Why Tom Drake is Deleting 1,000s of Blog Posts: SEO Strategies + How to "Revive" Old Blogs

TL;DR

Tom Drake discusses effective content audit strategies for improving traffic on aging websites.

Transcript

so what do you do if you have a website that is over 10 years old and has 5 000 blog posts and the traffic has been declining well that's the question that we're going to answer here in today's podcast i brought on a guest his name is tom drake and he is the founder of maplemoney.com and he is also now a partner at getrichslowly.org and both of the... Read More

Key Insights

• 🦻 Persistence and thorough link cleaning can aid recovery from search engine penalties and declining traffic trends.
• 🥶 Regular content audits serve as a proactive approach to managing site health and relevance, especially for older websites.
• 🍻 Implementing solid internal linking strategies can distribute link equity more effectively across a website, aiding SEO efforts.
• 😜 High-quality guest posts should focus on providing genuine value and should aim to rank on the host site to ensure longevity and relevance.
• 👤 Analyzing user engagement and traffic metrics helps identify content worth retaining, rewriting, or deleting.
• 🏣 Streamlining a website’s content by reducing unnecessary posts can improve clarity and coherence, ultimately benefiting SEO.
• ❓ Blog management has evolved; it now requires deliberate focus on quality over quantity to succeed in the competitive digital landscape.

Questions & Answers

Q: What motivated Tom Drake to start MapleMoney.com?

Tom started MapleMoney in 2009 out of a need to manage his personal finances better after getting married and anticipating the arrival of his first child. He found personal finance blogs helpful and saw an opportunity to share his insights and assist others in similar situations.

Q: How did Tom recover from the manual link penalty on MapleMoney?

Tom was diligent in cleaning up the site's backlinks by reaching out to webmasters to remove spammy links. He also utilized Google's disavow tool and waited for the manual penalty to expire, demonstrating persistence and a long-term commitment to improving his site.

Q: What content audit strategies does Tom recommend for sites with many posts?

Tom suggests exporting data from WordPress and analytics tools to analyze traffic and engagement metrics. He recommends filtering for low-traffic content, identifying potential deletions, and consolidating posts that cover similar topics, ultimately leading to a streamlined content strategy.

Q: What role does internal linking play in Tom's SEO strategy?

Internal linking is vital for Tom as it helps distribute page authority and enhances user navigation on his sites. He uses tools like Link Whisper to strategically link new posts to relevant existing content, improving overall site structure and boosting opportunities for better rankings.

Q: How does Tom's approach differ between personal finance blogs today and a decade ago?

Tom notes that the landscape has shifted from merely producing a high volume of content to focusing on quality and relevance. The advent of updates like Panda and Penguin has made it crucial for bloggers to prioritize optimized content and robust SEO practices.

Q: What is Tom's perspective on guest posting for link building?

Tom advocates for writing valuable and relevant content for guest posts that can genuinely rank and provide backlinks. He emphasizes that guest posts should not only be promotional but should also add meaningful information to the host blog while attracting traffic.

Q: How can older websites improve their SEO performance, according to Tom?

Aging sites can improve SEO by conducting meticulous content audits, consolidating low-performing posts, removing thin content, and enhancing internal linking structures. Focusing on user experience and engagement also plays a key role in regaining lost traffic.

Q: What future strategies does Tom plan to implement on Get Rich Slowly?

Tom intends to streamline content further down from around 2,500 posts to a more manageable number, focusing on updating and rewriting significant articles based on their performance metrics to ensure continued relevance and authority in the personal finance niche.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Tom Drake shares his journey with MapleMoney and Get Rich Slowly, detailing the challenges faced with SEO penalties and declining traffic over the years.

• He emphasizes the importance of regular content audits, suggesting systematic approaches to identify and remove irrelevant or low-quality posts.

• Drake advises on leveraging internal linking and optimizing user engagement to enhance SEO performance and recover site traffic.