Ever wonder what to do with previous blog posts? Most people seem to be wholly consumed with producing new things, a lot of the time. Yet another excellent tactic to raise your site’s SEO and performance is to update outdated content and revamp outdated pages.
High-quality content requires a lot of effort and time to produce, which is why. It is therefore challenging to compete with the big blogs out there if you have a small team or are working alone. Re-optimizing your current content could be the answer if that describes your situation.
You can quickly climb those rankings using a method that doesn’t require much additional work.
You could certainly keep writing and creating new content. However, it is difficult and time-consuming.
You can update outdated content instead. Your overall content marketing strategy will benefit because it requires less effort and yields quicker results.
Simply updating your outdated content will improve your freshness score, which will increase the impact of your SEO efforts and increase search engine traffic.
You’ll see an increase in traffic after notifying Google that your content is new, making the minimal effort required worthwhile.
How Do You Know When to Update a Piece of Content?
Although we frequently believe that the work we publish represents our best work, things can change over time. In the past decade, five years, and one year, SEO has undergone significant change.Â
Some telltale signs that content is old include when it grows stale, starts to perform poorly, or simply feels “old.” To keep your readership from becoming bored.Â
Once a year, at the very least. You should evaluate your content and keep a close eye on any modifications you make, as well as how they impact your metrics.
Keep an eye on the changes you make and their effect on your metrics if your content is currently performing well.
Refreshing Old Content Has Advantages
Let’s examine the advantages of updating outdated content in more detail, building on our case studies from above.
Gain a Higher Click-Through Rate
You’ll quickly notice that the top results for almost any term on Google are typically ones that were just released in the last year or so.
Since SEO is a rapidly evolving field, it’s critical to regularly update your content. As a result, an article’s click-through rate will go up, and Google’s algorithm values this.
You should also create intriguing headlines and descriptions that entice readers to keep reading. To ensure that your visitors can read the entire title in the search results, the headline should not exceed eight words, or 70 characters.Â
In order to make this work in your favor, try to draw readers in by narrating a story using details or by assisting the reader in seeing things from your point of view.
You can increase your search engine rankings by updating your content to engage more readers.
Correction of Spelling and Grammar Errors
Everyone has experienced it.
We caught an embarrassing spelling error while reading an old post we wrote months or even years ago.
Spend some time fixing the mistakes rather than ignoring them and hoping for the best.
Grammar and spelling aren’t among Google’s 200 ranking factors. The user experience is negatively impacted by poor grammar and spelling, and this will either directly or indirectly affect your rankings.
It’s time to change your spelling and grammar if there are any minor mistakes.
Display to Google That Your Content Is New
Google adores new content, which is no secret.
Recent content ranks higher, especially for subjects that change frequently.
Therefore, you’re losing out on a huge opportunity if you’re only publishing new content. Search engine rankings for your outdated content will decline gradually.
You can reuse that content instead. In actuality, you can easily double your traffic by updating your content.
In WordPress, you can either add a new publication date or simply save an update. You’ll notice an increase in search engine traffic when Google crawls your site once more.
Instead of releasing content that quickly becomes outdated, launch an evergreen piece for a huge increase in views and visits.Â
Use your content to accomplish the same thing. The majority of the Google results your articles merit will be yours if you put in the effort to keep it fresh.
By proving you have new content, you can easily raise your rankings.
Boost the precision of your content
Every Google update, in the end, focuses on one thing: enhancing the user experience.
With Google’s numerous algorithm updates and ongoing refinement of their ranking factors, your site will succeed if it provides a great user experience.
By adding new information or updated content, you can make your content more useful and beneficial for your visitors.
Give the user more context, improve the piece’s accuracy, and raise the article’s overall value.
You can still use these techniques if you don’t publish news sites or if your audience is too small to warrant a personal response from Google.
Finding new and current information about the article you’re writing and including it will help you achieve this.
It’s a good idea to mention that you’ve added this new content in an update to show that you’ve read the article carefully and made any necessary edits.
And watch for your rankings to soar as you produce more valuable resources.
Boost the Freshness of Your Whole Site
Websites that update their content frequently receive higher rankings from Google.
