How To Update Old Blog Posts - A Detailed Guide 2023

Have you thought about how to update old blog posts?

If you are an ardent fan of writing like me, it is always exciting to churn up new content and put up more content on your blog. The idea of having to update old blog posts may not be something that crosses your mind.

What if I tell you that you do not need thousands of articles but just hundreds for solid content to make significant money from your blog?

I have discovered that one of the most beneficial SEO methods that will bring you the MOST traffic is updating previous blog entries.

Some of the articles that bring me the most revenue and rank on page one of Google are the ones that were written a couple of years ago.

The only difference is that I revisit these articles and tweak them.

Think about it this way – it does not make sense to put in a lot of time and money to churn up new articles just to let them die once it is off your main page.

For example, when you think about an old car, what is the first thing that comes to mind? It is old and it is time for the car to go right?

How about we maintain the car, every year, for as long as we purchased it? The car will run smoothly, don’t you think?

Updating content is to avoid the ‘leaky bucket syndrome’. We keep publishing new content but do not see traffic increases because old content is losing traffic, we need to update them too.

So, are you ready to learn all there is to know about how to refresh old blog posts? Let’s get to it!

How To Update Old Blog Posts :

1. Revisit Your Keywords

2. Look Into The Structure Of Your Post

3. Revise The User Intent

4. Check The Accuracy Of Content

5. Pay Attention To The Meta Description

6. Add Images And/Or Videos

7. Remain The URL

8. Answer The “People-Also-Ask” Section

9. Add Internal Links

10. Update The Date

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Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you.

If you would like to learn the exact steps I took to update old content and triple my traffic, check out this course on how to Triple Your Traffic! It gives you an exact step by step strategy to follow EXACTLY to start getting more Google traffic within 3 months !

How To Update Old Blog Posts – A Detailed Guide

1. Revisit Your Keywords

If you are thinking about how to update old blog posts for seo, go back to the main keyword.

Keywords are essential when it comes to SEO and ranking in search engines.

Look at the articles you would like to update and identify the keyword you want to rank for.

Are there any primary keywords that will increase the value of the material or give the piece a new perspective?

Also, is the focus keyword ie topic, one that has some search volume but not too much competition?

There is no point in writing about a topic that no one is searching for an equally, if it’s too competitive because you won’t have a chance at ranking.

When it comes to updating content for seo, you will want to choose a primary keyword as well as some relevant secondary keywords. If your article does not have a primary focus keyword, now is the time to find and add one.

Utilize Google Search Console or a keyword research tool like Keysearch, Ubersuggest, or Ahrefs to find keywords your post is already ranking for, and then use the highest performing as the basis for your content.

Note – I use Keysearch because I find it to be the best keyword tool. Use my link here and code OUTANDBEYOND, for 30% off, also a free one-month trial.

The primary keyword you choose must correspond to the search intent of your readers.

When choosing a primary keyword, do a quick search about it and breeze through the top results to ensure that they are similar to the articles that you are about to update.

Rather than targeting keywords with huge search volumes with high competition, you should target terms with low competition but high search volumes.

Ask yourself these questions:

What are the chances that your content will rank for that keyword?
Is there a lower-ranking keyword that you should focus on?

Check your domain authority and the score of your keyword difficulty with MozBar to determine whether they are on the same level as the results that are presently outranking your content.

Your article might be ranking for something that has nothing to do with the content of your blog article, so it is possible that your article is performing well for a term with little to no search volume.

If you would like to master keyword research, take up this course to study all you need to know about creating a blog post that is fully SEO optimized.

2. Look Into The Structure Of Your Post

The structure and layout of your blog posts should provide a better user experience for the reader.

How is your content paragraphed? How many lines are there in a paragraph?

Are the headings clear? Did you use H2 or H3 headings?

Is the overall post easy to read?..

These questions may seem simple, but they will have an impact on the traffic you receive.

For example, I like to keep my paragraphs a maximum of 4 lines, a reader can grasp the main point of a paragraph since there are only 4 lines to it.

I ensure my posts have bullet points and pictures to break big blocks of text into readable pieces to provide a better user experience for my readers.

In comparison, if my paragraphs have over 10 lines, the reader might get frustrated that it is taking longer to get to the main point and eventually click out of the article.

Imagine if someone is browsing through your blog via their mobile phone, they are going to be bombarded with blocks and blocks of text.

Take the time to inspect your articles and if it feels too text-heavy, break the content into smaller chunks to provide better readability.

3. Revise The User Intent

Always keep user intent in mind when updating blogs.

