Why And How You Should Update Your Old Posts:
A lot of hard work goes into writing content. Often we fall into a trap of working really hard on a piece and then forgetting it was ever published. Keeping old content fresh and making it work for you saves wasted effort and draws people to your website.
Why Should You Update Old Content?
1) Content for life, not just for Christmas! Whilst you put all the promotional work into a post when it goes live, 6 months later it is still there and hopefully still being read, and picked up in search engines. In fact only a few months ago my stats soared because of people sharing one of my posts that was 8 months old. That post is still relevant and helpful.
2) You probably know a lot more about writing content now than you did 6 months ago, and if you went back to some of your old posts you could probably improve them with your new knowledge and improved writing.
3) You can introduce your new followers to older content by updating and re-sharing and giving them a whole new lease of life and love.
4) A subject that you wrote about may become newsworthy, what better time to dust off an old post and re-share. Jump on that bandwagon and see where it takes you.
5) It keeps your website looking up to date and professional, and establishes you as an authority on your subject area.
How To Update An Old Blog Post
TEXT
Has your writing style changed? Have a read through and see if you can make an improvements, or do you have anything to add? Is there new research that could be included, or developments in your subject area?
IMAGES
Have you learnt a few more tricks using PicMonkey or Canva that could really enhance the post? Do you have a newer photograph that would work really well? Does it have a pin-able image?
SEO
Can you do anything to improve the SEO for the content? Did you get the keywords right, are they working for you? Use the Yoast SEO plug in to ensure your content in ‘green’ in the traffic light system. Although be warned continually updating the SEO won’t make it rank any higher, and could have a detrimental effect. Only do it for content over three months old and only do it once.
BACK LINKS
Could you add some back links to newer content that you have written? What about related content?
FOOTER
Do you have a call to action or subscription form that you have started using since writing the content originally?
SHARE
Share your updated content through your social media channels and watch it gain a new lease of life.
Re-purpose
Could you expand on the subject matter? Does this content lead to new content that you can write? How could you generate new leads from this subject matter?
Check out these posts for more reasons and ways to keep your old posts fresh!
- 10 Clever Ways to Keep Your Old Posts Alive – Blogger Tips Tricks
- Why You Need to Edit Old Posts on Your Blog – Shout Me Loud
- 9 Ways to increase Blog Traffic by Updating Old Posts – Melyssa Griffin
- How to Make Old Posts Work For You – You baby Me Mummy