Want to know how to max your blog SEO results for little effort? Of course you do, who wouldn’t!
You probably haven’t really thought much about your old blog posts. Your business has a nice library of blog posts garnered over the years, bringing in traffic and organic SEO from the years of promotion.
The SEO goldmine hiding in your old blog posts
Did you know that these old blog posts can increase your web traffic and re-start your SEO with a little effort in updating them?
Why? An old blog post has SEO history - all the visitors who clicked on it and read it over the years, the backlinks from others providing external validation as to its valuable content, the shares to show the search engines this is compelling content, enough to share with others.
All the good stuff that a newly published blog post just doesn’t have! Updating your old blog posts for SEO may be the key to get your rankings out of the back cupboard and onto Page 1 Google!
Did you know that updating old blog posts is great for SEO?
How many times have you read a blog post only to find the information outdated, irrelevant for today or simply just wrong?
As a visitor it is frustrating when you are needing the information and can’t find the right content. Search engines are providers of information – if the information they present to you is old, outdated and irrelevant, they haven’t done their job properly.
If you update old blog posts, search engines love it – you are now updating the original information so it is correct and relevant for today.
What about new readers too? Readers who have arrived at your website via a new blog post, may not scroll through your long, long list of blog posts. By updating your old blogs, you get a chance of directing new readers to an old blog post.
Stop, don’t delete those old blog posts!
When updating old blog posts for SEO, simply edit the original blog post. Don’t create a new blog post and delete the old one. Why? You will delete all the juicy SEO history of visitors and interactions, PLUS you will miss out on all the added SEO advantages of updating the blog.
Before you start updating your old blog posts, here are three things you need to know –
1. Don’t change the url when you update old blog posts
This is the address at the top of the screen. Make sure this stays the same as you may have some great external backlinks to the blog post. If you change its url, your external backlinks as well as any internal links you have created will be broken (this is not good SEO practice either).
2. Don’t change the title tags of old blog posts
If Google is using your title tag in one of its ‘featured snippets’ or ‘people also ask’ sections, you may lose this valuable spot if you change the title tag. I do recommend you mention at the top of the edited blog post that it has been updated to include updated and more relevant information.
Don’t change the url when you update old blogs - the red arrow is the URL and the blue arrow is the title tag.
3. Don’t change the topic of old blog posts
The topic is what is behind the blog posts SEO, so keep it the same to maintain your SEO and organic traffic benefits you already have built up behind this blog post.
How do I update old blog posts for SEO?
Not really sure what to change on a blog update?
Here is the content you should consider updating –
Is the information redundant?
Perhaps the information is not applicable today. Do not delete it, especially if there are good Google rankings attached to it. Put a note at the beginning that this information is no longer valid, it has been replaced by X, which can be read here and enter a link to your new blog post.
Alternatively, add the new content within the blog update to show how advancements and changes have been made. You may need to add new keywords as well.
Is the information out of date?
If your blog contains information which has incorrect dates or includes dates long past, update it.
Simply go back to the blog and change the dates and the information so it is now current. Make a note at the top that this blog update was changed on today’s date.
Update old blog posts with current dates and content.
Can the information in the blog post be improved?
Can you add more and clearer information to the blog post? Perhaps the information was a little light on and could be expanded. Add your experience or new examples to the information, to make it comprehensive and interesting.
This is a great opportunity to add some information that may have come to light or add new links to help your readers in this subject area.
Add quotes from industry experts to validate your information.
Turn the blog from a short post into a long post (excellent for SEO!).
Read what people have written in the comments section at the bottom of your blog post. What are people asking you about the blog post? Is there some information you can add, or reword some of the information that they didn’t understand?
Are the keywords still relevant?
Are the keywords still used by searchers, or have the keywords been replaced by new ones? Review them and see if there are better keywords that could be used instead.
Slight shifts in keywords happen over time, so it’s a good opportunity to double check your keywords are spot on.
Use Google Ads to find additional keywords you can use in the blog post.
Could you make the blog post more attractive?
Adding white space around the words is an easy way to make the blog post easier to read. Update the image to something more relevant or appropriate. Add more images to the post to break up the content.
Could you add some graphs or infographics to strengthen the content?
What about your video library? If you have a video that explains this information, now is the time to add it!
HINT: Don’t forget to name the images and videos to include your keywords.
Do you have old, spammy comments in the comments section?
If you have old spammy comments in the comment section at the bottom of your blog post, remove them – there’s nothing worse than reading spammy comments after a great read. It leaves a bad impression and adds no value whatsoever to the reader.
In all this, what really matters to your traffic and SEO is that you update the blog post so it is informative and customer centric.
I’ve updated my blog post, now what?
Well done! How easy was that?
Treat it like any new blog post and publicise it how you normally would.
Tell them you have updated the information, to stir their interest - put it in your newsletter, shout it through social media, find out those that shared it (try Buzzsumo to find them), or linked to it (your Google Search console is good for this), let your employers, business partners and customers know.
Watch the traffic flow in and reinvigorate as you update old blog posts for SEO!
Need any help with your blog updates or have a question about this, contact me here. You will be amazed at the benefits in traffic and SEO gains for very little effort!