Update your old blog posts when they contain old and outdated references, the facts have changed, or if the images are outdated. If the blog post is outdated and you don’t want to update it, delete it. Updating your old blog post keeps your content consistently relevant, which leads to better rankings and more organic traffic.
The fundamental goal of search engines is to provide users with a positive experience. Technically, this means surfacing the most relevant and accurate content for them.
Blog posts with outdated information will drop points and eventually lose their rankings. Think the solution is creating evergreen content? Well, while this type of content can stand the test of time, one thing is for sure – Google won’t favor it forever.
A few things could change and make a small section or two irrelevant. Does that mean your best-performing blog posts with many quality backlinks and social shares are destined for Google graveyard? No.
Fortunately, Google allows content marketers to breathe new life into their old blog posts. Refreshing your content is less time-consuming, and it is highly beneficial to maintain and boost your organic traffic.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- When to update old blog posts
- How to choose the blog posts to update
- The best practices for updating old blog posts
Keep reading to find out.
Table of Contents
When to Update Old Blog Posts
You know it’s time to trim or tweak things if your content features:
· References to people – Occupations may have changed or become irrelevant. And, of course, people pass away or retire.
· References to businesses and organizations – Are they still operational? If not, delete their information from your content.
· References to pop culture – If you included information on some trending issues or pop culture when you first created the content, be sure to remove that. It’s an excellent way to keep your content evergreen.
· Time-sensitive mentions – For example, saying the software has been around for five years. You could fix that by stating the year the software was released.
· Statistics – Suppose you wrote a blog in 2020, and you mentioned that Manchester United is the team with the most trophies in England. Five years later, Liverpool overtakes it. Your information would be factually incorrect.
· Irrelevant, dead, or broken links: Check out the links on your website that don’t work anymore, as they can harm your SEO efforts. It could be that the linked pages have been deleted or moved.
· Irrelevant screenshots – If you used screenshots in your step-by-step guides and things have changed, make the necessary adjustments.
· Best practices have emerged – Remove what’s no longer considered the best practice or add whatever is new.
Sometimes an existing blog post can have accurate information, but the keywords might have changed over the years. In this case, you’ll need to add or update search terms for better rankings.
So How Do You Choose Old Blog Posts to Update?
Not every old blog post is worth reviving. One of the easiest ways to know this is by reviewing the performance of your posts using Google Analytics.
This free tool from Google can help you identify pages with high and low views.
A blog post with low page views deserves your attention only if revamping the content can make it relevant again. Otherwise, deleting it could be a good option.
You will want to prioritize old content that is already performing well. Besides Google Analytics, you can use Google Search Console to track the performance of individual pages.
It’s advisable to focus on blog posts with the following indicators:
- Gets or used to get consistent traffic
- Ranks high on Search Engine Results Pages
- Earned many high-quality backlinks
- Low conversion rate
- Many people have shared the post on different platforms
- The time people spend on the blog post is below average
- Directly related to products or services you sell
What Are the Best Practices for Updating Old Blog Posts
When adding new information, be sure to maintain the fundamentals of the blog post.
In line with that, here are guidelines to consider:
- Don’t make changes to the URL.
- Make sure to use keywords in the title. That’s if you make any changes to it.
- Include an editor’s note telling your readers that the blog post has been updated.
- Review the meta description and make it accurate, reflecting the updated content.
- Republish your updated content.
Final Word
Updating your old blog posts is a fantastic way to keep your content consistently relevant. This blogging tactic can significantly increase your organic traffic and leads. HubSpot tripled their monthly leads by refreshing old pages. So, it works. However, optimizing top-performing pages promises a better ROI.
References
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guide-to-updating-republishing-blogging-content-ht
https://neilpatel.com/blog/update-old-blog-posts/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/improve-remove-old-content/300961/#close
