Edited Transcription

Content grooming is a great way to keep a site fresh and manageable.

I've taken a few days off work; today is my last day. I thought, “I'm feeling relaxed today, so why not review all the content on PeterWitham.com and review it?”

I decided to dive deep into things like the metrics and the overall health of everything, which turned out to be quite interesting. I want to share with you what I found and have done.

Some of you may find this idea sensible and say, “That's a good idea!” while others may think I'm crazy and say, “You shouldn't do that.”

Looking back, I believe I started the blog in early 2014. I had been doing it before then, but those are the earliest posts there. Over time, I accumulated around 640 posts.

That's quite a lot of content to manage, so I thought, “I should trim it down now.”

Let's first discuss why this might be a bad idea. Having content that goes back that far and having a lot of content, in general, can be beneficial for SEO. It shows that you have a history and knowledge, and it's possible that a lot of that content is getting clicks or reads.

However, the downside is that some of that content may be no longer worth keeping.

You might be interested in reading how I'm dealing with Orphaned content and why

There is an argument for keeping it around for all the good reasons, but there are also valid reasons not to. Managing all that old content can be a hassle.

This came up because I'm slowly rebuilding my site using a different system, which I'll probably talk about as I progress.

As I'm looking at it, I realize that every single one of those blog posts needs to be converted to flat files, specifically markdown files. For those who don't know, markdown files are just special text files. This means I have to go through each post in WordPress, extract the content, and put it into a file.

Of course, as I do that, I update the grammar, check the spelling, and improve the post. But I don't want to do that 640 times because it would take forever.

Yes, I could automate content extraction from WordPress, but that won't help me when converting and updating it. So the most logical thing to do is to not bother with the posts that aren't worth bothering with. But how do I determine that? Here's what I've done.

And I'll tell you where I'm at right now. As I'm recording this, I have trashed about 118 posts. I know what you're thinking, “You're crazy!” But hear me out. These posts are primarily technical ones that are no longer relevant.

For example, who cares about my thoughts on Apple's keynotes from 2018, 2017, or even 2014? Nobody.

And according to the metrics, I know this because nobody is reading them. So why bother converting them and keeping them around? They're not relevant anymore. What were the problems I had with the iPhone 6? Who cares? It's so long ago and not relevant anymore.

Some may argue for archival purposes, and the potential for some reads, but for me, it's enough to archive them for personal purposes. I don't need to manage that content anymore. It's almost like extracting and storing it for future use, if necessary. But other than that, it's just not relevant anymore.

Writing about technologies that no longer exist and haven't existed for years doesn't matter. Yes, some people might read it and find it interesting for archival reasons, but why bother maintaining it and updating it unless necessary?

You might like to read my post on content grooming, which goes into further detail.

Along with that, I'm looking at the metrics. An easy criterion is any post that has barely any traffic or no traffic and goes back several years. Just get rid of it. I understand that some people may disagree and say that's wrong, and I respect that.

But for me, managing all that content and potentially manually converting all those posts to a new system would be a never-ending project. I don't need to spend time on those 118 posts that I can let go. I don't have to convert them, maintain them, check the links, or update the SEO.

Of course, it hurts a bit to get rid of content because it was very relevant at the time. But I believe it's okay to do that. In the long run, if you have to do something like I am, where you have to convert all the content, you may regret spending time on things that have no logical reason for keeping, except that they're there.

Give it some thought, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. You can reach out to me at PeterWitham.com/contact. By the time you get there, there will be 118 fewer posts.

But I believe it's the right thing to do. I'd rather have a smaller, more focused collection of content that is useful to people. For example, I can still see that some posts from 2018 and earlier are still getting hits, so it's worth keeping them around.

That kind of evergreen, timeless content. But it's worth evaluating whether I should spend time on something or just let it go.

Back then, some of my old posts were terrible, just like anything else. You get better over time, and when you look back at some of the oldest stuff, you realize how bad it was.

As I trim down to the exciting and valuable content, I can update those posts. That's probably where I'll focus, updating the ones that matter. I'll let the metrics and the users tell me what matters.

Or I'll focus on posts I don't care if anyone likes. I'm just glad I put them out there. Let me know what you think. Again, you can contact me at PeterWitham.com/contact and share your thoughts.

But for me, trimming out the excess is good for me, and I'll continue doing it. And since it's WordPress, it'll probably speed up the process. Plus, the less content in the database, the happier it will be. So there's that as well. Anyway, that's what I have for you.

I hope this has been helpful and has given you something to think about, just like all the other content I put out. I've wondered if this podcast is compelling, but I've decided I need it for myself.

It's like my therapy session in some ways when I put this content out for you. But let me know what you think of the podcast or if there are topics you'd like me to talk about. That's it. I'll speak to you in the next one.

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