How to Update Old Blog Posts to Keep Your WordPress Content Fresh?
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Are you tired of constantly having to produce new content for your WordPress website? Having a blog that’s full of quality publications is one of the best SEO practices any company can utilize.
However, not everyone can afford to have new posts published daily. This can seem very discouraging for many site owners because they wrongly assume that the only way to rank high in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) is by spitting out new content every five minutes (figuratively speaking, of course, you get what we mean).
Well, our WordPress Agency for Development is here to disperse your worries and tell you that there is another good tactic that can skyrocket your site’s organic traffic. And no, it does not include producing any new content whatsoever.
We’re actually talking about updating your old blog posts. Trust us, this practice can really be the difference between your pages not showing at all on search engines and them appearing at the very top results.
You’ll be surprised to hear how many successful companies have seen huge results, regarding their websites’ traffic, by simply updating old blog posts as part of their regular workflow. This method works because Google encourages content creators to keep their content fresh.
Our WordPress development agency has noticed that updating old blog posts is good not only for your readers’ engagement but also for your search engine optimization. This makes it an overall solid and proven way to grow your online business and presence.
With that being said, in today’s article, we’ll be telling you all you need to know about updating your old blog posts and we’ll be sharing some tips and tricks that will help you keep the content on your WordPress site fresh. Let’s begin!
Why Is It Crucial to Update Old Blog Posts?
Once you’re done with your WordPress website development, you’ll probably start publishing posts on your blog. Depending on your niche and your company’s size, you might quickly pile up a substantial amount of articles or things may be a little slow, resulting in the creation of just a few publications.
Whatever is your case, we’re here to tell you that absolutely everyone can benefit from updating their old blog posts. Let’s say you have content on your site that hasn’t been revisited in more than 2 years. So what, no one really reads posts that are so old, right? Um, WRONG!
Our WordPress development company warns you that just because you have completely forgotten about an article you’ve written so long ago, doesn’t mean that Google (or your readers) have erased it from their memory too. Your target customers, as well as Google, are likely visiting those old posts on a regular basis.
And if your old blog posts are outdated and provide users with information that is no longer relevant, you can sabotage your entire content marketing strategy. Remember that investing in a high-quality WordPress website development is only the beginning of the journey. A company’s blog is not just something you leave to luck or fate – it takes a lot of hard work and effort to stay on top of the blogging game.
You should think of your blog as a reflection of your company. This reflection needs to show that you’re a leader in your industry. It should also provide your potential clients with valuable information that keeps them interested in the products or services you offer. Imagine that a user comes across an old blog post of yours that is full of inaccuracies (due to outdated information), grammatical errors and links that no longer work.
Our WordPress Agency for Development can assure you that those users will be very quick to close your article and find another one that is of better quality. This can not only harm your SEO strategy, but it can also have long-term bad consequences for your business. You likely don’t want your target audience to see you as ignorant about your own industry, right? Or even worse – we’re sure that you won’t like it if you appear as a company that doesn’t care about the information it presents to its potential clients.
You might be thinking “Wait, what is my fault?! My blog post is clearly an old one – the publication date is written, can’t people see it?!”. We totally get your frustration but you need to understand that the Internet is a fast-paced place and users manoeuvre very quickly around it. This means that they might often click on a post from search results and not realize that said post is very old.
If this makes you angry, the only advice that our WordPress development agency can give you is to channel this energy into updating your old blog posts. Trust us, you won’t regret it.
How Can Old Blog Posts Hurt Your SEO?
If for some reason you’re still not entirely convinced that you should put any effort into updating your site’s old blog posts, our WordPress development company will give you a few examples to show you just how bad old posts can hurt your SEO:
- When Google sees that the majority of your blog posts have very old publication dates, it will push your content to the bottom of search results. This is exactly why the well-executed WordPress website development alone won’t be enough. You need to have new blog posts or at least update the existing ones to show Google that your content is still relevant and valuable.
- Your old blog posts could also be optimized for outdated SEO standards. This is no joke and you can even receive a penalty if you violate the regulations. For example, keyword stuffing was a popular (but bad) practice before 2011. In 2021, though, you can get a penalty from Google if you decide to take this shortcut to improve your SEO rankings.
- Our WordPress Agency for Development would also like to remind you that your older blog posts may have been trying to rank for different keywords. It’s important to know that Google is not able to display ALL of your posts on the top results of its search engine. This can make it more challenging for your relevant, targeted posts to rank well.
Another benefit of updating old blog posts is the fact that this is a lot more cost-effective strategy than having to create new content constantly. It’s a common mistake to neglect old posts because you believe that the more content you upload on your site, the better. Our WordPress development agency reminds you that it should always be about quality over quantity.
How Often Do You Need to Update Your Content and Which Posts Should You Update?
So in terms of how often you need to update your WordPress content, a good rule of thumb is to do a meticulous review annually. You can try to complete a full content audit once a year. This is more realistic for websites that don’t have thousands of articles though. If your catalogue is that big then we recommend you take a project-based approach.
