Have you ever considered what to do with existing content? Although it can seem like most people just focus on creating new content, updating existing pages and improving previous content is another great way to improve your site’s functionality and SEO.
The reason for this is that it takes a lot of time and effort to produce high-quality material. As a result, if you have a small staff or are working by yourself, it could be difficult to compete with established blogs and publications. Re-optimizing your current content might be the best line of action if that accurately reflects your circumstance.
In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to improve existing content to get better search engine results, higher conversion rates, and more visitors. You’ll learn the advantages of updating information as well as the exact steps to take.
Here’s how to do content optimization of previous content for SEO.
1. Gather Your Data
Which posts or content should you optimize first, I hear you ask? Theoretically, all of them. But it’s helpful to know where to begin. Ideally, you are keeping track of a variety of measures that let you determine it.
Additionally, information about average time on page and bounce rate will be provided. The top of the screen has an export to spreadsheet button.
You can add your pages with the most links to that content. You might also want to include other metrics you use to assess the success of your pages, such as social shares, rankings, and conversions per page from your email sign-up forms.
2. Determine Which Pages To Do Content Optimization
It’s time to do an analysis after you have all of the data in one location. Refer to your content marketing strategy and look out for these pages:
High traffic but poor conversions – With the right optimization, this post or content type might generate more signups and leads.
Low traffic but high conversions – In this case, increasing traffic could result in an increase in leads.
Previously well-liked content that received links and shares on social media has seen its traffic and search ranking fall.
This perspective should help you find some potential candidates for optimization as you look at your material. Picking 10 to 30 posts should be sufficient at first. Later, you can always do more.
The next step is to implement one or more of the solutions for replacing outdated content listed below.
3. Keep your keyword research current
Any SEO approach is built on a foundation of keyword research. However, a term or keyword that was well-liked twelve months ago might not get the same volume of searches now. Therefore, it’s crucial to periodically re-optimize your content.
You have the ability to add more keywords to your content when you update your keyword strategy. You might have overlooked some secondary keyword chances when releasing it. It’s time to atone for that right now.
Here’s how you can discover fresh keywords for your content:
Go to Google Search Console’s Performance report.
Select Position, then Smaller Than, then enter 21 in the Filter rows icon’s drop-down menu.
To view which pages are returned when you search for the search terms that appear, click on them and then select Pages.
You can also choose to download the complete report as a spreadsheet, filter it by Position, and look at queries that fall between positions 3 and 20. Afterward, confirm in GSC which pages they relate to.
You can also enter your pages into Google Keyword Planner. You’ll see some suggested keywords for it in this.
There’s a decent probability that you’ll discover a few keywords you haven’t optimized for when you do this. Keep an eye out for long-tail keywords in particular, as these are frequently simpler to rank for.
This and other tactics are covered in our article on keyword clustering. We will discuss where to insert keywords in more detail below if you are unsure.
4. Analysis of Search Intent
In addition to choosing the best keywords, you must comprehend search intent. This has a significant impact on how Google ranks content.
In essence, the purpose of a user’s search query is their search intent. What does a user intend when they type in a particular keyword, then? Do they intend to purchase anything? Do they merely seek out information? You may make the most pertinent information for them by being aware of this.
As a result, consider more than just the keywords themselves by considering what the individual who submits them into a search engine actually wants. You can get assistance with that from the post mentioned above.
5. Make your headlines better
80 percent of readers will read a headline, but just 20 percent will actually read the rest of your article, according to Copyblogger. In order to draw in more readers, it is a good idea to improve the headlines of your older posts.
For instance, recollect how we mentioned that fresh material gets more clicks? By changing your headline to indicate that it has recently been updated, you can profit from this.
Additionally, this will help you rank for long-tail keywords where users expressly search for material from this year.
CoSchedule’s headline analyzer and SmartBlogger’s Headline Hacks are two resources for writing catchy headlines. Additionally, make sure to use strong terms for CTR and see if you can use the keywords you already found. Write better headlines with these tips.
