Why You’re Missing Out If You Don’t Update Your Old Content

A lot of businesses prioritise publishing new content to their website regularly, often without much strategy or reason. Essentially, content for content’s sake.

These companies have a large library of existing content, usually in the form of blog posts, that is stagnating and forgotten about.

An investment was made to create this content, so it makes sense to squeeze every last drop of value out of it, rather than leaving it to decay.

A switch of focus away from spooling out new content, to revisiting and improving old content can provide far greater value when it comes to user experience and SEO benefits. 

It also requires less time investment than creating new posts, whilst improving the longevity of the content you’ve already invested time in writing.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits for businesses of updating their old blog posts and provide insights on how to select which posts to work on, and how to achieve the best results.

The Benefits Of Updating Content

A Cost-Effective Content Strategy

Rather than continually churning out new content, companies can maximise their existing resources by repurposing and updating old blog posts. This approach proves to be a cost-effective content strategy, allowing businesses to squeeze more value from their initial content investment.

Improving User Experience Through Value

Outdated blog posts can be off-putting to users seeking current and relevant information as well as either being unhelpful, or potentially even harmful. By updating old blog posts with new insights, data, and examples, businesses can provide a more valuable and satisfying user experience, ultimately increasing engagement and brand loyalty.

Establishing Thought Leadership

By demonstrating a commitment to keeping their content up-to-date and relevant, businesses can solidify their position as a thought leader within their industry. Updated blog posts showcase expertise and authority, building trust and credibility with their audience.

Improved Organic Traffic

By revisiting and refreshing old blog posts with updated keywords, relevant information, and improved readability, businesses can increase their organic traffic, making it easier for their target audience to find them online.

Which Content Should You Update?

Business purpose will obviously dictate the kind of content you publish to your blog. But most companies will post a mixture of timely news or trend related content, and more evergreen content.

Most of the timely content isn’t worth updating, unless it is to add more information as something develops or to link people to a newer post that has more current information. 

The content that can bring the most value by revisiting is the more evergreen topics.

Although we may call them evergreen, lots of these pieces of content can benefit greatly from updates to ensure they are still relevant, useful and factually correct. Building on the quality and the value they bring to your readers. 

Not all old posts are worth updating. Focus on trending topics or key blog posts that are still relevant to your readers and what your target audience is searching for.

Identifying Which Blog Posts To Revisit

So how do you choose which posts you should work on?

Begin by conducting a thorough content audit to identify which blog posts are worth updating. Here you should turn to your data, alongside your industry knowledge. 

You want to identify:

• Evergreen content – topics that are still relevant and useful to your target audience.
• The low hanging fruit – look for posts that are ranking for your targeted keywords in the position 5 to 20 range. With a little work these can be easiest to push up the SERPs.
• The harder to reach but higher value fruit – look for posts that aren’t currently ranking well, but that target keywords that are of high value to you. These may take more work but have the potential of bringing greater gains.
• Dwindling traffic – look for posts that were performing well but now traffic is dwindling (provided this isn’t seasonal traffic.)
• Relevance to current trends and industry developments – look for posts that have relevance to current news or trends.
• Any content that is competing with itself for rankings – look for keyword cannibalisation.

Look at:

• Ranking data (where do your blog posts currently rank for target keywords.)
• Keyword research (are you targeting the right keywords and intent with these posts.)
• Traffic data (which posts are receiving traffic (not just organic), which get none, and which are growing or declining.)
• Changes, trends or news within your industry that may make a post highly relevant again.

What To Update In The Posts You’ve Identified?

The first task is to reread the post you have selected to work on. If you are not the subject matter expert, also get someone who is to read through the post.

Does it:

• Provide value?
• Does it answer the questions the reader may have?
• Is it easy to read and engaging?
• Is it targeting keywords that are meaningful to your search strategy?

