As a WordPress site owner, you may occasionally need to remove outdated or underperforming content without erasing it completely. Email archiving is ubiquitous – so why not apply the same principle to decluttering your blog?
Archiving posts allows you to hide stale content while preserving it for the future. According to HubSpot, 46% of consumers expect content to be up-to-date, so hiding outdated posts can improve perceptions about your website.
In this 2023 guide, you‘ll learn:
- Key benefits of archiving posts vs deleting forever
- Step-by-step instructions to archive single and multiple posts
- How to republish archived posts later if needed
- Fixes for potential plugin issues
Let‘s dig in…
3 Reasons Why Archiving Beats Deleting WordPress Posts
Here‘s why you should archive old posts rather than sending them to the trash permanently:
1. Preserve Content for Future Use
Deleted content is gone forever! Archiving removes posts from public view but keeps them in your site backend to repurpose if needed.
According to stats from Constant Contact, 61% of website owners end up reusing or repurposing old blog posts. Archiving enables this while decluttering your site.
2. Retain SEO Value for Potential Re-posts
Your archived posts hold onto their SEO authority even when hidden. By keeping metadata, links, etc. intact, you can resurface high-value articles later without losing rankings.
As per Moz, pages older than a year still drive ~30% of all website traffic. So it pays to keep strong performers accessible via your archive.
3. Prevent Accidental Data Loss
Mistaken deletions happen often. 35% of website owners confessed to accidentally removing valuable content in a HubSpot survey. Archiving serves as a safety net against inadvertent mass deletions by backup admins or via technical glitches.
With the reasons clear, let‘s see how to implement post archiving in WordPress using a simple plugin.
How to Archive a Single Post in WordPress
The LH Archived Post Status plugin (4.5-star, 40,000+ installs) enables archiving with just a few clicks:
Step 1) Install and activate the plugin through your WordPress dashboard.
Step 2) Edit the post you want to archive. In the status drop down, select the newly added ‘Archived‘ option:
Step 3) Update the post, and observe it disappear from the frontend. But it will remain safely archived on your backend for future resurrection.
Alternative Single-Post Archiving Plugins
A few other reliable alternatives for archiving singular posts and pages are:
- Archive Post/Page – also lets you archive via bulk actions.
- Paragraph Archive -archives content into monthly groups automatically.
For most users LH Archived Post Status has sufficient features, but do explore these as well.
Next up, let‘s tackle archiving multiple WordPress posts simultaneously.
How to Archive Several Posts at Once
When you need to mass archive lots of outdated or low-value content, opt for WordPress bulk actions:
Step 1) From Posts > All Posts, select posts using checkboxes.
Step 2) Under Bulk Actions drop down, pick the Edit option.
Step 3) Choose Archived under Status on editing screen:
Step 4) Clicking Update archives all selected posts to reclaim space on your frontend instantly.
You can archive hundreds of posts across categories, tags etc. in one go this way. Much quicker than individually editing each item!
Republishing Content From Your Archive in WordPress
Did you know over 53% of companies retrieve and reuse archived digital content for current projects as per Statista?
When you need to pull a buried blog post back from your archive, it only takes moments:
- Visit Posts > All Posts to see you archive.
- Open the desired post
- Under Status, select Published
- Save the edited post to make it live again!
Watch this quick video tutorial showing the republication process for archived posts:
So your archive remains easily accessible as a searchable content treasure trove within WordPress – no external storage retrieval needed!
Troubleshooting Tips for Potential Plugin Conflicts
Generally LH Archived Post Status and other archiving plugins work reliably. But if issues crop up due to conflicts, try these troubleshooting steps:
- Check the plugin forums for existing solutions
- Disable other plugins one by one to identify incompatibility
- If needed, start a support thread including steps to reproduce the problem
We hope this guide has equipped you to leverage archiving for easily removing stale or redundant content while retaining it for the future!
Let us know if have any other questions in the comments section.
