How and Why You Need to Update Your Blog Content

In terms of your brand’s digital marketing and presence, the overall goal is to stay both current and relevant. So you create consistent, targeted social media content. You strategize ways to attract more subscribers and send fresh and engaging emails. You check website metrics then adjust design and functionality as necessary. But when was the last time you thought to update your website’s blog content?

The Importance of Existing Blog Content 

Some of your most valuable marketing collateral is likely buried in the archives of your blog. While you might consistently create and promote new material and content, which is also essential, posts published years ago have built up SEO value. Especially with evergreen content (posts that are always relevant and not time- or seasonal-dependent), your audience will likely always search for those topics.

That older blog content has the power to boost your traffic—or decrease it. For example, consider a case study of a software brand profiled by HubSpot, 76 percent of their monthly blog views, and 92 percent of leads came from older posts. This means, as counterintuitive as it seems, the majority of organic visitor traffic for this website was not a result of new content. In fact, the case study goes on to reveal, when HubSpot marketers launched an update of old blog content, the conversion rate for a single post increased by 240 percent and produced three times more leads than before. 

Conversely, old posts with incorrect information that no longer reflect your brand or business’s mission can hurt your SEO. For instance, say a B2C decorating company pivoted years ago from offering moving services, but they still have blog posts on their site related to it. If someone searches and finds that old blog post, but it’s irrelevant, they’ll have a poor impression of that business. They’ll see a post with moving tips but find no pages on their site that say they offer that service and will likely leave the site, which will also increase the bounce rate and hurt SEO.  

3 Reasons to Update Blog Content

Updating blog content is essential for any business or site. Fresh content presents a credible and trustworthy brand to site visitors and can boost your SEO rankings, which leads to increased organic traffic. Moreover, the whole process is much less time-consuming than it sounds. 

Here are three proven reasons to repurpose your blog content, with data to back it up.   

1. Better Indexing 

The more active and frequent your posts are, the more Google crawls the website. A search engine is most drawn to websites that show consistent activity. When Google detects an update on your site, its automated bots scan, or “crawls,” the page for links to add to its index. The more it finds, the higher your SERP ranking. To be noticed, it might seem like you need new material, but as Neil Patel clarifies, “By updating old content, you can get Google to crawl your site more frequently without needing to publish more often.” So you can work smarter, not harder. 

Additionally, once you update blog content, instead of waiting for Google to recrawl, you can request them to reindex new and existing pages, find instructions here. 

2. Fresh Content Appeals to Visitors

Visitors want to see original and unique content that gives them a clear insight into your brand. Humans respond to transparency and authenticity. Your blog content can offer a behind-the-scenes peek at your brand story and overall mission, not to mention give targeted insider tips and info. The more fresh and exclusive content available for your audience, the more they’ll feel invested and connected. In fact, 94 percent of audiences choose to visit a website based on how trustworthy it looks, points out Single Grain. 

Make sure that your blog content is updated to reflect not only your evolving brand but also match the intent of your audience. This will communicate to visitors that the information you post is both reliable, authentic, and up-to-date.

3. New Internal Links Boost SEO

Blog posts can extend your site’s overall SEO strategy by linking to related topics. If you want Google to notice specific “pillar” articles or pages on your website—i.e., those which are most valuable to the business—you need to link to them often in other posts. One way to achieve this is to update old blog content with fresh internal links to a related pillar page or topic. This is effective because “by strengthening key subjects and grouping related content around pillar pages, you can improve the authority of all pages on that topic,” notes Search Engine Land.

How to Easily Update Your Blog Content

Now that you have a basic, macro-level understanding of why it’s beneficial to update your blog content, it’s time to get to work. Remember, the idea is to recycle existing content and get fresh “SEO juice” out of it. This shouldn’t be as time-consuming as creating new blog content from scratch. 

Here are five ideas from Paul Maxey, our SEO expert and lead developer, on how to infuse new material into old content deep in the archives.

1. Brand updates: Detail new developments and recent milestones taking place around your workplace. Hint: you can do this by adding on to older blog posts with team information. 
2. Product and service updates: Talk about product or service launches in your future pipeline. Again, you can add these to older product/service blog posts, so that it presents a timeline of your company’s progress. 
3. Correct data and sources: If you have educational content, you can update the blog post by adding new data or sources. Think: an updated study or survey to support your existing tips or claims. Then you can mark the post as updated for that year. This signals to the reader that it’s still valuable and relevant information for them to follow. A good example is the website Backlinko; every year, they update existing SEO guides with new industry data.  
4. Case studies: Update existing case studies with new metrics from your client, or add a recent testimonial about how your product/service is still providing results. 
5. Newsletters: Create weekly or monthly newsletters with links to other pages and content. This is a perfect place to link to your pillar pages! 

Finally, Maxey continues, “Remember that blog posts should be easy to write. They don’t necessarily have to be an entire novel.” Don’t view content updating as a drawn-out, tedious ordeal. In reality, it’s a quick, simple and efficient method to repurpose blog content that already exists into posts that your website visitors actually want to read. You’ll also boost the overall SEO value of your site in the process! 

Update Your Blog Content 

Updating blog content is a proven strategy to boost your site’s SEO and ranking, without taking the time to ideate, strategize, publish, and promote new content. It’s one of the most efficient methods to ensure that all the content on your site is accurate and reflective of your brand, as well as repurpose work you’ve already done to get new organic traffic.

Do you want help with a content update on your site? Get in touch with the SEO experts at 10x, and we can perform a free audit!