Do you delete old blog posts?
There seems to be a resounding chorus among the people I run with online:
Get rid of those crappy old blog posts that no longer serve your audience!
While I’m never one to take things at face value – I might also have a hard time taking blogging advice. A bit prideful, perhaps.
But, in true LouiseM fashion, I don’t just shrug it off. I do the research.
And guess what?
There’s quite a controversy as to whether deleting old posts helps your blog – or hurts it!
Two blogs said it helped their site – but they both wrote new and improved posts on the same topics, and redirected the old posts to them.
Well, duh. Fresh, deep, updated content – Google loves that. No question.
Don’t ever delete blog posts without redirecting to something. Don’t take a chance that a web surfer will land on a missing page.
Google doesn’t like those broken links either. You want Google to like you, don’t you?
I sure do.
What Should You Do Instead of Deleting Old Posts?
Your choices are:
- Noindex posts you don’t want found
- Redirect them to new, updated posts
- Rewrite and update the old content
You can set your old posts to “noindex,” which tells Google not to crawl and index those posts. This method seems to be preferred by many experts.
Other experts said to neither delete nor noindex them, because you’ll lose SEO juice – unless they’re completely irrelevant.
If you have content with a high bounce rate or low CTR, or large amounts of irrelevant content that’s bad for Google LongTail ranking – NoIndex there makes sense. ~David Quaid
My preference is to take old posts that are still relevant to my audience and mission, and update them with current info (and graphics). I keep the URL intact (which retains my social share numbers) but change to the current date, so readers can see that the info is up-to-date.
The only drawback to keeping the same URL is that the posts won’t be drawn into RSS feeds again. I dislike this about Triberr. I get a lot of quality shares there, but when I update an old post to make it even more awesome, it won’t be seen by my friends there.
For example: I updated my Best Design Apps post into a mega-valuable, 3,000-word missive. I think I’ll reach out personally to my fave influencers and ask them to give it a share.
My stellar example of the power of updating: I update my social media cheat sheet post 2 to 4 times a year, and it’s consistently my most visited post, with 60K to 85K visits per month.
I also get a lot of new readers saying they found my blog because that post topped their search results.
But I Hate My Old Blog Posts!
OK, if you wrote something you really don’t want anyone to see any more, yes, you can remove it. I’m not going to say you have to keep that embarrassment on your blog forever.
In an effort to be authentic, though, you might consider keeping it, and prefacing it with your current feelings about what you wrote.
Just think about it 😉
Delete sparingly: Only delete posts that are irretrievably wrong, outdated, and damaging to your brand. ~Jay Douglas
I won’t go on and on here. I recommend you do the research and make your own decision. I just really wanted to give a counterpoint – and make sure you don’t worry about wasting time on a fruitless endeavor (that might actually hurt your blog).
I have to say, I did like this post on Hubspot: why deleting old posts is stupid.
Update good blog posts. Ignore the rest. Focus on creating valuable content going forward.
Your time is limited, so put it to the best possible use. Don’t waste it on tasks that might provide a minimal return – or might even hurt you.
What do you think? Have you, or do you plan to, delete old blog posts?
Briana says
I want to make a blog but some other blog was saying how every free blog maker has a storage limit what does that mean does it mean that you can only post a certain amount and got to delete old posts to make new ones when your out of storage?
Louise Myers says
Blog posts themselves wouldn’t take up much storage space, it would be the images. So if you go that route, be sure to size and compress images to save space.
Yogendra Sharma says
Thank you for showing the exact way to manage old posts. I prefer to delete old ones if they are 5 years or more old and no longer useful.
Jeff W says
Thanks for the info. I came across several blog posts from a backlog written from a previous person here that wrote about holidays, Christmas time, and creative writing, while the business had absolutely NOTHING to do with that. We were getting impressions and traffic from people searching for Christmas trees. Plus, the previous blogger put in a TON of links to missing landing pages on the site. It was just a much better move to delete them and disassociate the website with all those horrible links. I agree that deleting anything from a website should be something to heavily consider, but it was poorly written, overlinked content that nobody cared about. I felt it was justified to delete my old blogs.
Louise Myers says
Yes, good points to consider, and good call.
Not sure why you felt the need to put a fake email though. Just in case you check back to see if I posted your comment 🙂
Yogendra Sharma says
Thank you for writing this great article. I was so confused about what to do with old blog posts. But now i would keep all of them and work for future blog posts. Thanks again.