You can then break down potential areas of change into the following:

Errors & Issues

A fresh set of eyes on older content may reveal errors that slipped by previously. It can also help to identify wider issues that may have developed from changes to your CMS, that have created knock-on issues within your blog posts. 

For example, if you have a WordPress site and at some point transitioned from classic editor to Gutenberg, there may be block errors that need fixing for sections of content to display correctly.

Revisiting old posts gives you the opportunity to fix errors and formatting issues that help to improve the overall polish of your post. Things to look out for for include:

• Typos.
• Spacing issues.
• Broken images.
• Broken internal or external links.
• Content that doesn’t display or displays incorrectly.

Readability

Ensuring your posts are easy to read and accessible, means that more people can potentially engage with your content.

A revisit can help you identify readability and accessibility improvements like the following:

• Break up chunks of text with more subheadings and bullets to be more digestible.
• Use the correct heading structure and ensure the content is accessible on assistive technology like screen readers.
• Add useful imagery and diagrams.
• Ensure images have useful and descriptive alt text.
• Adding an audio version of the post for those who prefer to listen.
• Adding videos (don’t forget closed captions for audio).

Supporting Media

Enriching blog posts with media like images and videos can make it far more engaging and pleasant to read. Visual and audio elements can also aid in the understanding of a topic. 

Are the images or other media formats you are currently using in the post high quality, useful and engaging, or could they do with improvement?

Consider refreshing the visual elements of old blog posts by adding new images, infographics, or videos to make the content more engaging and visually appealing.

Would your post benefit from the addition or update of media such as:

• Images.
• Graphics or diagrams.
• Infographics.
• Videos.
• Audio files.
• Downloadable content.

SEO Strategy & On Page Optimisation

Reviewing whether a post still aligns with your SEO strategy and SEO best practices will help you identify potential changes and ways for it to deliver more value.

• Ensure the post is targeting the right keywords according to your latest keyword research and your overall SEO strategy.
• Identify and incorporate new keywords to improve search visibility and attract relevant organic traffic.
• Make sure the content is natural and written for the user (not for search engines).
• Is your post answering real questions that your audience are asking? Use tools like Also Asked, to see what people are actually searching for, so you can be sure you are providing relevant answers.
• Look at whether your Page Title could do with a rewrite. Does Google tend to rewrite it in the SERP? 
• Update your headings if you think they could be more useful, and make sure you follow a proper heading structure. This helps users understand content hierarchy and aids scan readers, looking for the section that answers their query.
• Assess whether your Meta description needs an update to do a better job of tempting users to click through to your post.

Relevancy, Recency and Information

A reread by a subject matter expert, whether you or someone else, will identify where the content needs updating to make sure it is still relevant and useful. 

Update statistical data, facts, and any outdated information within the content. Introduce new insights, examples, or case studies to provide a fresh perspective on the topic.

Consider:

• Updating any stats used with more recent data.
• Adding new stats and data sources.
• Updating external links to more current or respected resources. 
• Adding new information where available to ensure the post is still current and useful.
• Remove information that is outdated, no longer factual or irrelevant.

Internal Linking Strategy

Incorporate relevant internal links to new and existing content within the updated blog posts. This not only aids in navigating users to related material but is also important for SEO.

Revisiting a post allows you to:

• Fix broken links.
• Update internal links that are redirecting.
• Adding new internal links to relevant content across your site.

I’ve Updated My Post, What Next?

Now that you have updated your old content, what next?

Once the old blog posts are updated, actively promote them across social media channels, email newsletters, and any other relevant communication platforms to ensure maximum visibility and engagement.

Also resubmit the posts for indexing via Search Console.

Then you will need to monitor the performance of your updated content and potentially tweak and refine your approach to achieve your desired outcome.

By embracing the practice of updating old blog posts, businesses can tap into an efficient and sustainable content strategy that not only benefits their users but also enhances their SEO performance. The strategic refresh of existing content shows a company’s ongoing commitment to delivering valuable and current insights to its audience while optimising its digital presence.