Every great story comes to an end. So does every content item. It might become outdated, campaigns associated with it might wrap up, or someone might ask you to remove something from the website and other channels. This lesson walks you through the process of unpublishing and archiving your content items.
You can end the content lifecycle by manually unpublishing a content item, scheduling it to be archived, or even deleting it afterward. Let’s explore all these options in detail.
Archive content for better management
There are different approaches to archiving a content item depending on whether the item is published or not:
For a content item that hasn’t been published yet, you can archive the item straightaway if your workflow transitions allow.
For a published item, it gets archived automatically once you unpublish. This also applies to content items with a new version created after being published.
Archiving your content items is useful if:
You stumble across something that shouldn’t be published in the first place.
Your content was only meant to be live for a certain period of time, such as New Year campaigns.
The content is outdated and no longer relevant.
The content doesn’t fit the brand messaging and strategy over time.
If the archived content has some relevance, it can be found in Content & assets.
Schedule unpublishing when it’s time
Scheduling the unpublishing of one or multiple content items is handy if you have a campaign that is about to wrap up. This is also referred to as content expiration. Don’t worry, you can always change your mind and either reschedule the item's unpublish date or cancel the unpublishing before it happens.Identifying when to set content expiration to maintain organization and current information on your channels is essential. Consider expiring your content through scheduled unpublishing when:
Your content is time-sensitive, such as promotional offers, event announcements, or limited-time deals that can be set to expire automatically on a specific time and date.
Your content is for seasonal or temporary campaigns that can expire after some time.
You are planning to rotate content so your channels remain fresh and engaging.
You need to abide by regulation policies stating that some content is only accessible for a specific period and then taken down after.
Delete content items to optimize content relevancy
There is often a need to periodically delete your content so that you can streamline the information made available. Deleting content items also ensures that the channels remain user-friendly and relevant to the target audience. However, deleting an unpublished or archived content item is an irreversible action. Consider deleting content items if:
Your content items have zero reuse potential.
Your content contains sensitive or confidential information that is not meant for the public.
Some cleanup is required, which will result in more efficient and effortless management of your content inventory.
You have limited resources such as storage; deleting content items can help optimize the resources’ usage.
Tips on working with multiple items
When you need to work with multiple content items at once, it’s best to start in Content & assets.
You can bulk schedule the unpublishing of your content items in Content & assets. First, select the content items for unpublishing carefully. Then, click the menu and select Unpublish and archive to schedule your unpublishing.You can’t discard the unpublishing schedule for multiple items at once. You need to remove the schedule separately for each item.
You can find the option to delete multiple content items in Content & assets. Select the content items you’d like to delete and click Delete in the menu. This menu appears only when you select at least one content item.
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Tread carefully when unpublishing and archivingWhen deciding to unpublish and archive your content item, first consider if other content items link to it. Unpublishing an item that is linked elsewhere can lead to problems, such as broken links. To prevent this, redirect the archived item’s URL to a similar published content item that you can link to.
Reuse archived content itemsFor efficient content production, you might want to reuse archived content items, for example, for your next-year Christmas campaign. Kontent.ai lets you do that by restarting any archived item’s workflow at any time in the future. This will make the content item editable and restore it to the draft workflow step so you can start using it again.
Try it yourselfHow about giving it a go yourself? In your Kontent.ai project, go to a published item and try scheduling it for unpublishing or archiving the item straight away. Alternatively, bulk edit multiple items at once by following the steps in this lesson.
Content & assets.
menu and select Unpublish and archive to schedule your unpublishing.You can’t discard the unpublishing schedule for multiple items at once. You need to remove the schedule separately for each item.
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