Because of this, after a few years, abandoned sites don’t rank well. Your traffic should soar by revitalizing this outdated content if you want to change this.
Google will see that your entire site is legitimate if you make a few updates to important articles. As a result of Google realizing that you have new content on your site, every piece of it will rank higher. All of your past publications will rank higher as a result of this.
Remove Broken Links to Demonstrate Value
The two free tools in this article that repair broken links on outdated content are the most crucial information.
To check for broken links, use the online tool known as Broken Link Checker. The second tool checks for broken links in a post. It is the Broken Link Checker for Google Chrome.
Finding the original page and looking for possible alternate publications are crucial steps in fixing a broken link. It’s critical to find a different, higher-quality resource and link to it if the article is actually offline. When you eliminate broken links, the page gains value in Google’s eyes and improves rankings.
Connect to More Recent, Better Sources
When updating older content, include new links to better sources to give it new meaning and increase its Google value. Your page will become the go-to informational resource for others if you link to the best online content. Link to your own resources before updating the call to action you are currently using. You can give blog posts new life and boost their Google rankings by adding current resources and in-depth content.
Add Multimedia to Improve Rankings
Adding a variety of media is one of the best ways to raise your search engine rankings. An image and a link back to the original content should be 150–350 words, respectively. By doing this, you can review the images and quickly locate any updated parts if necessary. This also makes it simpler for others to understand where the image came from.Â
Strong imagery has many advantages, as shown in the illustration.
Boost the frequency with which Google indexes your website
As you strive to make improvements to the previous content you’ve posted on your website. Not just the articles you’ve updated, but the entire body of content as a whole, will begin to reap the rewards.
Google scans your entire website to find your most recent updates, which is the reason for this.
The frequency of Google’s time commitment to crawling your website using this.
You can increase Google’s frequency of site crawling without publishing more frequently by updating older content.
The more Google crawls your website, the higher you rank in the search engine results. Increasing the possibility that your most recent content will surface in search results following publication.
Make Use of the Correct Keywords
You might not have done enough or the right kind of keyword research before publishing your original post. It’s possible that the keywords you initially chose to target have evolved; for instance, a once-commercial keyword might now be transactional.
In either case, you might discover that the older content you published is actually performing better than you anticipated in terms of keyword rankings.
You can improve the keyword focus of the pieces you’ve created proactively rather than just leaving it the same and hoping for the best.
Promote Your Content Once More by Sharing It
Distribute and re-market your content. It’s time to advertise your updated post like it’s brand-new since you just updated it. Ensure that your page has a lot of sharing buttons. Reach out to influencers about the post and use the standard techniques for promoting new content to promote yours. To create a powerful backlink profile, use ego-bait as well. This tactic entails quoting someone important in your industry and letting them know you did so. Last but not least, reshare your content and watch your rankings soar.
Resolve any issues with the most recent Google updates.
Google updates its algorithm annually, with a focus on improving the algorithm and changing ranking factors. To increase the visibility of your content in Google searches. All previous content must adhere to the best practices for Google’s most recent updates. In order to achieve this, it’s crucial to assess the changes and include features that will maximize the potential for the success of your content. You’ll have the best chance of keeping content current and relevant if you conduct content refreshes that consider these updates.
Use Content Repurposing to Gain More Backlinks
It’s crucial to produce various content types from an old article to maximize its impact. Repurposing previous research or creating a SlideShare presentation are two ways toÂ
accomplish this. Divide the article’s content into subpoints and make a separate slide for each to achieve this in the simplest way possible. To increase visibility and acquire new backlinks, publish the slideshow on SlideShare and promote it once more. Your rankings will increase because backlinks are one of the main ranking factors used by Google and other search engines.
Utilize the Potential of Your Old Content
The majority of your content is older than a few months, according to this passage, which is one of its main points. Google places the highest priority on high-quality content. Therefore, even if you have a recent article on your website, it won’t help. Google will still favor older, higher-quality content if the quality isn’t there. You can give your outdated content a new lease on life and make it into content that will continue to generate a ton of traffic from search engines by updating it. You can improve your search engine rankings by updating outdated content with a new look and relevant information.