We all experience things becoming outdated and stale from time to time, whether it’s our mailing address, wardrobe, or media collection. Fortunately, updating content is far less time-consuming than creating new content from scratch.
Updating content can have a powerful impact on user engagement and SEO performance. It can also help boost brand credibility and authority by demonstrating that your content is current and relevant.
Identifying Outdated Content
If you have older content on your business website that is no longer relevant, you may be missing out on some great SEO benefits. Instead of simply removing this content, Infoserve suggests that you consider updating it to ensure that your company is getting the most out of its online visibility.
Content updates should be a regular part of your content strategy. Fresh content is important to your SEO rankings, and it’s also an excellent way to get your current keywords into the SERP more effectively. This will help you see more traffic and improve your content marketing efforts.
In addition to boosting your SEO, refreshing outdated content, backed by the recommendations from a tool like Rank Revival, can also improve user experience and brand awareness. For example, if you have an old blog post on how to use a specific product or service, you can update it to reflect the latest features or improvements. Similarly, you can update articles on topics that have changed in the industry, or if you have new statistics, tools, or other information to add to the article.
To identify outdated content, start by performing a content audit and analysis. This will help you find any articles that need to be updated or deleted. Once you’ve done this, you can prioritize your efforts.
You can also try using a tool such as Moz Pro to locate outdated content and make changes quickly and efficiently. The tool offers a range of functionalities including performing a content audit, monitoring user feedback and comments, checking for outdated references or statistics, and identifying broken links and other issues.
Another option is to focus on evergreen content, which has a long shelf life and is likely to remain relevant over time. This can be a great way to build a strong SEO foundation, and it can also save you time in the long run as you won’t need to create as much new content.
You should still perform a thorough content audit and review on a regular basis, as the internet is such a vast place that it’s not always possible to be sure that outdated content has been completely erased. In the worst-case scenario, your old content could resurface in search results even if you have removed it from your site.
Creating a Plan
A content refresh is a great opportunity to revisit your site’s older content and make it more relevant to the current audience. This will help improve the experience for both human readers and search engine bots. It is also a good way to improve organic SEO, as Google has indicated that they reward websites that provide useful, up-to-date information.
First, identify your high-performing pages that have the potential to be updated. These could be old blog posts or landing pages that are getting a lot of traffic, but haven’t been updated in a while. This is a low-hanging fruit that should be prioritized for an update.
For other pieces of content, take a look at the keywords that are driving traffic to them. Depending on the relevance of those keywords to the current audience, it may be worth updating the content to better align with those search terms. This will improve user experience and may also boost organic search traffic for the page.
Next, create a plan for how you’re going to update the content. For example, if you have an old blog post that discusses the benefits of tea, you could add more recent research on the health benefits of different types of tea. You could also include information about new products and services that your company has added to its offering.
This update should be treated like any other content piece – it should be promoted to increase its visibility on your website and social media channels. It’s also a great time to re-engage with influencers and other people who have commented on or shared the content in the past.
A final note on updating old content – don’t forget to consider the impact that changing global or national events might have on your audience’s needs and preferences. This is something that can change very quickly and you should be prepared to move fast to adapt your content to reflect these changes. For example, if a war breaks out in one part of the world, you should make sure to redirect that particular page to a more relevant article on your website.
Creating the New Content
We all know that things need to be updated from time to time. Your mailing address, your wardrobe, your hairstyle — all of these can be easily refreshed. And your website content is no different. Over time, what was once an accurate and fresh piece can become stale and irrelevant. In order to prevent this from happening, you need to update your outdated content.
Whether it’s an article that was written in 2018, or a blog post on your latest product, updating your outdated content is one of the best ways to keep your website relevant and up to date. This can help improve your SEO, increase traffic and conversions, and ultimately boost your business’s bottom line.
To start, it’s important to create a schedule for your content updates. This will ensure that you’re always creating new, high-quality content that’s aligned with your marketing goals and standards. Depending on your content schedule, you may want to dedicate a certain day of the week or month to writing and promoting article updates. If this is the case, you can use tools like Creatopy to streamline the process and ensure that all of your team members are on the same page.
Another way to refresh your content is by updating the areas that need SEO improvements. This can include the keyword targeting, copywriting, and meta content. It’s important to remember that SEO is constantly evolving, and you need to be sure your content is up-to-date in order to get the most out of it.
Finally, you can also update your content to reflect any changes in your business or industry. For example, if you wrote an article about digital marketing trends in 2018 but the industry has since changed, you could update it to reflect the new landscape by adding new statistics and best practices.
In some cases, it may be better to delete an old page of your site rather than updating it. This is particularly the case if it’s no longer relevant to your audience or it doesn’t fit with your current marketing strategies. Deleting outdated content is a great way to free up valuable real estate on your site and boost your overall site performance.
Publishing the New Content
In the past, there was some concern that publishing too many changes to outdated content at once would raise red flags with Google and trigger a manual review. However, it is now generally considered that there’s no harm in updating all your existing pages simultaneously (as long as the old content was of high quality to begin with).
Before deciding to update or remove a piece of content, you need to consider its performance. Using SuiteJar, you can run reports to compare the performance of a webpage over time. This will allow you to identify pages that are not performing well enough and need to be updated. You can then decide whether to keep the page or create a new one that is more up-to-date and relevant to your audience.
Updating your content can also help you improve search engine rankings. Google prioritizes websites with fresh, updated content, so by updating your older content, you can give it the boost it needs to rank higher in searches.
Moreover, updating your content can help you to build brand trust and credibility. Outdated information can make your visitors think that you are unreliable or untrustworthy, which can damage your reputation and lead to a loss of potential sales.
In addition to improving your SEO, updating your content can also have a positive impact on your website’s usability. Outdated content can be frustrating for visitors, and they may leave your site if they find it difficult to navigate or understand. Keeping your website up to date can ensure that your content is accurate and useful, which will improve your visitor experience and increase engagement.
When it comes to updating your content, the best approach is to create a plan and commit to it. Schedule regular reviews of your content to ensure that it is always up-to-date and relevant to your customers. In addition, encourage communication within your team so that everyone knows what is expected of them when it comes to updating old content. Finally, be sure to promote your updated content as if it were new, by sharing it on social media and including it in your next e-newsletter.
