20 Ways to Bring Old Blog Posts Back to Life For SEO
As a business owner or marketer, it's essential to keep your website's content fresh and relevant.
Not only does this attract new visitors, but it also helps your search engine rankings. One of the best ways to update your website's content is by revising and optimizing old blog posts.
In this article, we'll discuss 15 pro tips for reviving old blog posts and improving your search engine optimization (SEO). Ready? Let’s go.
Why is it important to update old blog posts?
Improves search engine rankings - Search engines like Google love fresh and relevant content. When you update old blog posts, you're telling search engines that your website is still active and up to date. This can improve your search engine rankings and attract new visitors to your website.
Increases traffic - When you update old blog posts, you're giving them a new lease on life. This means they can continue to drive traffic to your website. By adding new information, visuals, and keywords, you can encourage users to visit your website more frequently, leading to an increase in traffic.
Provides a better user experience - Your audience wants to see that you care about providing them with valuable information. By updating old blog posts with new information, visuals, and keywords, you can show your audience that you're committed to providing them with the best possible experience.
Boosts engagement rates - Old blog posts can sometimes feel outdated or irrelevant. By updating your old blog posts, you can make them more appealing to your audience, which can lead to higher engagement rates. This can be done by adding new visuals, updating the content, and optimizing your headings and subheadings.
Creates new repurposing opportunities - Updating your old blog posts can also provide opportunities for repurposing your content. By converting old blog posts into new formats, like videos or infographics, you can reach new audiences and provide value in different ways. Repurposing your content can help you to diversify your content marketing efforts and create a more engaging and dynamic website.
How do you pick the content to update?
Updating old content is crucial for maintaining your website's relevance, but it can be challenging to know where to start. To help you choose which content to refresh, here are some tips from our experts:
Look at pages with lots of high-quality links - Start by finding old blog posts on your site that have garnered a significant number of links from other outlets, but that don't rank well. These pages have lots of authority and potential that's worth its weight in gold. All you need to do next is to give the page a refresh, and sooner or later, you'll see a spike in traffic.
Find pages with the most traffic - Focus on updating the blog posts that have the most traffic to serve the user best. Analyze your most trafficked blog posts and see what data might be outdated. Look for new information and update the blog posts a couple of times a year with the help of an SEO dashboard.
Prioritize pages with lots of keyword impressions but low rankings - Use Google Search Console to filter your URLs by blog and find queries that have a lot of impressions and are within striking distance of ranking. Target the right content by finding pages that are showing up for that query.
Don't waste time updating old content that doesn't need to be updated - Make sure a post truly needs to be updated before you waste your time and resources. Use tools like Moz and SEMRush to perform content audits and see if traffic on your blogs has started to decline. Evaluate the content, data, keywords, and images, and make minor changes if it's still performing well.
In summary, the main thing is to make sure you have a reason to update the content. Just because it's old doesn't mean that it's not good enough or that it's no longer valid. With a process for updating blog posts, you can ensure that your old content remains relevant and drives traffic to your website.
How Often Should You Update Old Blog Posts?
Determining how often to update old blog posts can be a challenge. However, according to the majority of our experts, once a quarter is ideal for updating old blog posts for SEO.
It's important to note the lifetime value and lifespan of a blog post. A study commissioned by Izea and executed by the Halverson group revealed that it takes about two years for a blog post to reach the maximum number (99%) of its impressions.
The study also found that most blog posts undergo three unique life phases:
Shout phase: In the first 7-10 days, the blog post records an exponential increase in impressions (about 50% of its impressions).
Echo phase: The blog post realizes 72% of its impressions; this usually lasts for about 30 days after the shout phases elapses.
Reverberate: The blog post records the remaining 28% of its impressions over the duration of 30-700 days.
Keeping these life phases in mind, updating your old blog posts can provide opportunities to generate clicks, impressions, and conversions.
So, how do you update and republish your old blog posts for improved SEO? We get into that next.
20 Ways To Update Old Blog Posts for SEO
Consolidate mid-performing content
To improve traffic and declutter your site, look for mid-tier pages with some traffic but not enough. Merge them with other posts and eliminate duplicate content. This adds more valuable content to your page and reduces the number of pages on your site, making it easier to navigate.
Add the current year to the heading tag
To keep your blog current, update the title tag with the current year. This tells readers and Google that the content is up-to-date and reliable. Be sure to add fresh content and keywords to improve your search ranking.
Update meta tags for content with low CTRs
Improve the click-through rate of low-performing pages by updating metadata and titles. Check your competitors' high-ranking pages to create more appealing titles and descriptions for your own. But, be careful not to harm your current rankings and CTR.
Answer recent "people often ask" questions
To increase word count and answer common queries, add sections for frequently asked questions (FAQs) or expand on topics related to your old posts. Use tools like Google Search Console to check popular queries and add relevant sections.
