Why you should update your old content
Content marketers have been so focused on constantly publishing new content that they forget that updating their old content can be one of the best ways to boost SEO.
One of the best ways to improve your Domain Authority is to increase your site’s position on SERPs.
Bots are used by Google and other search engines to crawl and index your content. You can improve the frequency with which search engine bots crawl your website by updating your old content. If a piece of content is crawled by a search engine more frequently, it becomes more searchable.
Trying something new can also have benefits beyond what was originally intended. In this case, it can help to improve website ranking.
If you don’t keep your content fresh, it will go stale.
Which articles should you update and which should you leave alone?
You don’t need to update all your old website content.
There’s a difference between topical content and evergreen content. Articles that are about current events are difficult to reuse because they are only relevant for a short amount of time. Content that is evergreen does not need to be updated as often. The articles are well-written and researched to ensure that they will last over time and be visible for certain search topics.
Before deciding on the content to be updated, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is my content still relevant to my business or product?
Companies often pivot from their initial offering or start targeting a new audience. - Does my content have a higher potential for search volume than the current keyword?
You need to check if the focus keyword can potentially increase monthly traffic more than the article is currently getting via organic search. - Did I write my content to increase organic search traffic for a particular keyword?
Sometimes an article is written for certain events (remember: topical content). There is no use in updating such articles since this won’t bring in extra visitors after the event itself. - Has my content already been successful in the past in driving traffic?
Check historical data to determine if the content actually drove traffic via search or not. If not, you may want to decide if it is worth updating the content as it may require a substantial amount of effort to make it work. - Does my content have enough backlinks to compete with other results on the first page?
If your article is on the 9th page of Google search results without any backlinks, it’ll take a lot more effort than an article that is on the 2nd page of Google with 83 backlinks.
How often do you need to optimize your content?
When it comes to optimizing your content, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. A quarterly content audit is a good starting point.
If you notice a decrease in the amount of traffic your website is getting, try to determine what might be causing it. For example, if a blog has successfully generated marketing qualified leads, but then sees a decline in traffic, this could be an indication that something is wrong. If your website isn’t getting much traffic or generating many leads, you need to make some changes to make it more effective.
How to boost SEO in marketing with changes in content
1. Redo keyword research
You must first run your old content through SEO software. You could use any of the following:
- Ahrefs
- Moz Pro
- SEMRush
- SpyFu
Check for keyword gaps. You didn’t choose the right keyword originally, but you can change it to a new keyword that has a lot of searches and the potential to bring in more traffic.
2. Rewrite your article headers
The headers H1, H2, and H3 have become important as Google search has become more based on what users are looking for rather than just keywords.
It is important to understand how people are searching for a particular piece of content in order to create headers that are properly structured.
3. Update meta descriptions
If you haven’t updated the meta descriptions of your older content, now is a good time to do so. This will help to increase the click-through rate (CTR) of your content when it appears in a search result on Google.
Writing effective meta descriptions is an important part of optimization for click-through rate. Try out different versions to see which one performs best.
4. Update content headlines
Of people who see a headline, only 20 percent will read the corresponding content. This is because 80 percent of people only read headlines. This means that the headlines of your content are very important when you are updating old content.
So, what makes for an excellent content headline?
- Listicles always make for great content headlines. For example, “Top 10 ways to boost SEO in marketing”.
- Make it more relevant by including the current year in the content headline. For example, “Has the SEO marketing definition changed in 2020?”
- You can even try clickbait headlines but only (and we can’t stress this enough) when the content does not mislead the audience . For example, “5 hacks on how to boost SEO by 33%”.
- Another great option is to include the word checklist. For example, “ SEO Marketing Checklist for B2B Marketers.”
5. Check for grammatical and spelling errors and fix them
Did you ever notice a spelling error while you were reading a blog post? Yeah, we’re no fan of them either.
If you use poor grammar or incorrect spellings, it will create a bad user experience. Since Google is moving towards a user-centric model, relying too heavily on keywords for your SEO is becoming a bad idea.
Make sure to proofread your updated content for grammar and spelling errors.
6. Optimize images for SEO marketing
One way to improve your SEO is to optimize your images.
Earlier, we said that search engines work by “crawling” websites. But Google’s crawlers cannot crawl images. In order for Google to index your pictures, you need to add image titles and alt text. There are a few things you can do to optimize your images for SEO. Make sure your images are named with relevant keywords, have ALT tags that describe what they are, and are the right size for web pages.
