are an outstanding source for content inspiration, so you can always refer to some of the questions your clients have been asking and come up with blog posts dealing with a wide range of topics and categories.
- Infographics
Do you have an old article filled with valuable data, but you haven’t presented that information most interestingly and engagingly? You might consider turning that article into an infographic.
Namely, infographics are visual representations of data. They include pictures, illustrations, sketches, drawings, graphs, charts, or any other form of visual data that can help the readers comprehend and memorize the information.
You can say goodbye to boring statistics and facts and replace them with colorful and unique picture editorials.
- Pinterest boards
You might have poorly written your old blog posts, so you can’t repurpose them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the pictures in those posts have to go to waste.
If you have some particularly image-heavy posts you don’t want to lose, transforming them into Pinterest boards is an excellent way to find a new place for quality visual content.
Additionally, broadening your social media presence can drive more organic traffic to your blog.
- Twitter posts
Want to turn posts filled with statistics into more engaging content but don’t have enough material for infographics?
Don’t worry; that is where Twitter posts come into play. You can quickly turn the available stats into tweetable content that’s easy to read and share.
Again, you’ll benefit from increasing your digital presence across multiple social media platforms.
- Podcasts
Finally, podcasts are the newest way of transforming online content into a more user-friendly format.
Today, people have less and less time to dedicate to reading. So, instead of constantly publishing written content, you can switch it up from time to time and reuse the old content to create a topic for a podcast.
Here, you can discuss, debate, or talk about any topic. The best thing about podcasts is that listeners can tune in from anywhere – while commuting, grocery shopping, or waiting in a bank queue.
Bottom line
You don’t have to throw away your old content only because new writing trends keep popping up. The best thing about written content is that you can always revisit and reuse it. If you’re still not sure what you can do with your old and irrelevant content, our team of expert writers can always give you a helping hand, so don’t hesitate to contact us today!