Improve your search intent match
Check if your old content aligns with current search intent. See what types of content are ranking high and add missing topics to your old posts. This can include shorter or longer pieces, more images or videos, and helpful tools.
Add internal links when updating content
Keep your content fresh by adding internal links to new posts or updated content. This enhances user experience, SEO, and site architecture. Link to similar posts to create topic clusters, and make sure links are valid and relevant.
Link to new research studies
Update your content with new sources, reports, and call-out statistics to provide users with the most reliable information. Survey as many relevant people as you can to provide up-to-date data, and write new posts for industry changes.
Scan for (and remove) broken external links
Check old posts for dead or broken external links, and replace them with more relevant ones. Use a tool like Check My Links to ensure all links are valid and create a better user experience.
Add Schema markup
Improve your search ranking by adding Schema markup, a special code that helps Google spiders understand your page. Use common questions related to your topic and proper formatting to increase impressions and attract more readers.
Change the formatting or layout
To optimize old posts for SEO, ensure formatting and layout are up-to-date with current best practices. Use techniques like adding a summary or definition of your target keyword and using proper headings and subheadings to target keyword clusters. Review old structures and update them accordingly.
Learn from your competitors
To update old blog posts for SEO, keep an eye on your top five competitors' blogs and identify any gaps in keywords, images, or visuals. Also, take note of any cool features that engaged your attention and enhance the visitor experience by sprucing up visuals, graphics, tables, etc. Do this for multiple competitors and keywords to build up a reservoir of new ideas.
Research your industry
Do some research on your topic or industry to see changes that have occurred or are expected to occur. Also, see how your style has changed over time and revamp old blog posts by making them more interactive or easier to read for your audience. Make your post as comprehensive as possible by conducting a Google search to see what is ranking now and incorporating all of those subtopics into your updated blog.
Improve keyword rankings
See if the blog post is currently ranking well for keywords you hadn't thought of before. Identify the keywords that could help boost organic traffic and optimize them by adding new sections to the blog post, rewording headers, adding or updating imagery, and improving meta descriptions to improve click-through rates (CTRs) in the SERPs.
Target new keywords
Add relevant keywords and place them in your blog title, headings, subheadings, and introductory sentence. Target keywords with low search volumes that have a chance to rank rather than high-volume keywords that will never rank. Conduct a keyword audit to make old blogs work for your current SEO strategy.
Use visuals
Add a video related to the keyword or topic of the article to improve the time visitors stay on your page, which search engines love. Also, create high-quality, aesthetically pleasing, and engaging visuals to increase dwell time and engage your audience.
Articles with images get up to 94% more views, according to Search Engine Journal. At TalktheTalk, we offer our clients a custom graphics add-on where we create relevant and branded graphics to complement the text.
Update photos
Regularly update screenshots to show the latest interface, how-to instructions that reference new menu names and new step-by-step instructions for clicking through.
Optimize images
Pay attention to the alt text of photos, which improves the accessibility of your blog post and image SEO. Good alt text should be descriptive of the image and stay under 125 characters.
Set a schedule to update content
Create a cycle of life for each piece of content, and update old blog posts once a quarter. Here are some tips and tools to help you set a schedule for updating your content:
Analyze your website traffic and performance to identify which content needs updating or consolidating.
Determine the frequency of updates based on the type of content, its relevance to your target audience, and your marketing goals.
Create a content calendar to plan and track your updates. You can use tools like Trello, Asana, or Google Sheets to collaborate with your team and ensure consistent updates.
Consider automating some updates, such as adding the current year to the title tag or updating the metadata for low-performing pages.
Set reminders for yourself or your team to ensure that updates are made on time.
Regularly review and adjust your content schedule to keep up with changes in your industry or audience needs.
By following these tips and utilizing tools such as content calendars, automation, and reminders, you can ensure that your content is regularly updated and optimized for maximum impact.
Avoid drastic changes
Update the post to provide extra value, not just for the sake of updating it. Be careful, particularly if the post is already ranking well. Little and often is the rule when it comes to updating.
Add expert quotes
Add credibility to the post with external links, authoritative quotes, and relevant stats to build expertise, authority, and trust (EAT), which is having a significant impact on search.
Get high-quality content updates with TalktheTalk
In conclusion, updating old content can provide numerous benefits to your website, such as improving search rankings, enhancing user experience, and increasing traffic. By following the tips and tools mentioned above, you can keep your website's content fresh and up-to-date.
If you need help with your content updates, consider working with TalktheTalk Creative. Our expert blog post writing services can help you streamline your content creation process and keep your website up-to-date with the latest industry trends. With their help, you can ensure that your website always has high-quality and engaging content that resonates with your audience.
