Say goodbye to outdated content
One of the seven content sins is leaving old and outdated content out in the world to fester and confuse your prospects and customers.
In enterprise content management this means neglecting the regular updating and maintenance of existing content, causing it to become outdated and less relevant over time.
Even if you aren’t a complacent or lazy content writer, it’s hard to stay on top of every piece of published content — making sure it’s using up-to-date messaging, terminology, and a consistent brand voice. After all, we’re only human!
That’s why it’s never been more vital for content success to have content governance software in your content workflow. Content governance software enables content creators to author, edit, and improve writing. By using AI and automation, it streamlines the editorial process, achieves regulatory compliance, and most importantly, it identifies existing content that doesn’t meet your current standards and tells you how to improve it.
After all, who has the time to go through every blog post, landing page, and meta description and compare it to your current guidelines? We all know that content guidelines are regularly updated. So instead of spending your precious time retroactively checking content, why not let content governance software do it for you?
Let’s look at how to remove old messaging and outdated content from your content ecosystem.
The cost of not refreshing content
Maybe part of you is curious whether you really need to do a content refresh? “What’s so bad about leaving old and outdated messaging in my published content?” you ask. Well, let’s paint a picture of what happens if you don’t.
Someone lands on your blog post after a Google search. This blog is a couple of years old and includes outdated messaging that no longer resonates with your audience and has an internal link to an old piece of content. So even though they’re experiencing pain that your product or service could solve, the content doesn’t connect with the reader and they move onto another blog — perhaps even by one of your competitors. Your click-through rate suffers, as well as your search engine ranking and conversion rate.
We could go on with more examples about how poor support and product documentation leads to confusion and more pressure on your customer support phone lines, but you get the idea. Ultimately, outdated content undermines your credibility, authority, and relevancy. If a prospect or customer watches an outdated video or reads an old and irrelevant web page, they aren’t going to trust your brand. And they definitely aren’t going to take the action you want them to.
Not doing regular content updates has real consequences. 81% of people think less of a business if their website is outdated and 39% would think twice about using a product or service if the website isn’t fresh and current. Which means that not correcting and improving outdated content leads to fewer customers and less revenue. Content should be an opportunity to provide value and generate business. But instead, outdated content provides a threat to your success — there’s nothing more sinful than that!
It’s time to refresh!
It’s easy to talk about how problematic outdated content is for your enterprise. But what actions can you take to address it? Follow these steps:
- Define your current content guidelines
- Conduct a content audit
- Identify content that needs to be removed
- Identify content that can be improved
- Establish a process going forward
- Prioritize editorial management and content governance
By following this checklist, you can systematically identify, remove, and improve old and outdated enterprise content while following your current content marketing strategy.
Make sure to download our Content Sins guide on Old & Outdated Content for more tips on how to eradicate stale messaging from your enterprise.
Meet your new editorial best friend: Acrolinx
Acrolinx is a content governance software that empowers the world’s leading brands to author, edit, and improve content efficiently. By leveraging AI and automation, we help companies streamline editorial processes, achieve regulatory compliance, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
And that includes identifying and either removing or improving outdated content. Let’s talk to find out how we can help your enterprise.
