When a blog has been around for a while, it’s no surprise to see hundreds of posts in the sitemap. Even if you’re only publishing once a week, ten years of consistent posting means 500+ posts. Some of these articles are great, while others are outdated, repetitive, or may even contradict one another. After a decade—or more—of creating content it’s usually time to tackle the internet version of a closet clean out: content pruning.
Content pruning allows the really good content on your blog to shine by removing the not-so-good posts that may be distracting both readers and search engines. And it works. Two years ago, Parkway implemented a content pruning strategy for Jeffrey Freeman Attorneys that continues to deliver month-over-month growth.
The Situation
Jeffrey Freedman Attorneys’ blog has existed since 2010, and for a few years prior to this switch in strategy, the firm was posting as often as every day. There were hundreds of posts on the blog. A lot of them were really helpful information. However, the pressure of having an original article to share to Facebook and LinkedIn every day also resulted in posts that were really short or repetitive. Often, the same topic would be covered from a slightly different perspective or with a recent legislative update across multiple posts.
After an initial flurry of clicks from social media, these posts would receive almost no visitors. However, they had potential. Jeffrey Freedman himself is an authority in the space. His firm uses legal professionals to create content. All they needed was a little bit of guidance.
The Strategy
Sharing on social media is still important to Jeffrey Freedman Attorneys. So, Parkway created a strategy that lengthens the useful life of social sharing posts with a combination of content pruning, ongoing optimization and keyword research.
First, we removed old blog posts that offered little value. These posts were either unrelated to the firm’s practice areas, severely outdated, or otherwise unlikely to attract potential clients. Then, we looked at the remaining posts with a focus on combining, updating and optimizing the information. Most importantly, our new content strategy included some direction for the team at Jeffrey Freedman Attorneys. They still write with social media in mind, but with only two posts per week, they have more time to create quality content. Parkway often provides topics for these posts based on keyword research and trending topics. Collaborating with our client’s employees results in a strategy that benefits Jeffrey Freedman Attorneys, as well as their clients.
The Results
Now, on to the fun part. In the first year, organic traffic to www.jeffreyfreedman.com grew by almost 10x. The following year, organic traffic increased another 50%. While this is impressive, it doesn’t matter as much as this: conversions from organic visitors have increased almost 90% year-over-year.
This two-part strategy that combines our digital knowledge with our client’s legal expertise delivered impressive results after just a few months. The most successful landing pages, month after month, are actually written by the team at Jeffrey Freedman Attorneys based on our keyword and competitor research. We’ll use this success to continue to improve the post ideas we share with our client. These successful posts also give us more opportunities for optimization and updates moving forward. While every content strategy should be refreshed on a regular basis, this one is showing us what to tackle next all on its own.