Clean up your old content with our SEO workout!

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It's time to clean up your old content! Does your website have any dusty corners or content that's been swept under the carpet? Keeping your content fresh and findable is essential for SEO. So it's time to give your site a spring clean and tidy that content up! Just follow the four simple steps in our super-easy workout to get your old content cleaned up in a jiffy.
When it comes to content, keeping on top of all the loose ends has always been a challenge. It's easy to end up with orphaned content that nobody can find. Our orphaned content workout will help you identify pages and posts that don't have any links, and walk you through four simple steps to get your site tidy again. In the end, you'll have better, more findable content. And that means improving your chances to get that content ranking in Google!




What is orphaned content? Why is it bad?

A tidy website has a clear structure, and each page has at least one internal link from another relevant page. In short, internal links are what make it possible for users to navigate to find your content. Besides that, they help make your pages and site crawlable too. So they're really important for SEO. The links connect the dots, so to say.
Orphaned content is pages or posts that don't receive any links from other pages on your site. These pages are out there, somewhere, but nobody is ever going to find them. (And that includes Google). However, orphaned content isn't just bad because it's hidden away and hard for search engines to find. It can make you feel rubbish about your website, too.
We all start out with the best intentions, making great content to build websites that we love. And that we want everyone else to love, too! But as time goes on, you can't help losing track of the details (especially if you create a lot of content). Some pages or posts are bound to slip through the net, one way or another. Pages that you cared about, once upon a time.
It's easy to feel gloomy when you're looking at all the mess and imperfections. But it's not as bad as it seems. Once you start pruning your content, you can feel great about your content again! Let's get started.

Need a hand? If you need any help using the orphaned content SEO workout, you can find more information on our  help page.
Spring clean your content with our workout

When you open the workout, you'll see your orphaned posts and pages listed, ready for you to work on. The end goal is to connect these pages to your site structure by adding links to them from other pages on your website.
But before you start adding all those links, you should check whether each page is something you actually want people to find. And with that, we come to the big question you need be asking yourself…
Love it or leave it?

During the first step, you'll probably see pages and posts in the workout that are outdated, or that don't meet your expectations in terms of quality. For each page in the list, think about how it makes you feel. Will you miss this page if you get rid of it? Do you love this page and want to keep working on it? Is the page so old it's become completely irrelevant for your site and you never want to see it again?
It might be tempting to decide just by looking at the titles of the pages, but it's important to take a look at the actual content. You might be surprised by what you find! You can look more closely at each content item by clicking on the links provided in the list:
Step one of the orphaned content workout in Yoast SEO
Don't love all your pages and posts? Then do something about it! These are your options:
? Delete (and redirect) pages you don't want

If you find posts or pages that you don't have any reason to keep, put them in the trash. Remember that it's also best practice to redirect the URL of each deleted page, ideally sending users to a similar page. You can delete and redirect your unwanted pages right away in the workout, saving you loads of time and hassle.