Blog posts are a valuable asset for any website. Not only do they draw in traffic, but they also stand ready to aid clients with relevant information at all hours. However, as companies grow and procedures change, information should be updated. Blog posts become obsolete over time and should occasionally be revisited and optimized to produce maximum benefit. Revising old blog posts is always easier than writing one from scratch. You should know how to boost organic traffic by optimizing old blog posts for SEO. Here are some tips to help you get that done!
Consolidate Content
Consolidating content can be a great way to optimize old blog posts and boost organic traffic. Sometimes you may have two close articles, but both perform poorly.
Consolidating two similar articles (while ALWAYS maintaining one unified theme) allows you to combine two good articles into one great article. The benefit of consolidation is that you can pool all your great information together while trimming out what’s poor or no longer relevant. This process gives clients access to well-written, information-rich articles that can answer their questions on the related topic.
Let Competition Inspire You
Have you heard the saying, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”? While viewing competition as an enemy might be dramatic, there is truth and benefit to keeping them close. Watch what your competition is doing. Look at their sites and ask yourself what they’re doing that’s working well. Your competition is doing the same thing you are, updating their sites to boost their traffic. Learning from them is a great way to help you gain insight into how you can do the same. While you should never copy someone else’s information, learning from their processes is okay.
Link To New Studies
Updating links is a great way to improve SEO and boost organic traffic. Have you ever clicked on an article that listed decade-old information? If you’re like me, you probably hit the “back button” in search of a more relevant article. That’s because information changes and should be updated accordingly. Update links to the newest studies, Update information and statistics and keep your articles fresh and up to date, and you’ll find that clients are more interested in what they say.
Target New Keywords
Just as SEO is ever-changing, so are keywords. Keep this in mind when updating old blog posts. The keywords that everyone was searching for when the post was first written are probably different from what people are searching for now. Do a keyword analysis and identify what keywords will provide you with the most organic traffic.
Rewrite Your Intro
This is a must. After you have revised your old blog post, rewrite your introduction. An intro is supposed to inform readers what they are about to read. If you change the content of your article, you need to rewrite your introduction to that content. While the article’s theme may be the same, details and outlines can change. An introduction should always be relevant to the content of the blog.
It would be best if you also looked at your conclusion and any CTA you have. External links become obsolete over time, and if a client wants to take the next step, they should be able to.
Repromote Revised Content
Most people don’t check to see if you revised any article on their own. That’s why any new or revised content should always be promoted. This is a critical step in producing organic traffic. If you have a media presence, announce the publishing of a new blog post. Make sure it shows up on your site with any other recent articles you’ve published.
Look For Broken Links
This was briefly mentioned above, but it’s essential. Look for broken links. As you would do this on your site, each article should be searched for broken links. This is especially true of external links. You’re not the only one who republishes articles.
If you linked to a study or source in your blog post when you first wrote it, that page might not exist anymore. This is why updating information and relating it to new studies is so important. Make sure that your article is accurate and that each link is still relevant to your published work.
Answer “People Also Ask” Questions
Another great way to optimize past blog posts is to answer the “people also ask” listings on Google. Anytime you write an article, you should put yourself in the shoes of a consumer. If you had questions about your topic, what answers would you want? Try to make your posts as beneficial to the reader as possible.
One way to do this is to look at similar questions people ask when you type your topic into the Google search bar. Not only will Google crawl your page and know that your article is full of relevant information, but anyone who reads it will find it a valuable source that answers several of their questions. Consumers would instead read 1 article that answers 5 of their questions than the other way around.
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