Content Consolidation: Improving Your SEO Performance

You may be familiar with the expression "content is king." While this may be true, it does not imply that you are restricted to writing fresh content for your business blog exclusively.

If you want to save time and resources, as well as rank higher in search engine results, you must employ intelligent content marketing strategies.

With only 38% of bloggers updating their older articles, repurposing old blog posts is one of the easiest ways to increase the value of your content.

In this article, the top SEO company in West Palm Beach will teach you how to audit, consolidate, and update your site's content for maximum effectiveness.

What Is Content Consolidation?

The term "content consolidation" refers to the practice of merging multiple pieces of content, such as articles, blog posts, or SEO pages, into a single, more substantial work.

As a result, the final product is one that is both higher in quality and more credible as a source on the subject at hand.

Usually, this strategy starts with a content audit, in which you record, measure, and analyze how well the content on your website is doing. From there, you may do the following:

• Remove any outdated, low-quality, or irrelevant content.
• Identify pages that cover similar or identical topics, then combine them into a single, comprehensive resource.
• Optimize content to match searchers' intent based on where they are in the purchasing process.
• Conduct an audience analysis and change the content and placement to better meet the target audience's needs.
• Rearrange content so that readers can quickly access it.

Content consolidation means taking stock of your content strategy and removing, combining, and updating your website pages so that all of the content fits your strategic goals.

If you remove, replace, or change the content keeping you off of Google's front page, you'll undoubtedly see more engagement from your audience and higher rankings.

How Does Content Consolidation Benefit SEO?

Content consolidation is not a new concept.

According to Forbes, 2016 was the year that consolidation came to digital marketing. It marked the beginning of an era in which companies consolidated the number of platforms and tools they used to implement marketing strategies and maximize expenditures.

That said, Google is constantly working to ensure that search results are relevant and of high quality, so a consolidation strategy should be an essential part of any SEO strategy.

Furthermore, if you have multiple pieces of content that target the exact keywords and have the same goal, they can "eat" each other, implying that they compete for the same space on your website. As a result, your SEO efforts, such as link building, will be divided.

In a way, you are making pages and keywords that are very similar to each other compete with each other.

By putting them all on one page, you can increase your chances of ranking for your main keyword without competing with yourself in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

You can ensure that the content on your website gives your visitors the best experience possible by checking it regularly and keeping it up to date.

When Should Page Mergers Be Considered For SEO?

If your website has been around for quite some time, it will likely have a collection of older posts with old statistics and methods that no longer work.

Blogs have evolved significantly over the years, which is something to keep in mind. 

Once upon a time, the number of blog posts was more important than the quality of those posts. Instead of spending time and money creating in-depth guides for their customers, businesses would write several 500-word posts per week.

So, if you have multiple articles on the same subject or articles that repeat information that has already been published but look at it from a different angle, you might want to think about combining them.

Also, if you have pages that don't get organic traffic or pageviews, you might want to combine them into a single content hub. These articles don't help your credibility and just take up space.

How Do You Consolidate Your Content?

The goal of this website update is to put the focus on good content rather than a lot of content.

To improve your site's visibility in search engine results and user experience, you should perform regular maintenance such as pruning and consolidation to remove low-traffic pages.

The steps that our West Palm Beach SEO company recommends are listed below.

Step #1: Determine potential consolidation candidates.

During our thorough content audit, we can identify any instances of duplicate or cannibalizing content. This is because, as we compile audit data, we begin to notice a pattern of duplicate URLs, a telltale sign of duplicate content.

The best way to get this information is to do a full content audit, but there are other ways to find opportunities for consolidation and content pruning if you don't want to go that deep just yet.

These tools include:

• Ahrefs.com: Go to the Organic Keywords report after entering your domain. Then, select "Multiple URLs only."
• SEOTesting.com: Navigate to Reports and then run the Keyword Cannibalization report.
• The Search Analytics for Sheets Chrome Plugin: Install the plugin, then export the keywords for the desired period.

You'll have a good list of potential candidates for the next step after conducting a content audit and using these website survey tools.

Step #2: Choose between consolidation and complete pruning.

After compiling a list of URLs, you can use a variety of metrics and criteria to determine the most appropriate next steps for each.

It is impossible to say whether two pages should be merged or some content should be removed.

First, review your current content for any thin, duplicate, outdated, or stale sections and any lonely pages that aren't getting any views. Make a list of URLs that you want to investigate further.

After you've compiled this list, look over each item's key performance indicators (KPIs). Examine the organic traffic and revenue of the page, as well as other metrics such as dwell time, high bounce rates, and keyword cannibalization from competing pages.

It is best to deindex a page that is no longer relevant. However, most of the time, salvageable content on the page can be transferred to a new location; your task will be to locate and relocate that content.

In addition, revising your meta description is an excellent place to start if you have a piece of content that receives many views but few clicks.

Ultimately, deciding whether to consolidate or completely prune rests with you and your SEO marketing team.

Step #3: Create a content brief for consolidation.

After determining which pages need to be consolidated, you must settle on a strategy.

Examine all connected threads and pick out the unique and recycled details. The new, collaborative piece's purpose will guide how the content is organized to serve the target audience's needs best.

While doing this, you should also look into your target keywords and find other SEO enhancements to incorporate into the updated content.

Use a content brief to consolidate the two sites' information, assess the relevance of your keywords and other SEO factors, and define your page's purpose.

Step #4: Make changes or updates to your content.

When revising your content with the user experience in mind, concentrate on integrating the most helpful information from related sources while eliminating unnecessary details.

If you have published blog posts that address different customer questions but on different pages, you can increase the value you offer by compiling them into a single FAQ section.

Don't overlook the positive effects of reorganizing the content, either. A great deal can be done to improve the content itself by including images, headers, and subheadings and by breaking up large blocks of text with plenty of white space.

Remember these two rules as you develop original content for the website:

• Don't start from scratch when updating previously published material.
• To prevent cannibalization, refresh the out-of-date material and make it relevant to the current market.

Step #5: Redirect the pruned URLs.

After a long time of researching, sorting, and putting everything together, you finally get to the heart of the matter: changing the URL.

If you don't take the time to set up a redirect for the competing pieces of content, you'll waste your time and hurt your SEO.

The most important optimizations that can be done with surprisingly little work are URL removal, deindexing, and redirection. Keep in mind that your site's authority is based on the total number of pages that are indexed. Websites often fail when they have content that isn't relevant or helpful.

It's Time To Improve Your Content's Performance

Just as our clients have, you can start to see an increase in impressions and clicks with just a few easy steps. Keep this guide handy during the planning phase of your SEO strategy, so you can quickly implement these five steps whenever the need arises.

These simple corrections are an essential and efficient component of any SEO content strategy. We recommend that you collaborate with the top West Palm Beach SEO firm to develop the strategy for your website.

At Digital Resource, we will comprehensively analyze how to maximize your SEO efforts and determine which web pages should be pruned or consolidated.

Contact us today for a free consultation.