Hi my friend!
This week, I attended JoyConf by Storyblok in Germany, and the main topic was content debt.
It's not a new problem, but AI search makes it more important to address.
Think about all the content your company has published over the years.
Think old blog posts with outdated stats, product pages with incorrect information, multiple articles covering the same topic, and pages that no longer reflect your brand positioning.
That's content debt. And most companies that have been publishing content for years have some.
The problem is that AI search can bring this old content back into view.
Previously, an outdated article buried on page 10 of Google probably wasn't getting much attention.
Now, AI systems can use information from older pages to answer questions about your brand, products, or industry.
And if your content contains conflicting information, you have less control over which version ends up in those answers. Which can push your ideal clients away or even damage your reputation.
One interesting finding from the research presented at JoyConf is that only 38% of surveyed enterprise marketers said they had full visibility into all their published content.
That's a problem. How can you keep your content accurate if you don't even know what's out there?
So, how do you reduce content debt?
Storyblok shared a content debt recovery framework at the conference. Here are three steps I found particularly useful.
1. Audit your existing content
Start by creating an inventory of your published pages.
Check their performance, but also look at whether the information is accurate, relevant, and consistent with your current brand messaging.
2. Decide what to do with each page
There are four possible actions:
Retire: Remove pages that are outdated or no longer useful.
Consolidate: Merge pages that cover similar topics.
Refresh: Update content that's still relevant but needs improvement.
Retain: Keep pages that are performing well and don't need changes.
Remember that low traffic alone isn't a good reason to delete a page. Consider its purpose and business value, too.
3. Build content maintenance into your workflow
A one-time audit is useful, but it won't prevent content debt from building up again.
Make sure every page has an owner and a review date. Set aside time to review existing content as part of your regular editorial process.
And before creating something new, check whether you already have a page that could be updated instead.
My takeaway:
We've spent years focusing on producing more content. And now, with AI making content creation even faster, it's tempting to keep doing exactly that.
But I think we need to spend more time looking at what we've already published.
Because creating more content isn't always the best way to improve your visibility.
Sometimes, updating, consolidating, or removing existing pages can be just as valuable.
See you next week,
Kate 🌟
