Updating old blogs is essential for posts to stay relevant, attract organic traffic, and provide their audience with current and up-to-date information. But learning how to update old blog posts for SEO is just as important.
Blogs often get posted and left to sit. Your blogs may get a lot of attention for a little bit, but the traffic inevitably dies down. Those who land on an old blog post may click away quickly when they realize the information is no longer current and, therefore, unsuited to meet their needs. Search algorithms can also change, meaning simple matters like formatting need addressing.
Updating your old blog posts is key to keeping the audience’s attention and will help your blog grow and succeed. Let’s examine some of the reasons this practice should become part of your business’s routine.
5 BENEFITS OF UPDATING OLD CONTENT
Here are the main benefits of updating old blog posts:
- Build your site’s authority
- Maintain brand consistency
- Provide valuable and up-t0-date information
- Increase signals
- Improve underperforming content
The old saying, “time is money,” has never been more true than in today’s digital age. The time businesses spend creating and uploading new content is likely a top priority, but giving old content a refresh should carry equal importance.
1. BUILD YOUR SITE’S AUTHORITY
Landing high on search engine page results is an important goal for every site. Publishing new content helps your SERPs ranking, but updating old content will push you even higher.
Updating old content shows search engines that your site always produces up-to-date information. Along with that being one of the biggest ranking factors for SERPs, it also gives your site a higher authority ranking both in SERPs and with your audience.
2. MAINTAIN A CONSISTENT BRAND
You may have started managing your blog alone or with only a few other employees. As your site grows, you’re likely to get involved with a creative agency partner, and the responsibility of churning out blog posts may be distributed to others.
It’s important to go back and update old content to ensure it matches the current voice of your brand. Customers easily spot brand inconsistencies, so this can cause them to feel unsure of your services, products, etc.
A seamlessly consistent tone throughout your site guarantees a better user experience than one that feels like many different people with different goals, values, etc wrote it.
Maintaining a consistent brand by updating old blog posts is an excellent way to maintain your audience’s trust. It can also make your brand more easily recognizable.
3. PROVIDE VALUABLE AND RELEVANT CONTENT
Old blog posts can easily become irrelevant or old facts may need to be updated. New statistics are coming out every year about health, science, and technology topics. If your blog focuses on one of these topics, then updating old content is essential.
Your audience will trust and return to your site more than others when it consistently answers a question, solves a problem, or explains an idea in a way that’s relevant and valuable in the current times. Your site will also get put in front of more people when search engine crawlers see that you’re consistently updating information. This will help keep your site ranking high.
4. INCREASE BACKLINKS
One of the biggest advantages of learning how to update old blog posts for SEO is the opportunity to incorporate new backlinks. Backlinks are an excellent way to drive more traffic to your blog, as they’re one of the key ranking factors for SERPs and will give it more authority.
Old blog posts aren’t likely to receive new backlinks because the information they contain may not be relevant. A more current article link may have even replaced them.
Updating old blog posts to get them up-to-date will give your audience more reasons to link to them. This is especially true for blogs offering a professional service, like a blog about digital marketing in Minneapolis. Most people looking for a digital marketer will want to find someone constantly active and keeping their website current.
5. REVIVE UNDERPERFORMING CONTENT
Some blog posts are a hit, and others are a big miss. Content that underperformed can often be revived with a simple update. You could add a new video to the blog post, add a section with updated, relevant information, and turn a post that didn’t do well into your top-performing post.
Use tools like Google Search Console to find currently trending topics and keywords related to the main topic of your blog. This will give you a new trajectory for the blog and help you get the most out of every content you publish.
DOES UPDATING OLD BLOG POSTS HELP SEO?
Yes. Updating old blog posts is essential when you rely on SEO to drive traffic to your site and convert casual users into long-term customers.
Moreover, updating old content helps in many of the ways we discussed above. But in terms of the factors that help your blog’s chances at ranking high, these are the key ranking factors you’ll want to focus on:
- Incorporating new keywords
- Addressing new topics
- Providing up-to-date information
- Implementing the latest SEO best practices
Giving old blogs a refresh is the best way to stay on the favorable side of search engines because they prioritize fresh and relevant content. Learning how to update old blog posts for SEO gives your content an even better chance at reaching your target audience and ensuring they find relevant and helpful information in your post, leading to a positive user experience and the potential for casual browsers to become loyal customers or patrons of your site.
HOW DO I UPDATE OLD BLOG POSTS FOR SEO?
Now that we’ve discovered its importance, let’s discuss how to update old blog posts for SEO. It’s helpful to have the assistance of an experienced marketing agency like Snap to help out at this stage, but it is possible to do SEO on your own.
Several aspects of your content will need refreshing and updating. After all, potential customers value relevance just as much as search engines do, so it’s essential to go over your old content with an eagle’s eye to look for any potential areas to improve upon.
That said, here are the main things to focus on:
- Technical: Going over the technical side involves reviewing and updating internal links to other relevant blog posts or pages on your website. Additionally, ensure images are optimized with descriptive alt tags and compress them for faster loading, providing a smooth user experience. Check the accuracy and relevance of all external links, and replace broken links or outdated resources with new ones.
- Keywords: Updating old blog posts allows businesses to target the latest keywords. Take some time to research currently trending keywords using Google Search Console, Ahfers, and other tools. Incorporate additional, relevant keywords and questions, and update the meta title, meta description, and header tags to include the new keywords and reflect the updated content.
- Refresh Content: Read the old post carefully and look for areas of outdated regulations, trends, and other information. Update any sections that are no longer relevant or accurate.
- Readability and Scanability: Determine the best way to update the structure of the post and reorganize the content to make it more mobile-friendly to read. This generally includes utilizing subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists to break up the text and improve the overall structure.
SHOULD I REPUBLISH OLD BLOG POSTS?
Many businesses have a catalog of blog posts that run back years. The idea of going back and updating each one is a daunting task, especially if you’re a small business with only a few employees. While it is important to know how to update old blog posts for SEO, knowing when to republish old content is equally helpful. Here are a few questions you should consider before republishing old content:
- Is it more than 12 months old?
- Is it underperforming for its target keyword?
- Do other blog posts outrank you?
- Do you have enough link authority to rank higher now?
If you answered yes to those questions, it’s time to republish the blog post. However, if you answered no to one or more, you may want to look for a different opportunity.
Perhaps the keyword you’ve chosen isn’t relevant enough, and it’d be better to rewrite the content entirely, or it could be improved with a simple refresh.