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Danny Sullivan, Google\'s Search Liaison, posted a PSA on Twitter that you should not delete old content from your site because you think Google Search doesn\'t like old content. He said it is not true, Google Search can find older content to be helpful. So don\'t delete helpful old content.

Danny Sullivan wroteold" content? That\'s not a thing! Our guidance doesn\'t encourage this. Older content can still be helpful, too."

He then posted a link to the official helpful content documentation on Google Search.

This should not surprise anyone, Google has been saying this for years. Here are some older stories I wrote about this topic:

Here is that tweet:

Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn\'t like "old" content? That\'s not a thing! Our guidance doesn\'t encourage this. Older content can still be helpful, too. Learn more about creating helpful content: https://t.co/NaRQqb1SQx

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 8, 2023

Here is the follow up:

The page itself isn’t likely to rank well. Removing it might mean if you have a massive site that we’re better able to crawl other content on the site. But it doesn’t mean we go “oh, now the whole site is so much better” because of what happens with an individual page.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 9, 2023

Delete what you don\'t want to keep - regular maintenance and cleaning up is always good. Just don\'t assume that deleting something only because it\'s old will improve your site\'s SEO magically.

— John Mueller (official) · #MaybeABot (@JohnMu) August 9, 2023

Similarly, keep in mind that just because something doesn\'t get a lot of views (eg, old news, obscure information) doesn\'t mean it\'s not helpful for those who do view it. Focus on the unique value, not on the age, view-count, etc.

— John Mueller (official) · #MaybeABot (@JohnMu) August 9, 2023

Forum discussion at Twitter.