- Filename
Make sure your image has a proper filename. That will ensure that Google bots and users get a better understanding of the image’s purpose than naming the file IMG0001. - Alt text
Using alt text, you can describe the image by giving it more context. Keep the alt text short, ideally a few words, and in one of the pictures, you could also naturally include the focus keyword to improve SEO. - Image size and type
For complete optimization, you need to ensure that your images aren’t reducing your website’s speed. Website speed is a significant ranking factor for Google search results, so make sure that you optimize your photos for fast loading. The file size is also essential, and so is browser caching, which can help decrease the time it takes for an image to load.
7. Increase the accuracy of your content
Is the world different than when you wrote the original piece of content? Most likely, yes. You may want to check for outdated references and update them with new, accurate information to make the content more relevant for the audience today.
If you’re looking to update existing content, be sure to search for new and relevant information to include. This will help keep your content fresh and accurate. Updating an article to show the latest updates helps improve the user experience. Adding new information helps keep the article relevant and useful.
8. Remove or update broken links
Once you have decided to update a piece of content, you need to check each internal and external link to ensure that none of the links lead to a 404 error page.
If you come across any links like that, you have three options.
- Remove the link
- Update the link with a working link
- Update with a relevant link addressing the same use case
9. Add internal links, external links, and backlinks
There are three types of links that can impact your website’s SEO – internal links, external links, and backlinks.
Internal links are the easiest to fix. Update your content regularly and include links to other blog posts or product pages. Additionally, identify other areas of your website where this updated content can be linked to. This will help search engines better index your content.
You can validate your article’s specific points by linking to the relevant information source.
The toughest of the lot is backlinks. If your article does not have any backlinks, you may not want to update it as backlinks are crucial for ranking higher. If you want more backlinks, you’ll need to have a plan for reaching out.
10. Improve the quality of your content
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
If you want your content to be the best result, you should publish high-quality content. In addition, the content must be significantly better than all other similar content. Ahrefs calls it 10X content.
This means that you need to check if your content is just like everything else available on the web (1X) or is it a little better (2X), or is it the best possible content on that topic (10X).
If the content is good, it will stay at the top of the search results.
To improve the quality of your older content to make it 10X content, you need to focus on creating evergreen content, improving your writing, and adding more multimedia.
- Quality : This could comprise of an excellent website design, easy-to-read content, and usefulness of the content.
- Uniqueness : Is your updated content unique compared to everything else available on the web, and does it add value to the audience?
- Authority : Are you a subject matter expert or an authority on the topic?
Content and keywords
Making great content with keywords
It is important to have the correct keywords on your website so that people can find your site when they are doing a search on the internet. This has changed over the years, so you need to make sure that you are using the most up-to-date methods. It is no longer effective to stuff keywords into every element on your page. It is increasingly important to write high-quality content first and apply keywords second since Google is improving its ability to understand the context around keywords and related topics. This strategy is called “keyword drafting.” Write great content and then use keyword research to identify important keywords that people are searching for on the topics related to your content.
Google doesn’t need to see the exact keyword you’ve written mentioned a certain number of times anymore in order to understand what your content is about. Google can look at the content surrounding your topic to understand what you’re covering. It is more important to produce content that is unique and valuable, which will naturally incorporate relevant keywords, than to only use keywords.
Keyword mapping
Mapping your keywords to your existing content will help you target the keywords you want to rank for. By doing this, you can connect your keywords with the content you have already written, making it easier for your site to rank for those keywords. Map them together to see what you can optimize. Adding more content to your pages can help you rank for more keywords. Pages with no content or keywords present link-building opportunities to bolster those pages.
What you need to know about content
Producing excellent content not only helps you construct your brand and interact with customers, but it is also key for SEO purposes. Content is an important part of your SEO plan, and if it is high quality and relevant, it can improve your rankings.
It is important that the content on your website is both informative and unique. Think about how a visitor would interact with your content. Is your content easy to read and well organized, and does it communicate your points effectively? You want potential clients to keep reading, so make sure your content is well written and engaging. Is it well designed? The elements listed below help search engines understand your content while also providing an enjoyable experience for readers.
Purpose-driven content
Content is why people visit your website. The type of content you create is determined by the purpose of your site. Many people go online to find answers to their questions or to look for solutions to problems. Some people are interested in learning about current trends, while others simply want to be entertained. You need to think about the questions that your intended users will have when creating content for SEO.
Relevant content
The content you create needs to be relevant to the keywords you are targeting, and those keywords need to be focused on what your target user is searching for. Even if a term gets a lot of searches, it might not be relevant to your site. Every keyword you use should link back to your website’s main purpose. This will help you better understand your SEO strategy and make sure the traffic you get is from people who will be interested in your business.
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