Outdated Videos and SEO

[QAD_ERP]

I was trying to find some helpful resources online on this topic and haven't really found anything substantial.

What do people recommend to do with old, outdated videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo. They show up in search, but some mention outdated products. However, is it best practice to remove everything older and outdated from Youtube, etc. or is it better to have these in your library (quantity over quality). If you add new ones and they get more views, in the long run people will focus on the newer content and probably not watch something 6 years old, but should we be removing them, too? I''m under pressure to remove them and I wanted to do some research before committing.

We also started Google Plus after Youtube, so we now have two YouTubes (one empty one attached to our new G+ and one that's been established with a lot of videos - new and old). Would this be a good time to consolidate to one Youtube, migrating only the new stuff to the new YouTube and then slowly start removing the old YouTube channel?

Thanks!

[kayintveen_MD]

I think there are 2 things you could do here.

1. Update the content, if a new product comes out and you want to add a updated version just update the video, i don't use youtube that much but this was always perfectly useable.

2. Else in your first line on the description link to your newer content and tell there is an update. Maybe also with a annotation you can link towards it.

[DaveSottimano]

Hi Rachel,

I guess this might be worth a blog post since you didn't find resources

I'm going to try and tackle your question in steps,..

1) What do people recommend to do with old, outdated videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo

My personal opinion, but if these videos are getting views, try to direct them to the new videos using annotations and such. Unless that product video is harmful (example: it was flagged as toxic waste ;)), then why take it down if it's still getting traffic? Okay, a better example would be that they're so outdated and look embarrassing to your brand, but even then, you can cover up the entire video with an annotation to visit the new product video...

2) They show up in search, but some mention outdated products

Which search? Google regular search / video / youtube / vimeo? If it's regular Google search, you can change that by de-optimizing the listing on Youtube and get a new video ranking..

3) However, is it best practice to remove everything older and outdated from Youtube, etc. or is it better to have these in your library (quantity over quality)

There are no rules here, every case is different.

4) We also started Google Plus after Youtube, so we now have two YouTubes (one empty one attached to our new G+ and one that's been established with a lot of videos - new and old)

For simplicity, it might be better to have one account.

**

Good suggestion / idea from Microdesign, but I don't think updating videos is possible on Youtube (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/58101?hl=en)