An easy SEO trick is to update old content
Updating your old content is a good way to keep your website fresh, visitors engaged and for improved search engine rankings. In fact, you could be missing a lot of opportunities if you let your old content jus sit around. The old content already has some traction with search engines, so you have a head start when ranking content. A survey has shown that the bloggers that update old content are thrice more likely to report “strong results” from their content marketing efforts.
Hubspot found that they could also double the number of monthly leads generated by optimizing old posts. Also, they could increase the number of organic search views of their old posts that they optimized by about 106%. So, it is needless to say that optimizing old posts should be a key part of your content marketing strategy. Here is how you can update your old content to boost your search rankings.
Choose the content you want to update
To begin with, go through your old content and then prioritize the content that you want to update first. When looking for pages to update, watch out for pages that used to rank well but now the rankings have dropped. If there is a piece of content that you thought was good but didn’t work quite well on search engines, it is time to update it. Even if you have some pages that are already top-ranking, you can still consider updating them for better results over the long term. You can also go to Google analytics and look for pages that have a Click Through Rate (CTR) of less than 1 and those with a high impression rate.
Delete outdated content
If you find some content that is irrelevant now, such as some old job posting or product pages that are no longer required, make sure you remove those pages or pieces of content. Over the years, facts may change. The data and figures used in your articles may have changed now. Even the outbound links may not work anymore, because the URLs might have changed or they could have taken the content down. So, you need to make sure that all the facts and information presented in the content is current and not outdated.
Optimize your Call to Action
When updating your content, it is better to update your existing URL instead of creating an entirely new page. With an established history, the existing URL will have a head start. Just by updating your CTA, you can give a fresh face to your content. If you don’t want to go for a complete overhaul of the content, this can be a subtle way to freshen up your content. CTA and tell them what you want them to after reading your content. You can tell them to check out your new collection or latest offers. To make your CTA more effective, you may add some images as well.
Overhaul the content
If you can, you must rewrite the content to give it a whole new life. To take your content to the next level, check if there is new research available on the topic, any new visuals or examples you can include or if an entirely new approach can be used. You may still keep most of the old content, but rewrite it and add some new content to brighten up the content.
Optimize your content with the right keywords/keyphrases
You cannot push your old content up the search engine results page unless it is optimized for the right keywords. You already know which keywords get you the most impressions and traffic. So, focus on those keywords and avoid those that don’t add much value. Include the keywords in headings, subheadings, Meta-tags, and alt-texts.
While this may all sound a little too complicated, but the right professional can help you completely revamp your old website content and boost your search engine rankings.