Increasing Website Traffic By Updating Old Blog Posts

Updating old blog posts can be an effective way to increase website traffic. Here are some reasons why:

1. Improved search engine rankings: Search engines prioritize fresh and relevant content. By updating your old blog posts with new information, statistics, or images, you signal to search engines that the content is still relevant and valuable. This can help your blog post appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.
2. Increased social media engagement: When you update old blog posts, you can share the updated content on social media channels. This can help increase engagement with your followers and drive more traffic to your website.
3. Reduced bounce rate: If your blog post is outdated, visitors may leave your website quickly, increasing your bounce rate. By updating your blog post, you provide visitors with current and valuable information, increasing the likelihood that they will stay longer on your website and visit other pages.
4. Improved credibility: If you provide updated information, statistics, or case studies in your blog post, you showcase your knowledge and expertise on the topic. This can improve your credibility and increase the likelihood that visitors will trust your content and come back to your website.

Here are some tips for updating your old blog posts:

1. Update the title: Make sure the title accurately reflects the updated content.
2. Refresh the content: Add new information, statistics, or case studies to make the post more valuable to your audience.
3. Add images or videos: Adding visual elements can make the post more engaging and shareable.
4. Improve the formatting: Break up large blocks of text into smaller paragraphs, add subheadings, and use bullet points to make the post easier to read.
5. Update the meta description: The meta description should accurately reflect the updated content and encourage readers to click through to your post.

Overall, updating old blog posts can be an effective way to increase website traffic, attract new visitors, and improve the user experience on your website.

Why should you be updating old content

There are several reasons why updating old content can be beneficial for your website:

1. Improved search engine rankings: Search engines prioritize fresh and relevant content. By updating your old content with new information, statistics, or images, you signal to search engines that the content is still relevant and valuable. This can help your content appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.
2. Increased social media engagement: When you update old content, you can share the updated content on social media channels. This can help increase engagement with your followers and drive more traffic to your website.
3. Reduced bounce rate: If your content is outdated, visitors may leave your website quickly, increasing your bounce rate. By updating your content, you provide visitors with current and valuable information, increasing the likelihood that they will stay longer on your website and visit other pages.
4. Improved credibility: If you provide updated information, statistics, or case studies in your content, you showcase your knowledge and expertise on the topic. This can improve your credibility and increase the likelihood that visitors will trust your content and come back to your website.
5. Increased conversions: If your old content was not performing well in terms of generating leads or sales, updating it with new and relevant information can help you attract new leads and increase your conversion rates.

Updating old content can also save you time and resources as you do not have to create new content from scratch. Instead, you can repurpose and update old content to make it more valuable to your audience.

Overall, updating old content can be an effective way to improve the user experience on your website, increase traffic and engagement, and improve your search engine rankings.

Which content deserves an update?

Not all old content may require an update. Here are some factors to consider when deciding which content to update:

1. Relevance: The content should still be relevant to your audience. If the information is outdated or no longer accurate, it may be time for an update.
2. Performance: Check your website analytics to see which pages or posts are performing well in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions. Consider updating the high-performing content to further improve its performance.
3. Quality: Content that was poorly written or presented may require an update to improve its quality.
4. Keyword rankings: Check the keyword rankings of your content. If a piece of content is ranking well for a particular keyword, consider updating it to further improve its ranking and attract more traffic.
5. Changes in industry or audience: If there have been significant changes in your industry or audience since the content was first published, it may be time for an update to reflect these changes.
6. Timeliness: Content that is time-sensitive, such as news articles or event announcements, may require updates to ensure accuracy and relevance.
7. User feedback: If users have left comments or feedback on your content, consider addressing their concerns or questions by updating the content.

In general, content that is still relevant to your audience has high traffic or engagement, and could benefit from additional information or improvements is a good candidate for an update.

Performance

The first one will be the one we will use as the basis to get an overview of all our content. And in order for us to do that we first create a list of all your existing content and put that into a Google Sheet.

