content management Archives - Kurtz Digital Strategy

Managing Old Content Online

June 8, 2021/0 Comments/in Communication, Online Marketing /by Jill Kurtz

If you have had a website or blog for a while, chances are you have a lot of content online. On one hand, that establishes your longstanding expertise. But there is a down side. Search engines and people look for fresh content when determining relevance and accuracy, so that legacy content can actually work against you unless you actively manage old content online.

Update Valid Content

Content you first published years ago may be accurate and helpful today. Set a schedule to regularly revisit this content to make sure nothing needs tweaking. Make sure there are no new nuances that need to be included. Perhaps cite a most recent example or case study to illustrate the main point.

If the content has gotten long, consider breaking it onto more than one page or post to freshen it. Have a checklist of your current brand guidelines, writing style and SEO needs and make sure the content is updated as needed.

The goal is to ensure readers and search engines know that the content is still timely and worthwhile.

Delete Unneeded Posts and Pages

Take a look at your analytics. Likely, you have many posts and pages that aren’t getting any traffic. (Personally, I am hoping that all my COVID-related content becomes obsolete very soon!)

This old content adds no value anymore, now or for the foreseeable future. In that case, you need to either tell Google to forget about these old posts or pages or give the URL another purpose.

When I talk about deleting old content, I don’t mean just pressing “delete” and then forgetting about it. If you do that, the content might show up in Google for weeks after deletion. The URL might actually have some link value as well, which would be a shame to waste.

So, what should you do? Here are two options:

301 redirect the old post to a related one. When a URL still holds value because, say, you have a number of quality links pointing to that page, you want to leverage that value by redirecting the URL to a related one. With a 301 redirect you’ll tell search engines and visitors there’s a better or newer version of this content on your site. The 301 redirect automatically sends people and Google to this page.
Tell search engines the content is intentionally gone. If there isn’t a relevant page on your site you can redirect to, tell Google to forget about your old post entirely by setting 410 deleted status. This status code will tell Google and visitors the content didn’t just disappear; you’ve deleted it with a reason.

Create a Maintenance Plan

Cleaning up old content should be part of your content maintenance routine. Go through old posts regularly. Refresh the content that still has value. Unpublish the rest.

Content Marketing Basics

December 10, 2019/0 Comments/in Communication /by Jill Kurtz

Content marketing works. It is the path to establishing your subject matter expertise and positioning your brand and its products and services in the minds of your target audience. The main idea of content marketing is to build an audience and to distribute content to multiple online locations.

There’s lots of content out there, but following the right plan will help you achieve your goals. And, setting those goals is where you need to begin.

Establish Clear Goals

What is the goal behind your content marketing? The type of content you need to create depends on your goals and your audience.

Select Effective Channels

With your goals and audience in mind, pick the places where your content needs to be. Then you need to develop your content in a way that is effective for those channels. Facebook content needs to be presented differently than Instagram, for example.

Create a Calendar

Create a plan for where to post and when. This lets you accomplish the daily, weekly and monthly tasks that will add up to impact your goal.

Assess Progress

Pay attention to what content gets engagement and what falls flat. Be willing to let go of what seemed like a great idea but isn’t catching the attention of your audience. In addition to these daily observations, take periodic assessments to determine impact and any larger patterns of impact.

Is Your Content Sad?

October 22, 2018/0 Comments/in Communication /by Jill Kurtz

I recently saw a stat that 60-70 percent of business content sits unused. It gets used somewhere once and then sits lonely and untapped. Content gets created and not used. That is sad!

Creating content is a lot of work. You want to make sure you get lots of mileage from every piece you create.

First, be sure your content is great. Great content is:

Relevant
Informative
Entertaining
Pleasant to consume

Then, make sure you share it widely. Share your content:

On your website/blog
On your social media channels
In relevant social groups
On LinkedIn as an article
In your newsletter
On industry websites/blogs

You may have more options with vendors and partners. Explore them all! Everyone needs content. Let your content work for you by sharing widely.

Keeping a catalog of your content can be very helpful with this effort. Get the most mileage by spacing out your use of each piece of content over time. Even a space of two weeks will make content fresh in the eyes of readers.

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