Could you actually be a closeted content hoarder?

Could you actually be a closeted content hoarder?

I promise I won’t only write about Brighton SEO from now on, but I had to touch upon this issue.

This one is about Adrian Imms’s talk about digital hoarding.

I am a content creator myself, so I guess you would understand what I mean when you read this post (if you aren’t a content creator, too).

I know some people just don’t realize how important it is to edit what’s on their blog every once in a while.

But I didn’t know that there are people who oppose doing this.

And what’s more surprising is that those people don’t have reasonable reasons.

The content creators don’t want their content merged/deleted…

…wait for it…

…because they are emotionally attached to the work they put in on that piece of content.

It’s not totally unreasonable, but the whole point of creating content for marketing is to make it work.

Right?

Okay, okay, let me rewind and start from the beginning:

Who is Adrian Imms?

I personally didn’t know about him myself until I listened to his talk.

He works for the University of Sussex’s Digital and Creative Media team within the Communications division.

Simply put, he is a digital content specialist.

Before he became a digital content specialist, he was a reporter

For almost three years. He worked for The Argus for nine whole years.

I hear you asking, “what does all this have to do with SaaS and Content?”

Well, let me ask you this:

How many articles or posts do you think that a newspaper website has? Or did you ever come across a newspaper that merged content, deleted something because it’s outdated, or simply updated it?

I haven’t.

And Adrian claims that such websites don’t delete or merge the content for the sake of having better ranks or higher quality content. They only think of publishing more.

And more.

And more…

What’s wrong with not deleting content?

Everything!

Google provides a limited capacity of processing power for each website.

Therefore, not editing what’s in it causes you to lose power.

1. Search Engine Journal apparently increased organic traffic by more than 60% simply by editing the outdated content on their page.
2. Siege Media deleted or reworked 15% of its content, which provided them with a 50% increase in organic traffic.

Why is SEO so important anyway?

Because SEO is the oxygen of SaaS marketing.

Without visibility, without organic traffic, a SaaS product is difficult to bring to the top.

1. SEO Can Help to Scale Your Growth Exponentially
2. SEO Can Help to Reduce Your Cost-Per-Acquisition
3. SEO Can Help to Convert Customers From Other Channels

Content Hoarding, I Was Saying

Yes. Here is what we know so far:

• SaaS is a delicate business.
• SEO is very important for SaaS.
• Content Hoarding is bad for SEO.

What do you do instead?

• Delete outdated content.
• If you don’t want to, merge it with similar content and republish it.
• If you don’t like that either, you can at least rework and update it.

“But as a content manager, I don’t want to offend the creator of this content.”

Well, then you choose to offend the search engine and lose potential customers.

It is your business that is on the line.

Keep in mind the whole point of creating content is to get positive outcomes. If the goal is not achieved, then the feelings of you AND the creator will be hurt even more.

How do I clean my content hoard?

The “why,” I just explained.

For the “convincing the creators” part, here are the steps according to what I understood from Adrian’s speech:

1. The happy scenario will be where the creator of the content will let you edit it as needed.
2. The less happy scenario will be when they don’t allow their hard work to be retouched as soon as you ask, but get convinced after explaining the importance of editing.
3. The unhappy scenario is where they fully deny, and you have to play the “I control the strings, step aside” card.

As I said, I am no content manager. I am a content creator myself, and I’m not fond of seeing my work being played with as well. But I am responsible for the success of my company, and I know that it is essential for my career as well.

So if you haven’t updated your contents within 6 months, I say go check for possible updates, and don’t forget to track all the positive effects of the clean-up.

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