Edit the article or just create a new one?

9 replies
  • SEO
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A while back I wrote content for one of my websites and now that I look back on the content that was written, I am unhappy with the quality. I would like to know if I should edit the article or just outright delete it. Which would be better seo wise or is there no difference?

Note that the website is fairly new and I want to completely get rid of the article, but I am concerned that it may negativity damage my website.

Thanks in advance!
#article #create #edit
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    The difference, for one article, is going to be negligibly small, if there's any at all.

    What I'd do, myself, is simply remove the article as soon as possible, re-write it and then put the new version back on the site a week or two later. Maybe someone will disagree, but to me it's really difficult to imagine that doing this could negatively impact your SEO.


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  • Profile picture of the author ilee
    Originally Posted by Aspired View Post

    A while back I wrote content for one of my websites and now that I look back on the content that was written, I am unhappy with the quality. I would like to know if I should edit the article or just outright delete it. Which would be better seo wise or is there no difference?

    Note that the website is fairly new and I want to completely get rid of the article, but I am concerned that it may negativity damage my website.

    Thanks in advance!
    Depends how much you're thinking of editing it. If just a few things here and there, you could be slapped with dupe content if you post as a new post.

    If it's a complete rewrite, no harm in keeping the old post there and publishing a new one too.

    Only "negative damage" of deleting the article is if you've already built links to the post in question. You can redirect to the new page but some link juice will be lost.
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  • Profile picture of the author MJG
    Originally Posted by Aspired View Post

    A while back I wrote content for one of my websites and now that I look back on the content that was written, I am unhappy with the quality. I would like to know if I should edit the article or just outright delete it. Which would be better seo wise or is there no difference?

    Note that the website is fairly new and I want to completely get rid of the article, but I am concerned that it may negativity damage my website.

    Thanks in advance!
    Why not edit parts and highlight parts that have been edited. This is common practice and the right way to do it unless no-one or hardly anyone has viewed your content in the first place then you've published a piece of work and need to treat it with respect.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoboyz01
    You're not the only person who has decided they don't like a particular article on their site and either deleted or edited it into better shape. This is fairly common place. It's your site, so really do what you want. Adding fresh content to that page; sprucing up the words will not hurt. And, it could get Google back onto that page as the bots run around trying to digest all the new material you've written.

    As for whether or not you should delete the page, I would not. That's just my preference. That page is already indexed. Just edit what's there or delete the article (but not the page) and add a new article where the old one was.
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  • Profile picture of the author jojogiuffra
    If you want get more benefits with SEO the best practice is create new content with the old link(in case that have some popularity).

    To the old content you should change the url and archive it.

    This will make your website more robust and big, things that Google Spiders look when they crawl.
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  • Profile picture of the author AskAnAffiliate
    Hi,

    If it is content which could be updated then just do that. Go through a revive it making it longer, add images or even videos. Many people update information simply adding additional information.
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  • Profile picture of the author st0nec0ld
    I don't see anything wrong or harm on editing your content.
    I mean there is no big deal, edit that content if you want to, that's it!
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    Originally Posted by Aspired View Post

    A while back I wrote content for one of my websites and now that I look back on the content that was written, I am unhappy with the quality. I would like to know if I should edit the article or just outright delete it. Which would be better seo wise or is there no difference?

    Note that the website is fairly new and I want to completely get rid of the article, but I am concerned that it may negativity damage my website.

    Thanks in advance!
    As it's new (no traffic/backlinks), simple solution is delete and 301 redirect.

    To expand when the article isn't new.

    Depends, does it gain traffic, does it have backlinks?

    If the page has traffic and quality backlinks I'd tend toward rewriting the article and use the same URL.

    No backlinks and rubbish content with no traffic, delete and start again unless the URL is the perfect URL for the main phrase(s) you want to target with the new article.

    If you do change/delete URLs, 301 redirect the deleted URL to either the closest matching webpage or your homepage to recover PR. 301 redirect anything you delete/change URLs, this will recover most (at least 85%) of the link benefit.

    David
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  • Profile picture of the author Hemanth Malli
    My suggestion is if you are not satisfied with the content means you can change the content in the article and while deleting the article you have to keep that I will back and upload the content with in few days.
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