If you have a website, chances are you have a blog page. Blogs are a standard component of most websites, and for good reason. They are a great way to keep your website content fresh, add relevance and authority, and increase engagement and trust among your customers. All things that Google loves!
And with figures showing that businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t, there’s more than enough reasons to get writing.
However, for many of us, there are a couple of major sticking points when it comes to blogging: Time and inspiration. If you have a blog, you’ll know how hard it can sometimes be to find the time to sit down and do it among all the other plates you’re spinning in your business. And then there’s the big question of what to write about.
Many business owners start off with good intentions for their blog and do actually manage to keep it going for a while. You may have built up a few blogs and had some decent engagement, but as time has gone on, the wind has gone out of your sails.
If you’re stuck for inspiration, there’s an easy way to get your blog page going again and create a ‘new’ blog. Freshening up an old blog is not only easier than starting a post from scratch, but it also allows you to capitalise on your previous hard work.
What’s more, updating old blogs gives you the chance to put some of the great content you’ve already written in front of a whole new audience. Many websites have old and outdated blogs that are really great and don’t deserve to be left to gather dust – they just need a bit of a spruce up to give them a new lease of life.
There are many factors to consider when updating your blogs, but here some simple tips to get you started.
Choose wisely
Don’t just update any old blog. Pick the ones that have performed particularly well in the past and give them a new lease of life so they can continue their good work. Look for those that are ranking highly on Google for keywords still relevant to your business, or those that got a great response on social media first time round. Or perhaps you’ll find some that have led a steady flow of traffic to your website over a period of time and are now among your most-read articles.
Look for evergreens
Evergreen blogs, as the name suggests, are ones that remain relevant to your readers over time. Evergreen content typically comprises general information and guides. These are great for updating because very little needs to be done to them – just check them for the points below.
Update, don’t create
You may be wondering how you update your blog in practice. Remember the idea is to update a current blog and reap the benefits of everything that the blog has already achieved. So don’t create a new post and copy the content over. Equally, don’t change the URL.
Simply rewrite the old blog and update the publication date. You may also want to add the current year to your title and heading, to indicate to Google and your readers that the blog is relevant.
Bring it up to date
Once you’ve found a blog you’d like to refresh, check that the external and internal links, and references to dates, venues, other businesses and statistics, are still correct and update them if not. Add in any new content that you think is now relevant and valuable to your customers and reflects where you’re business is at. This may include new images, videos or infographics, links and contact information.
With Google constantly changing its ranking algorithms, you should also keep up to date with what criteria your blog needs to fulfil. This is particularly relevant for old blogs that tend to be 300 words or under, as general wisdom now suggests that content over 600 words is a must for blogs.
Optimise for keywords
Have your keywords changed since you wrote the blog you are updating? Perhaps you want to be found for something different, or competition has got stronger for the keywords you were originally aiming for and you’re now going for something more niche or longtail. Check your content as well as the meta description to ensure it is still relevant to what you do and the keywords you want to be found for.