Mike Sullivan says
We have a bunch of 5+ year old posts that were moved over from an old blog, and receive 0 traffic and have no backlinks pointing to them. They also link out to our competitors. So I’m trying to figure out whether to delete and redirect, or noindex, nofollow and remove from sitemap. Thoughts?
Louise Myers says
If you need valid advice on this, you might consult an SEO expert.
Jennifer R. says
I have a bunch of old Rafflecopter link up posts that I would love to get rid of. Am I better off just no indexing them? They are truly junk posts lol.
Louise Myers says
If absolutely no one visits them, you might delete them. I’d prefer to redirect to something useful.
Kingsley Felix says
hey nice post, well its not easy updating the contents when they are many about 3k and perform badly as well
Louise Myers says
Probably no point then.
AB Rajputt says
Hi Louise,
Great post, thanks for sharing it’s quite helpful to understand the importance of old post.
I love all the stuff regarding old blog post, thanks for sharing have a good day.
Regards
AB Rajputt
Susan Velez says
HI Louise,
This is my first time to your blog and I love it. I don’t really have a lot of old blog posts yet as my blog is still fairly new.
However, I saw someone discussing this in a Facebook Group I am a member of.
Deleting old links can cause big issues. Like you said, you’d end up with broken links.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having old posts on your blog even if they don’t serve your audience. Who knows someone else may find your blog through one of those posts and fall in love with your content.
I think that it should be left to the blogger how they want to deal with it. Thanks for sharing the options that one can take if they do decide to delete those old posts.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Louise Myers says
Thanks Susan, for posting such a nice comment! Best of luck with your blog.
Ikram says
Hi Louise,
Thank you so much for sharing this useful guide.
Louise Myers says
You’re welcome.
Adeel Sami says
Hello, Louise!
Landing here right from Klout as I saw this post over there!
And so wanted to add my thoughts.
Not necessarily the thoughts but the experience…
I did delete the entire blog posts back in 2015, and you know what, I often get the 404 Not Found error from Google on Search Console…
It’s been time, but they still are haunting me.
I should have put together some thoughts before entirely deleting them back in the time but missed…
I so wanted to get rid of them to start afresh with the focus topic.
And that was the reason I selected all and hard deleted.
The clear approach would be to just no-index them… But stupid me.
Let’s see how long I get to see the errors popping up for the old deleted blog posts.
And that’s the nice reminder you put on for the people who have similar thoughts of deleting the old blog posts without thinking for a wink of time.
Thank you!
~ Adeel
Louise Myers says
Hi Adeel!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I really appreciate it.
Best of luck with your blog!
Mitch Mitchell says
I have deleted a lot of my old posts but truthfully they needed to be deleted. For instance, years ago I wrote a post about the WordPress 2.7.1 update; it’s not close to relevant now. lol There’s a lot of junk posts from the early days that aren’t worth anything now, and there’s nothing to link anything do concerning them.
I have also gone back and rewritten some posts, but only if they had some kind of worth. If they don’t have comments on them I set them up as a newly published article; I feel good with it.
Louise Myers says
That’s great to hear, Mitch. I’m glad it’s working for you!
Lisa P. Sicard says
HI Louise, thanks for the tips here. This reminds me to update some of my old ones. I had deleted some a few years ago that were so off topic and dated. Others I have updated and some did a new post on.
I agree, best not to delete unless they are horrible – much better to update them as Google will love you for it!
Louise Myers says
Absolutely, Lisa, so glad you agree!
Brian Dean says
As Far As I Know, deleting old blog posts can generate more 303 pages & if you redirect those pages to your homepage then your Bonus rate would grow quickly which can harm your site’s ranking.
Louise Myers says
Brian, thanks for sharing that info! Great to know.
Sara says
Louise, blogging is full of debates.
True haphazardly deleting posts is bad.
I talked to you about this on Instagram and shared Side Hustle Nation’s post.
You point about new and improved content is noteworthy. His 60% increase was because changed the direction of his website. He did an audit and got rid of everything (usually just personal posts and thoughts) that didn’t match his new site.
So, yes, that increase is more linked to his focus and the fact that he updated old posts and writes new relevant posts.
The original blog post that sparked our conversation was again based on someone who rebranded and shifted her focus.
Conclusion: The deleting of the post may not have increased traffic and rank, rather the updating and deeper focus of the future content.
Louise Myers says
Hi Sara!
Yes, I think so too. Not scientific perhaps, but based on what we do know about Google, that makes the most sense to me.