Look at the articles and think about if the old blog article you are planning to edit for SEO purposes is still relevant.

If the article is new enough, is the user intent matched?

Does it contain material that is related to the keywords you want to rank for?

Does it get to the point and ANSWER THE QUESTION?

Be analytical when it comes to user intent because if a reader clicks on the article based on the title but does not find valuable information in it, they will probably not visit your blog again.

And that is not something you want.

Go through the articles on page 1 and look at the user intent. Always answer the user intent first when you are updating old blog posts. The readers get their answers fast and you gain a satisfied reader.

For example, here is an example of how you should answer this question in your blog post – “Do bloggers make money in 2022?

Now, a good example would be.

Yes! If you are wondering if bloggers make money in 2022, there are many bloggers out there, myself included, who would testify positively to that question.

You should insert testimonies or income reports from other bloggers to strengthen your answer. The user intent is matched in this case because you answered the question immediately and a reader does not have to skim through multiple paragraphs to get an answer.

Now, a bad example would be.

Back in the day, blogging was considered a profession for dreamers and not doers. Making money from blogging was often described as something so far off reality that many give up before starting.

Why is this a bad example? Readers simply want a yes or no to the question. If the answer is yes, immediately state the reason as to how bloggers make money in 2022. If the answer is no, state the reason as well.

The answer above is vague and does not give the reader a concrete answer and it seems as though the blogger is simply adding fluff to his or her blog post without keeping the user’s intent in mind.

4. Check The Accuracy Of Content

Checking if the material in your blog article is still accurate or relevant is the key when you are wondering how to update old blog posts.

Any piece of content might become out of date for a variety of reasons over time.

Examine the post for the correctness and make any necessary changes, additions, or deletions, making sure to remove any material that is not accurate.

I normally start by deleting any points in the article that are no longer relevant and adding headers based on the new keywords that I found.

Then I go back over the entire post to see where I can make alterations and do quick proofreading to ensure the post is free of any grammatical errors.

There may have been content that was overlooked in the initial version of your blog post that was not relevant then but is relevant now or you may have changed your mind on the topic after it was published, which you can also edit accordingly.

5. Pay Attention To The Meta Description

Examine the meta description of the post and ask yourself these questions:

Is it still valid?
Could you make it a bit more appealing by updating it?

A meta description is a snippet, an HTML tag, that explains the content of a page. When the searched-for term appears inside the description, search engines display it in search results. As a result, optimizing it is essential for on-page SEO.

A meta description is an HTML element that explains and summarizes the contents of your website.

You know how when you google for something, and right under the title of the website, there is a small description that entails a brief summary of the content of the said post?

That is a meta description.

Remember that meta descriptions have no bearing on your content’s position, but they might influence its clickthrough rate from search.

A clickthrough rate (CTR) is the number of clicks you get on the article, divided by the total impressions on the page, multiplied by 100.

Make sure your meta description accurately reflects the substance of the article while also being interesting enough to entice searchers to click through to your content from the results page.

The articles with the lowest CTR (anything below 1.0%) are the ones you should start with and you should be updating information and titles to make them more attractive. A high CTR is anything above 1.0%.

Screen through the top articles on page 1 of Google and see if you can come up with a better meta description.

6. Add Images And/Or Videos

Images that illustrate the arguments you are making in your blog article might boost a page’s SEO and aesthetically break up the material chunks.

If you did not include any photographs the first time, now is the opportunity to do so!

Remember to add alt tags to your photographs as well and place the primary keyword in the alt tags of every picture.

Google frequently shows search results with these formats, so including a picture or video content in your blog article may significantly assist raise your clickthrough rate.

Have you Googled a topic and the search results are a mix of Youtube videos and articles? This is what I meant by formats.

This strategy works well for blog entries that have already received some traffic.

By incorporating a video in your article, you may increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website, which Google loves.

This can be aided by high-quality, visually pleasant, and engaging images.

Users are more inclined to remain around for a site that they perceive as trustworthy and professional. Your article will appear unique against the competition if it includes a picture or video, especially if all of the other results are text-only.

7. Remain The URL

When it comes to updating old content for seo, you do not want to change up the URL because your blog has been active for a while now and your older material might help boost its authority.

If for any reason you must change the URL, make sure to set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one to ensure any existing links that you have placed in your blog post can continue to operate after it has been modified.

8. Answer The “People-Also-Ask” Section

If you are stumped for ideas, look through the “People also ask” area of Google’s search results for your target phrase and start addressing their questions in your blog post.

