How to Update Old Blog Content To Drive Traffic to Your Website

Do you have cringe-worthy old content? Maybe you’ve been blogging for a while and you’ve learned so many new things that when you look back at your old content, you are embarrassed.

There’s no way you are promoting that on your social media.

And the images, oh god!

This is pretty common.

If only you had time to update those old posts with strategies you’ve learned over the years.

Why You Should Update Old Content

Google likes when you update old content. They are looking for active sites that provide high quality, original content.

Posting regularly and doing updates on old posts are great ways to boost your traffic and get noticed by Google.

Boosting Traffic

When Anita of Ketogenic Woman and I updated her old content, we saw an immediate boost in traffic. Google picked up the content changes immediately.

The more traffic you already have, the easier it is to see the changes immediately. A newbie will not see as much of a boost as a blogger with 100K of monthly page views.

Pinterest Also Likes New Content

Part of updating old content usually involves making new Pinterest images. Pinterest likes new, fresh content, just like Google. Maybe they are secretly friends and compare notes?

When creating new images to share on Pinterest, it’s recommended that you create several Pinterest images.

It can be pretty distracting to have them in your post, so embedding them keeps them available for Pinners, but does not overload your article with images.

A Fresh Look

Creating a new featured image gives your old post a fresh look. This is ideal for sharing on social media. Your readers will enjoy the fresh new look of the post.

This offers you the opportunity to brand your site as well. Chose the fonts, colors, and add your website or logo of your brand to your featured image while you are updating it.

What Parts of Your Content Should You Update?

Thinking about all of the things that you could update can be overwhelming. I use a program called Trello to keep a checklist.

Each time I work on a new post, I copy my master checklist over (customized to each client based on how involved I am in their blog) to a new list, rename it the name of the post and get to work.

What’s On My Checklist?

Here is a list of items that are on my current checklist. It’s always evolving as I learn, so feel free to reach out and ask me what’s currently on my list.

A Catchy Title

A good title can be the difference between a reader clicking through or passing on your article.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

• Keywords in your title hold a lot of weight – add in a few
• Use sensory words to spruce up your title
  • Appeal to your reader. Is the recipe delicious? Was the trip life changing? Is the life hack saving them precious time?
• Create urgency (3 Delicious Coffee Tips You Need To Try Today!)
• Make it relevant
  • Always make sure you don’t overload with the above recommendations, be sure to stay relevant and don’t lose your title in keywords.

Get Creative With Keywords

We always want to make sure we are not keyword stuffing. If you are creative with your keywords, you can update your content, add keywords, and improve the quality of your article all in one shot.

Go to google and search your topic. As an example, I googled “update old content.” Scroll down to the section that says “People also ask.”

Here is what came up for me.

This gives you some great ideas for content people are searching for. Depending on the size and domain authority of your site, you may never rank for these topics.

Even if you don’t, when you rank for other keywords, and your reader clicks through to your site, they will find well thought out, helpful, and high-quality content that is made with their needs in mind.

This technique can really help fill out an old post with good quality information.

Tip: Use the Moz chrome extension to find out the domain authority of each site in the google search results. This will help you size up the competition and you could find lots of underserved keywords you can create content for.

Tip: Use the chrome extension Keywords Everywhere. This will show you the search results for specific keywords so you can see if anyone is actually searching for these keywords.

Interlinking Helps Keep Readers on Your Site

You can use the plug-in called Create by Mediavine to interlink your posts easily. This allows you to create lists for topics and put in a shortcode at the end of each post with the list you want to use.

This will save you a TON of time, and BONUS, it adds wordcount to your posts. It is also very attractive.

You can manually interlink your posts if you prefer, but it’s not as attractive.

However, it is a good idea to add links throughout your post if you mention something relevant to another post.

The Boring Stuff

Here’s all the boring stuff you should be updating.

• Update your meta description with some good copy to encourage people to click on your link
• Write a short sentence with keywords in the alt text of each image.
• Any maintenance with ad codes, whether you add codes manually, use ad inserter, or if you have Mediavine, you may want to make a video to boost your income
• Include a pin description in your image HTML so when people Pin your image, you already have a keyword optimized description

Create New Images

Create a new featured image with text and your logo or web address, as well as new Pinterest images.

Embed the old images so your readers can still Pin the image if they want to. Everyone has different taste, and it’s a good split test.

This is a good time to do an A/B split test of images. Embed an image that looks nothing like your brand and see what people Pin. If they are consistently Pinning your non-brand images, you may want to review your brand colors.

Need Help Updating Old Content?

This is a short preview of the things I do to update old content. There are quite a few other things on my list, and it is constantly evolving as I learn new things.

If you are interested in working with me, please reach out if you have any questions or want to know the next steps.

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How to Update Old Blog Content To Drive Traffic to Your Website