You need to update your content more often if your industry is competitive and fast-moving. Industries that frequently get innovations include law, finance, and marketing. So if you work within them, our WordPress development company advises you to update your published content within the next month or so, especially if there have been any significant breakthroughs or innovations.
The next question on the list is how do you choose which posts to update? If you have a lot of blog posts you don’t need to update them all the time. Instead, you should check your analytics at least every 12 months. This will help you identify your top content. You can use a tool like Google Analytics. Find out which of your posts are already ranking high on Google and update them regularly to ensure you keep your spot.
Our WordPress Agency for Development can also recommend you check your user metrics. These include the time people spend on pages, how they interact with your content, what is your bounce rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate. Again, you can use Google Analytics to access this kind of information.
And last but not least, make sure to conduct an SEO analysis. Your SEO strategy needs to be up to date. It’s a good practice to check keyword analytics to ensure you use the right keywords. Search habits can change over time and you should build your strategy according to that.
How to Update Your Old WordPress Blog Posts to Keep Your Website’s Content Fresh?
So now that you know why it’s such a good idea to update your old blog posts, it is time for our WordPress development agency to show you just how you can do that. Remember that not every post requires the same amount of updating – some may need just a little tweaking, while others may demand a lot of work.
The most important thing though is to make sure that your posts have accurate information and are optimized strategically for specific keywords. Remember that each post plays a role in your overall marketing strategy. The more you update them to fit into your strategy, the more valuable they will become.
1. Add the Current Year to Your Title and Description
The first piece of advice that our WordPress development company can give you is to update your blog posts’ titles with the current year. This is a great practice because the very first thing readers come across is the meta title and H1. So make sure to include the current year in your old titles and if necessary update any body of text that is no longer relevant.
Titles that have the year in them have a higher click-through rate. This means that having old dates can create a lack of authority and trustworthiness. This is bad both for your users and your SEO. Adding the current year to your title will indicate to your readers as well as Google that the blog has been recently updated.
2. Update Your Old Posts With New Facts
Our WordPress Agency for Development can also recommend you add new facts to your old posts. The new information can be in the form of current statistics and news. You can always find relevant details that weren’t available at the time the post was originally created. By doing so, you’ll provide your users with the most reliable piece of content.
3. Find and Fix Broken Links on Your Old Blog Posts
Our WordPress development agency warns you that old blog posts usually have some broken links in them. For example, they can be outbound links to products that are no longer in stock.
Broken links can be really bad for SEO, user experience and affiliate marketing so we recommend you fix this problem. You can find broken links either manually (by clicking on each link) or by using a tool such as Ahrefs broken links report.
When you find a broken link in one of your old blog posts you have two options – you can either remove it entirely or replace it with one that works.
4. Add Internal Links to Your Old Blog Posts
As our WordPress development company has told you before, internal links are links from one page or post to another page or post on the same website. These types of links are very important for SEO because with their help Google is able to tell how different posts on your site relate to one another.
Internal links also show Google how important each article on your website is. The more links a post has, the more important it will be in the “eyes” of Google. So to update old publications with this strategy, all you’ll have to do is add internal links to newer content as long as it makes sense. Also, you need to make sure that other articles have internal links that point to your old ones.
5. Update the Visual Content in Your Old Blog Posts
Our WordPress Agency for Development believes that images are one of the most important aspects of any blog post and they can really attract visitors to your website. It’s amazing how many people choose to click on an article just because they were drawn to the featured image.
Due to their specific niches, a lot of blogs rely heavily on images. Think photography, fashion, and food blogs – they all produce very visually-driven content. So if the images in your old posts look a bit outdated you should update them. Remember to delete any photos that are too small or have low resolution.
You should replace your low-quality photos with better ones you’ve taken yourself, or you can always use a tool such as Canva to create beautiful graphics. Our WordPress development agency can also suggest you embed a YouTube video in your old blog posts.
This can increase the time a user spends on a page, which will boost your SEO. Just make sure the video you choose is either one you’ve created yourself or one that is relevant to the topic of your article.
Update Your Old Blog Posts Today!
Updating old blog posts on your WordPress website shouldn’t be a tedious chore. Think of it as a way to really boost your traffic and rank higher in search results. You don’t always need to produce entirely new content to experience positive SEO benefits. Refreshing old publications can be a strategy that is just as successful as writing quality articles every single day.
Our WordPress development company wants to assure you that updating old content isn’t as tricky as it may seem. Yes, you’ll need to set some time apart in order to do it but we promise you that the consequent benefits are totally worth it. You’ll improve the user experience and SEO of your site which in turn can establish your business as a leader in the industry.
To wrap it up, we recommend you make a list of articles you want to update, roll your sleeves up and begin the revamping process. This way you will guarantee that your readers will have fresh content they can engage with. You will build your relationship with your audience and you will also help Google rank you higher. How can you possibly say no to that, right?
If you still haven’t begun the process of WordPress website development be sure to reach out to Vipe Studio’s team of professionals! We can build you a top-performing site that will be the envy of all your competition. And if you already have your own website then just make sure to stop by our blog regularly to find high-quality content, regarding everything WordPress related.
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