The PAA section usually consists of questions that are related to your primary keyword or topic.

By answering these questions in your blog post, either by establishing a FAQ section or by adding a few new short parts to the article, you are adding value to your content.

This will also assist you in increasing your word count.

For example, in this article, I have included questions from the PAA section in the FAQ section at the bottom. Now, bear in mind that you do not have to add in ALL the questions you see in the PAA section.

Pick and choose your questions based on their relevance to the article.

One tip is to check through web searches filtered by your old blog article URL in Search Console. Modify the timeframe to at least 6 months, then sort by average position.

Pay attention to searches with a high average position.

Consider creating new sections around such subjects or questions if they are pertinent to your content.

With your updated material, you may provide better content for searchers’ queries by elaborating on your initial article with relevant themes that searchers are looking for.

9. Add Internal Links

Linking to other articles within your blog is a terrific way to help readers discover new material. Search engines like it when you connect to your information in this way.

So, as you are evaluating and renewing your blog article, check if you can include connections to similar blog entries, particularly those published after this one.

If done correctly, this will improve the user experience and encourage people to linger a little longer on your blog.

Adding relevant internal links will also help with SEO.

Internal links serve as a map for search engines as they navigate your site. You are giving a better map while also helping to enhance the SEO for different sites by updating older articles with links to newer topics.

Link your older posts to the newer articles and vice versa

This will make it easier for the reader to discover the material, and it will help your SEO organic traffic.

At the same time, when upgrading your previous blog posts, use the SEO topic cluster method. Organize comparable blogs into a subject cluster, link them together, and develop a pillar piece that connects them together.

Topic clusters indicate to Google that your blog contains a wealth of information that circles around a specific topic.

This method is one of the greatest methods to demonstrate to Google that your blogs are both related to certain keywords and have more authority than your rivals.

When establishing ranks, Google no longer merely searches for terms on blogs, it keeps an eye out for similar topics and synonyms that relate to a topic and thus many SEO specialists are now producing content in clusters to be able to rank faster.

10. Update The Date

You may alter the publish date on your post whenever you add new content to assist Google to recognize it as new and refurbished. You can include a remark in the blog post about when it was first published.

NOTE – Only do this if you have significantly changed the article, meaning you have added more than 500 words. If not you will be like the boy who cried wolf.

FAQs

Should You Update Old Blog Posts?

If you are wondering, should you update old blog posts? The answer is an absolute yes!

“Aisha, I already have tons of content that I have written ages ago, why bother updating them when I can just write new ones?”

As you may be aware, one of the primary advantages of blogging is the value it delivers in terms of SEO.

Here is why you should edit an existing post before writing a new one:

You will see results and more traffic WAY FASTER than if you wrote a new blog post. A new article takes a minimum of 6 -8 months to rank whereas you can see results in as soon as weeks when you update content
It is easier because part of the research has already been completed. It’s better because the revised article delves further into the issues. I think its less hard work than writing a totally new article
If you update content that is already ranking on page 1 or 2, Google has shown he already likes it and so we need to try and get more Google love and traffic!
Providing more value to the reader as we are giving more up-to-date accurate content.
It will be easy to market on social media since you will know exactly who to share it with.
It can help content rank higher bringing your blog more traffic and customers

The beauty and one of the most significant benefits of blogging are that you could have written a blog post 3 years ago but that material continues to generate traffic and leads over time.

You may prolong the life of your best blog post and improve the results it continues to accomplish over time by upgrading and reviving some of your previous but strong evergreen articles.

Lastly, updating and republishing an existing post is frequently considerably easier and faster than writing a new one from scratch.

I would not advocate doing this for every piece you publish because you should still be creating a lot of fresh, unique material.

But, it is undeniable that this is a terrific method to save time while still maintaining a regular publication schedule.

How Do You Republish Old Blog Posts?

Log in to blog’s CMS like wordpress
Replace old content
Republish it

This is the easy part of how to update old blog posts. Do not make a new post and then delete the old one! You may lose the valuable backlinks to that article.

So, where to post my blog that has been updated?

Simply log in to your blog’s content management system (CMS) and browse to the old post, remove the old content, and rewrite some parts of your content. Maintain the URL, but make alterations to the title and tags so that they are updated to reflect what’s new in the content.

Once that is done, press update after changing the publish date to the current date.

So, why should you keep the URL? It is because we do not want broken links throughout the site

How Often Should You Update Old Blog Posts?

If you are questioning how often should you update old blog posts, then the answer is once or twice a year.

In general, when it comes to seo, updating old content should be around once a year, however, twice a year is ideal.