6. Refresh the Information
The exciting part now is upgrading the content itself. Here are the things to look for whether you opt to make a small number of adjustments or many:
Authentic data Take special note of any statistics or research you have cited. Check to see if it has been updated and if any new studies or information have been published since you last posted it. You can also do this to make your content more thorough.
Broken links – While you’re at it, check that your outbound links are pointing to current and recent pages. By doing this, broken links are removed, which is terrible for SEO.
Fresh pictures — Invest the time to incorporate eye-catching photographs to ensure that your material stands out from that of your rivals. In addition, make sure any graphs or other visual material you use is up to date. Also, think about substituting some of the images with gifs or videos.
When you read your writing from a few years ago, you should ideally feel a little embarrassed about your grammar, spelling, and writing. That indicates that your skill level has improved. A great time to use your newly acquired abilities is when you update your content and check it for grammar, spelling, formatting, and other elements that make it simpler to read.
7. Do Not Forget About On-Page SEO
Individual pages on your website are optimized as part of on-page SEO in an effort to improve ranking and increase relevant traffic. An excellent opportunity to revisit it is through optimization.Why does that matter? Make sure your outdated material satisfies all the requirements for an optimized page. Pay attention in particular to:
- The title, URL, meta description, and headings all use the primary keyword.
- Your H2 and H3 headlines should contain supplemental keywords.
- Relevant and current internal and external links images that are prepared for SEO and speed
- A content analysis tool like Yoast SEO can be useful if you are unsure of your on-page SEO abilities.
8. Make your calls to action better
The calls to action you included are probably out of date as well if your material is outdated.
Perhaps you’ve since developed a new product that more closely relates to the subject of the blog article, or perhaps a lead generation incentive has emerged since you first published it.
Going back to search intent is crucial if you want to improve your CTAs. Your calls to action should align with the goals of your searchers. Examining the keywords for your sites is one of the finest ways to achieve this. In CTAs, you can frequently employ precise key phrases.
9. Examine the Comments
Examining the comments is the last stage in altering the content of your page. You may have accumulated a large number of unhelpful remarks over time.
There may be some spam, or some of the comments may not be topical, refer to items that are no longer in the revised post, or they may just not add anything.
Consider eliminating them in each of those scenarios. In this manner, the comments area will serve new visitors just as well as the remainder of the content.
10. Modify the Post Date
Last but not least, give the content’s date a quick update before releasing it. This is a useful strategy for encouraging Google users to click on your posts, as was already mentioned.
You can carry out this action inside the WordPress editor. The publishing time and date are located under Document on the right side. To access a calendar, click it.
To send the post with the new date, change the date to the current day and click Update at the top. Done.
A last-modified date might be a better alternative. WP Last Modified Info is one plugin that can help with that.
11. Publicize Your New Post
After you have made changes to an existing post, your work is not yet complete. You must advertise it, just like you would a fresh blog post.
Asking Google to perform another crawl is one of the initial steps. You’ll find instructions here and a place to accomplish it in Google Search Console. Additionally, this will hasten the process by which your rankings rise.
Following that, make sure to rotate the blog on your social media profiles. With a social media scheduling tool like Buffer, you can partially automate this. Additionally, there are plugins like Revive Old Posts that automatically share older content on social media.
Make sure to notify your email list members that the post has been changed. A welcome message for new subscribers that includes a best-of link collection connecting to your new and old material is another excellent approach to promote emails.
See our in-depth post for more information on additional content promotion strategies.
How Are You Going to Upgrade Your Old Content?
If you’re coming along on the ride, keep these things in mind:
- Take your measurements
- Decide which content needs to be updated.
- Obtain new keyword research data
- Remember to consider search intent
- Make your headlines better
- revise the article’s content
- Analyze your on-page SEO.
- Keep an eye on your CTAs.
- Don’t forget to read the comments
- Revise the publication date
- Promote the post again
Be aware that in addition to the aforementioned, you can optimize outdated information by repurposing it into new content. Last but not least, upgrading outdated content may even include removing it entirely.
However, bear in mind that this is just a portion of your overall blogging approach. It’s still crucial that you update your content frequently with new information. However, you can now use a two-pronged strategy.
