Search Optimization: Delete Old Documents!
Have you ever done a search on liberty.edu and wondered why what you’re looking for doesn’t show up?
While there are multiple reasons this may happen, we’re going to focus first on one variable that is within our control and easy to fix: out-of-date content.
Did you know that any document (Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, etc.) you upload into your Media Library is searchable? Therefore, even if you aren’t actively linking to that document on any webpage, it will still show up when someone searches our website or on outside search engines.
SO, we are going to do a little spring cleaning.
Please delete all old documents out of your Media Library. If you want to keep some of these documents, save them to your computer and delete them out of the WordPress Media Library. The Library is not a storage area; only documents actively in use on the website should be there.
Be carful not to delete files in use on your site. WordPress does not notify you what files are and are not being used. Deleting a file that is in use on your site will result in missing images and broken links leading to error pages.
If you do not delete old documents, the Web Content office can help delete them for you.
If you need help finding out if a document or image is being used on your site, contact us at the Web Content Team. We can use our find and replace tool to search your site for a specific file and let you know what pages may contain links to it.