If SEO is a top priority for you, and you’re creating a lot of fresh material then every quarter is encouraged.

Creating a blog post and following a strict timetable that dictates how frequently blogs should go up is difficult, but it is well worth the effort. It really is pointless to write one article per year and ask why your website is still not ranking higher in search results.

The frequency with which you should examine and update your blog material is determined according to how much fresh content you are publishing to your site and how much work you want to put into SEO.

Think about it this way, you can’t place 3 bricks and place a “for rent” sign and wonder why no one is renting your place – it is incomplete! Similarly, do not write 3 blog posts and call it a day.

Be among the 10% of people that consistently publish articles and become successful bloggers and not the 90% that quit after writing 10 blog posts.

What Do You Do With Old Blog Content?

So, what do you do with old blog content? You should either update or recycle each blog article to get the most out of it. Some of your older blog entries may simply be irrelevant or outdated, and a simple reboot may bring everything updated.

Alternatively, if you really can’t find a way to fix it, then delete it. Bad content will drag a site down.

Here’s how to update blog posts.

1. Recycle Irrelevant Posts

Some older blog postings may no longer be relevant. If you have blog entries that are similar to these, you should consider removing them but for those which still can be salvaged, you could create a new blog post that is related to your previous, ineffective one.

Then remove the old one and 301 redirect the old post’s URL to the new article.

2. Focus On SEO

Wherever feasible, include fresh keywords that are relevant. There might be new phrases that are relevant to your material now that were not relevant when you initially submitted it.

Tip – You can find keywords in Google Search Console. It’s free! And you know what I preach, if it is free, it is for me!

To refresh the aesthetic appeal, consider adding new photographs, particularly to the thumbnail.

This may entice those who have already read the previous information but are hesitant to read the new version since the graphic reminds them of the old.

Also, remember to improve on-page SEO such as the image alt-text and meta description.

3. Think Long Term

When you are refurbishing old content, think about how to sustain the traffic for your articles. Emphasize evergreen content because regardless of any niche, there will be a few fundamental topics that will never run out of demand.

If at all possible, avoid fleeting social fads, anything that takes less than 24 hours to start trending because, in the blink of an eye, memes, and trends may shift from incredibly topical to humiliating.

How To Choose With Content To Refresh?

Choose articles that are on page 2
Choose articles that are losing traffic
Choose articles that are making money
Articles with high keyword impressions
Choose articles with high-quality links

1. Choose Articles That Are On Page 2

With articles that are on page 2, you will get significantly more traffic when you update the content and move them to page 1.

These are the articles that are already gaining some traction from the crowd but can be boosted to their maximum potential. Optimize these articles and increase their ranking to page one.

2. Choose Articles That Are Losing Traffic

These are articles that are losing traffic, meaning they once made money for your blog.

Identify these articles and study what can be improvised in these pieces. Is it the structure? Can you add more relevant content to it? Are there any new keywords that can be added to these pieces?

Look at the top 10 articles that are ranking when you are browsing the primary keywords of these old articles in incognito mode and see how you can match the quality of articles from there.

Remember, never plagiarize another creator’s content but learn from them to improvise yours.

3. Choose Articles That Make You The Most Money

These are the articles that will be most likely to obtain high search engine rankings since they are already attracting the highest engagement from search results and your readers.

When looking at your most popular blog entries, check to see if any of the data is outdated and if any new information has become available. I recommend reviewing your blog entries at least twice a year.

4. Articles With High Keyword Impressions

If your site has been set up with Google Search Console, you may filter your URLs by blog, then begin finding searches that have a good amount of impressions and are close to ranking.

Then, for that query, observe which result appears. That is the article you will most likely want to update next.

5. Choose Articles With High-Quality Links

Identify the articles on your blog which have a lot of good connections from other places but just do not rank exceptionally high.

These articles have significant authority and have a high ranking potential. All you have to do now is reload the website, and you will notice an increase in visitors sooner or later.

Conclusion

Now you know how to update old blog posts!

While most people focus on creating new content, the truth is that attention to the information that has previously been released on your blog might provide better results.

There is a good possibility you have a pile of old material on your blog, pieces that have yet to be updated in over two years.

While you may not be monitoring them on a daily basis, it is possible that your target readers and search engines are. If they’re not up to par, it might jeopardize the rest of your content traffic.

So, stop wondering how to update a blog post and implement the tips in this article to get the most out of your blogging effort!

How To Update Old Blog Posts – A Detailed Guide 2023

How To Update Old Blog Posts :