The Power of Content Refreshes

Don’t let your old content just sit there! Refresh it using these tips to revitalize its performance.

Have you ever thought about the hidden gems buried in your blog archives? You don’t have to let them sit there and collect dust. Instead, you can optimize your old blog content — an art that, when mastered, can breathe new life into your digital presence. We explore how giving our old content a fresh makeover can lead to exciting results.

Why are Content Refreshes Important?

You’ve dedicated years to keeping your blog’s audience engaged with enticing content. But what happens when your top-performing articles start to see a dip in rankings? 

Let’s face it, no matter how well-written and relevant a blog is, it can become less useful and (insert uncomfortable pull at the collar) outdated over time. 

Optimizing older content can be beneficial in numerous ways, including enhancing your site’s performance and maintaining relevancy for your readers. Here are several key reasons why you may want to prioritize content restoration for your site. 

• Improved User Experience: Outdated content can frustrate readers, causing them to click away from the page or avoid your site completely.
• SEO Updates: Search engines like Google continually evolve their algorithms. By revisiting old content, you can incorporate the latest SEO best practices and grow with the times.
• Relevance: Information in old blogs may become outdated or less relevant. Optimizing them allows you to improve the content to ensure value for your audience.
• Keyword Targeting: Updating old blog posts to include more relevant keyphrases can help you target new, more relevant trends while boosting their visibility in search results.
  
• Competitive Advantage: Many brands neglect their older content, which means you have an awesome opportunity to gain a competitive advantage in your industry.
• Breed trust: Updating old content demonstrates your commitment to providing valuable, accurate, and up-to-date information, breeding trust for both readers and search engines.
• Maintain authority: Refreshing old content — rather than writing a new blog on the same topic — can help ensure the blog maintains its authority in SERPs. After all, you don’t want those backlinks to go to waste.

How to Decide Which Blogs to Refresh

You know why refreshing your blog’s content is important, but how do you determine which blogs need that extra dose of TLC? While there are different approaches to snuffing out the best topics for optimization, here are a few great places to start. 

1. Take a stroll down memory lane. 

Begin your content optimization journey by identifying blog posts with the highest potential. These are often evergreen blogs or topics that were once traffic magnets and have either hit a plateau or experienced a decline in traffic.

2. Take a look at the data. 

Leverage analytics tools like SEMRush to understand which of the above posts might need a boost. Pay attention to user engagement metrics, such as declines in traffic, clicks, and impressions. 

If you see a traffic drop similar to the graphic above, it may be worthwhile to update the post — especially if this topic was once a top performer and is still relevant to your brand’s demographic.

3. Determine whether the topic is still relevant. 

Now that you’ve identified a few potential opportunities, it’s time to determine if this topic is still relevant. Insert the target keywords for the blogs into SERPs and on social media. Then, ask yourself these questions before proceeding with a refresh: 

• Are other competitors in your industry still discussing this topic? 
• Are there new discussions surrounding this content? 
• Is the topic evergreen?
• Do the target keyphrases still mean the same thing and garner the same type of traffic? 

If you’ve answered yes to all of the above, this topic may be a good candidate for a refresh. 

How to Optimize a Blog Post

Do your keyphrase research. 

Look for opportunities to include more relevant keyphrases with better search volume. The way people utilize search has changed drastically over the years, so there may be newer, better versions of the keywords you initially targeted.

Evaluate the post for accuracy.

If you want to know how to optimize your blog, start by removing content that is no longer relevant or accurate. Replace outdated data and stats. Then, add beneficial content that is more up-to-date and accurate. 

Look for grammatical mistakes.

There may be grammatical errors that were missed when the blog was originally published. Edit and ensure clear, direct content that’s easy to consume for your readers. Don’t forget to update or maintain your brand’s current tonality.

Improve formatting.

Ensure the blog is clearly organized and easy to read by evaluating headers, sub-headers, structure, and overall blog flow.

Check links and update where needed.

Check for the linking issues below and resolve them where needed. 

• Are there now better resources? 
• Are some links broken? 
• Are there opportunities for more relevant internal links?

Evaluate competitors that discuss the topic or a similar one.

When a popular blog starts to lose site traffic, it may not be ranking as well because there is fresher, more in-depth and relevant content out there. Evaluate these sites to determine how they’re covering this topic more effectively, and make yours better!

Update the post’s call to action.

Evaluate whether the CTA is still the best option for the post. Are there new services or products you offer that may be more relevant? Update the CTA where needed with a clear directive for the reader.

Optimize for SEO.

Update the title, meta description, and any alt text for images. Embed keyphrases where useful and utilize current SEO best practices to give the blog a boost. Just be sure not to change the URL.

An effective snippet convinces more people to click on your link, increasing your click-through rate (CTR) and brand awareness.  — Semrush

The Impact of Refreshes

At GPO, we’re always striving to do better — and sometimes, that means revisiting our old content. One blog site we manage continued to maintain its performance over the years, but we noticed a decline in some of our top-performing content. This inspired us to come up with a solution — a blog optimization strategy that continues to this day. 

Within 6 months of optimizing the content, the blog began to garner immense growth. Take a look for yourself. 

Optimize and Refresh Blog Content with GPO 

Every great refresh starts with an excellent blog as its foundation. Enter GPO, where high-quality content meets cutting-edge strategies. Our team of experienced, talented writers is ready to create high-quality, high-performing content for your brand. Get in touch today to learn how GPO can become your one-stop shop for creating captivating content that converts.