The quickest way to do this is by using Google Analytics. Go to your Google Analytics account and then go to the “Behaviour” > “Overview” report in the left menu.

You will then see a list of the top 10 most viewed pages on your website. By clicking “view full report” in the bottom right corner, you will get a more detailed list.

On the more detailed list, scroll to the bottom again and change the “show rows” number to the maximum value it offers (or at least to have it at a significant enough value that it contains all your content).

In the top right corner be sure to change the date to a bigger range so you can get a good enough overview of what is happening in the last month and click the export button.

One of the beautiful things about Google Analytics is the tight integration to all their other platforms and you can easily export this data straight away to a Google Sheet.

This will give a great starting point with a list of all your posts including their:

• Page Views
• Bounce Rate
• Unique Page Views
• Avg. Time on Page
• Entrances
• Bounce Rate
• % Exit

Although this is already great information, this is just the start, because this only tells us what is happening on our site. But it doesn’t paint the whole picture yet of what is happening outside our website.

What we’re going to do here is go through each page looking at the “position” and the “search queries” it ranks for. Although this is a bit of a manual process, you should be able to identify the keywords that have a high search volume and cross-check with the competition score.

The goals of this last bit are to identify the keywords Google has started ranking you for so you can begin optimizing your article to push it even further up.

In other words, it is a good thing that your piece of content is already ranking for these keywords, but now it is time to start moving them up on the search results page.

Click the “download” button at the bottom left of the screen (scroll all the way down). It will give you a spreadsheet of all of your queries, along with their stats.

How to figure out what parts to update

When updating old content, it’s important to focus on the parts that are most in need of an update. Here are some steps to help you figure out what parts of your content to update:

1. Analyze the existing content: Start by reviewing the existing content to identify areas that are outdated or could benefit from additional information or improvements. This may include statistics, examples, or case studies.
2. Check the accuracy: Ensure that the information in the content is still accurate and up to date. If there have been any changes or updates to the topic, make sure to reflect those changes in your update.
3. Add new information: Look for opportunities to add new information, such as new statistics, trends, or case studies. This can help make your content more relevant and useful to your audience.
4. Improve readability: Look for ways to improve the readability of your content. This may include breaking up large paragraphs into smaller ones, adding headings, or using bullet points.
5. Enhance visuals: Consider adding new images or videos to your content to make it more engaging and visually appealing.
6. Optimize for search engines: Look for ways to optimize your content for search engines. This may include updating the title and meta description, adding new keywords, or improving the internal linking structure.
7. Address user feedback: Review any comments or feedback on the existing content and address any questions or concerns in your update.

By analyzing your existing content and identifying areas that could benefit from an update, you can ensure that your updated content provides the most value to your audience and helps drive traffic to your website.

What to do after you updated your old blog post?

After updating your old blog post, there are a few important steps you should take to ensure that your updated content gets the attention it deserves:

1. Republish the post: Once you have updated the content, republish the post on your website. Be sure to update the publication date to reflect the changes you made.
2. Share on social media: Share your updated content on your social media channels, including a link to the updated post. This can help drive traffic to your website and increase engagement with your followers.
3. Notify your subscribers: If you have an email list, consider sending out an email notification to your subscribers about the updated content. This can help drive more traffic to your website and keep your subscribers engaged.
4. Update internal linking: Review your website’s internal linking structure and update any internal links that point to the updated content. This can help improve the visibility of your updated content within your website and improve your website’s overall SEO.
5. Monitor performance: Keep an eye on the performance of your updated content using website analytics. Look for improvements in traffic, engagement, and conversions to see the impact of your updates.

By taking these steps, you can help ensure that your updated content gets the attention it deserves and continues to drive traffic and engagement to your website.

There you have it, a quick and easy way to make sure that all your hard work wasn’t for nothing.

When you follow these steps, you should start seeing significant improvements in your ranking and organic search traffic showing up on your site.

Don’t forget to track the performance before and after you’ve implemented these changes to see what works and what doesn’t work.