Many of you are probably putting in atrocious number of hours researching and writing new content. But if you’re constantly creating new content while the old ones sit around without attracting much attention, then you’re doing it wrong.
Why you should revive old content
Creating unique, high quality content takes time. But publishing new content leads to a spike in traffic, which makes it worth the effort. The problem is that fresh content becomes stale overtime. In some industries, content becomes old within just a few weeks of publishing.
While it’s fine to keep churning new articles week after week, you shouldn’t ignore the ones that are sitting on your archives. Even evergreen content will eventually see a diminishing return over time.
Old content are a gold mine of potential traffic. All you have to do is to revive and revamp them, and it will dramatically increase your page views. Updating your old content is easier than writing a new one entirely. Plus, it can help you boost your SEO traffic and generate leads a lot quicker than writing a new blog post can.
Make good use of old content. It will help you skyrocket your rankings and drive traffic to your site without putting in a lot of extra work.
How to breathe new life to old content
Update your best articles
No matter what industry you’re in, things are changing fast. Things you have written a year ago may not be applicable now. For instance, new social media tools are being released on a regular basis. If you have written a blog post about social media tools two years ago, the tools you have mentioned there may no longer be used now. Go through your old post and update the information written there. Seek to add current, more useful information to your old content.
Your articles should be regularly updated to keep them relevant. If your content is out of date, then you’re not providing your audience with quality, up-to-date advice and information. It can also hurt your reputation. Remember, first impressions are lasting ones. People are less likely to trust you if they find a bunch of outdated posts on your site.
Convert blogs to a different format
In order to stay relevant and stay on top of mind with your audience, you need to keep them well-fed with content. You want to keep your audience engaged. Let’s face it. It’s not easy to come up with new content.
If you have tons of content just sitting there and gathering dust, why not repurpose those old gems for a brand new audience. You can bring in more traffic and convert more leads by simply repurposing old blog posts.
You can convert blog posts into social media content. Choose a quote from a blog post you’ve written and turn it into a quote image. Social media posts that include images produce 150% higher engagement than text-only posts. Another option is to convert long-form content to infographics. Not all people want to read long-form content. In fact 81% of people only skim the content they read online. Infographics visually represent the data or information in a creative, eye-catching way.
Internal linking
Internal linking connects one page of a website to a different page on the same site. By using internal linking as part of your SEO strategy, you can drive traffic and contribute equal value to your other pages.
When you link in your content, you’re telling both the reader and search engine that the content you’re linking to is really good. New visitors will appreciate it since you are helping them find useful and related content in your site. Plus, it can improve your search engine rankings. It’s a win-win situation.
Make a list of your most popular pieces of content. Take the time to look at your older posts to see if makes sense to link to any of them. By linking popular content to an older blog post, you’ll be able to generate traffic to your older content. Plus, it will give old posts instant ranking.
Don’t just link for the sake of linking. Do it because it is valuable to the reader.
Re-share them on social media
Social media is a busy place. With millions of posts being published everyday, your content can easily get lost in the crowd.
Some marketers are hesitant to re-share their content on social media because they are worried that their audience will get bored or annoyed if they see the same piece of content more than once. Guess what? Your posts are limited in reach. There’s a good chance that majority of your audience haven’t seen it the first time it was posted.
Sharing your content on social media after publishing isn’t a guarantee that all or most of your followers will see it. Sending your content out on social media more than once means more of your audience will see your content. You’ll also spend less time filling up your content calendar. Most importantly, it will drive traffic to your old blog posts.
Write or re-write metadata
Metadata is a series of micro-communications between your site and search engines. They played a large part in your search ranking until people started abusing their use in getting on top of the SERPs. Today, search engine algorithms are more sophisticated. They no longer rely on metadata. But that doesn’t mean they are not important anymore.
The metadata still communicates with search engines. It provides information about what to expect from a given page and what exactly your keywords are. Adding missing metadata or re-writing the metadescription can increase your CTR. Not only will it give you more organic traffic, it can also boost your SEO ranking.
Republish old content
Lots of content your write is valid for a long period of time. Republishing old content is a great way to get extra attention to articles you have written some time ago. What’s more, Google will actually reward you for doing it.
Republishing old content means changing the publish date to the current date. This means it is launched again as a new post. Make sure, though, that you retain the URL. If you change the URL, it’s as if you’re publishing an entirely new article.
Before republishing, make sure that the content is up-to-date. You should do some reviewing and re-writing. Update your content with new, relevant information, and then republish it. No one wants to read content that is out-of-date or no longer applicable.
Decide which posts need revamping
If you’ve been blogging for a while, then you may have tons of content in your archive. Cleaning up old content is essential for keeping all your hardwork relevant. However, revising or updating all of them will be time consuming. Plus, not all articles are a candidate for revival.
Decide which posts need revamping. You may want to start with your top 10 posts. Look for your most popular content – those that caught the interest of your target audience and brought in a lot of traffic. If it didn’t get any traffic at all, then move on to the next piece of content. Also, focus on blog posts that land on the first or second page of Google. Sometimes, a few minor tweaks is all it takes to surpass your competitors.