Think about all the old content you may have on your site. When was the last time you checked in on it? Is it outdated? Do you have broken internal links? Here, we’ll outline why it’s important to go back and revise old content.
Content is King
If you have anything to do with marketing, you’ve heard this phrase a million times: content is king. Do you know why you keep hearing it over and over again? It’s because it’s true!
Your content — meaning everything from the text on your webpages to the videos you put on social posts — helps your audience learn more about your brand. When you do it right, you’re giving them information they haven’t seen before. Even better? You’re giving them something they’re likely to share with others or refer back to when they need the products and services you offer. Continuously sharing your content will also help establish you as an authority figure in your industry – making you a go-to resource for this type of information.
You don’t want to supply the same old content people can get just anywhere on the web; this practice won’t benefit you. Instead, you want to offer up unique content that wows your audience. To do this, you need to do your research and understand your target consumer.
Why You Don’t Always Need New Content
Here’s the thing, though: You don’t always have to create brand new content. Sure, you want to keep new stuff in the mix, but there are some great reasons why updating old blog posts is just as beneficial to your content optimization strategy.
Here are three key ways in which updating your old content can (and likely will) work in your favor:
1. You can gain more backlinks
Here’s something to think about: No external site wants to link to outdated content. So, when you update your content — but your competitors haven’t done so — you’re in a prime position to get ahead of your competitors and offer up fresh content other websites can link to.
Not sure which websites are linking to your competitors’ posts? You can use a backlinks checker tool like Ahrefs to figure this out and prioritize what you should refresh first. Then, you can reach out to these websites and pretty quickly get most of them to add new, updated links to your own pages.
2. You can eliminate common errors
We’re all human, and mistakes happen. Even the most thorough of posting processes will let through a spelling, grammar, or punctuation error every now and then. Refreshing old posts is one of the best ways to catch any content that needs revisions because you’re coming at it with a fresh set of eyes, and you’re more likely to find those little slip-through-the-crack mistakes that weren’t seen on the first go-around.
Not only that, but this is a great time to see if there are any factual errors, outdated statistics, or broken links in your content. If you want to boost SEO rankings, your content should be crisp, clean, and accurate.
3. You can add or remove information
What’s great is you’re already off to an excellent start! Because you have a content marketing SEO foundation already set and content live on your website, you now have the opportunity to add more information or remove anything that’s incorrect, outdated, or redundant. It’s the perfect time to add what’s new and relevant to your target audience now that your posts have gained some views and more information has come out on the topic. This is also an excellent time to add internal linking to newer posts that you’ve recently published.
Also, read your posts as if you were your target reader. If you’re not satisfied with it, or if you didn’t get the desired value, play around with it to enhance it and optimize its real estate on the web.
What Problems Can Come From Old Content?
We’ve touched on a few of these points above, but the issues below are worthy of their own place in this blog. If you’re not doing SEO content updates on a semi-regular basis, you could be struggling with:
- Old keywords. Your keywords may not be bringing organic or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) traffic any longer. It’s always a good idea to check in on your keywords to see how they’re performing and analyze where opportunities exist that could bring more value to your brand. If your keywords are outdated, people may not be searching for them, or they could have become so competitive that you’re buried in a sea of search results.
- Broken links and 404 errors. This will frustrate readers and send them away quite quickly. This is not only bad for your brand’s reputation as a leader in your industry, but it can also greatly impact your SEO efforts negatively.
- Outdated years. This is another thing that can turn people away from your content quite quickly because audiences today expect up-to-date, relatable, and relevant information.
- Old trends. Speaking of relatable and relevant — if your content is so outdated that it hypes up old trends that have come and gone, people won’t waste their time reading it. This is a great time to adjust those old posts to update the outcome of said trends and talk about where things are now, in the current day and age.
- Irrelevant information. This all ties together to say this: irrelevant information is bad for business.
Need Help Refreshing Your Content?
As the digital marketing agency CT companies trust, we’re proud to say we can help you refresh your old blog posts, too. Have you found yourself wondering how often you should update your content? If so, it’s time to reach out to our team. Zero Gravity Marketing offers a full suite of marketing services, and our SEO experts and content marketing strategists will happily sit down with you to figure out how to best refresh your old content to make the most of your digital footprint. Learn how today!
