Do you want to improve your Google and other search engine rankings? There is a tactic that will help you improve your rankings without putting in a lot of extra effort.
Yes, you could continue to write and create more material. However, this is a difficult task that takes a long time to complete. You may instead make changes to your existing content. It requires less effort and produces quicker performance.
You can simply update your old content and raise your freshness score to improve the efficacy of your SEO efforts and boost your search engine traffic. When you tell Google that your content is fresh, you’ll see a significant increase in traffic, making the small amount of effort needed well worth it.
There are many advantages to updating your content. Here are some reasons why you should update your old content, as well as how doing so would boost your search engine traffic.
Why Revising Old Content is a Good Idea?
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Ensures that the content is still up-to-date
Over time, all material, no matter how fine, becomes stale. Freshness, on the other hand, is one of the criteria Google uses to assess content quality. As a result, updating older content regularly on a regular basis is a smart way to re-enter the search engine radar. This will boost your rating and, as a result, your traffic.
This is true not only for individual sites but for your entire website. You now have access to both current and newly revamped older material, in addition to new content. This is a perfect way to outshine the competitor, who might be solely focused on writing new blog posts.
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Improves your click-through rate
When you do a Google search for almost any word, you’ll find that the top results are almost always from the last year or so. Making improvements to old content affects how it appears in search engines. When SERPs get the signal that the content is from the current year than the previous year, it makes for a great impression on the search algorithm and boost the ranking position for the site carrying out the freshness.
As a result, updating your content regularly is a good way to boost your click-through rate. This can also help your rankings thanks to Google RankBrain. This isn’t just so in the case of SEO. Consider looking for things like “best gardening methods” or “running shoe ratings.”
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Keeps Your SEO Up to Date
Google’s algorithm is modified many times a day, on average, during the year. Any of the modifications have a major impact on traffic and rating. You will keep your old content up to date with the new trends and rules by improving it. This is a smart way to get the big G to like you.
Furthermore, Google can index your site more often if you update it more frequently. It demonstrates that the search engine must anticipate more frequent content changes for their crawlers to visit more frequently. And updating your blog content helps you to re-promote it, which could result in more social shares, inbound connections, and traffic.
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Shows Google that your content is fresh
It’s no secret that Google is a huge fan of new material. Content that has recently been published receives a higher ranking, particularly for topics that change frequently. You’re missing out on a big opportunity if you’re just publishing new material. In the search engine rankings, your old content will die a slow death.
Instead, you can bring the material back to life. Updated content is, in reality, a simple way to double your traffic. Create a new publication date in WordPress or simply save an update. You’ll notice an increase in search engine traffic when Google crawls your site again. When Ahrefs started using evergreen content instead of rapidly obsolete content, they saw a huge increase in views and visits.
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Improves your content’s accuracy
Every Google update, at the end of the day, is focused on one thing: enhancing the user experience. With Google’s frequent algorithm adjustments and endless refining of their ranking factors, if your site is built to have a great user experience, you’ll succeed.
By updating your content to include new material or modified content, you can make it more accessible and helpful for your guests. If you don’t run a news site or don’t have a big enough audience to warrant a personal response from Google, you can still use the same tactics. To do so, search for fresh and revised material on the topic of the article you’re writing and include it.
- Helps you stay on-trend
Your posts from 2015, 2016, or 2017 unlikely mention new trends. And people are interested in the latest trends and developments. Updating old content can help you align with their intent, which should give a good boost to your SEO standing. You can find out the latest happenings in your industry by doing a search via Google, or by using the Google Trends tool.
Pro tip: When updating old posts to include new trends, make sure to cite something that’s going to be relevant in the foreseeable future. Because it doesn’t help to mention something that would fade away after a few months’ time – this way, you’d find yourself requiring another content freshness down the road. Research a trend extensively to ensure it’s going to stick around for a couple of years and that it’s really something that’d be of interest to people.
How to Update Old Content
A brief reminder about how to keep old blog posts and other material up to date. You don’t need to rewrite the whole blog or article. Adding new statistics or data that is current will also suffice. Make some new graphics for the article and add a few more paragraphs. You most likely gained more information on the topic, and Google values knowledge. Check to see if your data sources are still valid, and if not, connect to newer data sources.
Perhaps you’ve made a video about the subject and can incorporate it into the content. The possibilities are endless, but sometimes all it takes is a few minor qualitative changes to breathing new life into a post.
As previously mentioned, Google favors new material, so changing the publication date to today is a fast-growth hack. When you change the publication date of your site, the publication date on Google changes as well, signaling to readers that the material is newer. More users can click through from the search engine results page to your website as a result of this. Do you prefer to click on a link that is two years old or one that contains fresh and current information? That’s why updating it is the great content marketing strategy
Here are some things to look for:
- Data that is accurate — Pay special attention to any research or statistics you’ve included. Check to see if it’s been updated since you last posted it and if there’s any new research or facts. This also helps you to expand the scope of your material.
- Broken links — While links you’re at it, double-check that your outbound links point to current and recent sites. Broken Links are removed, which is a bad sign for SEO.
- Take the time to include entertaining pictures in your marketing to ensure that you are ahead of your rivals. In addition, if you used graphs or other visual material, make sure you’re using the most recent version. Consider using gifs or videos in place of some of the photographs.
- Grammar, pronunciation, and writing — you should be mildly embarrassed when you read your old material from a few years ago. That you are now a better craftsperson than you were previously. Updating your content is a great way to put your newfound skills to use by double-checking for grammar, spelling, formatting, and other elements that make content more readable.
- Internal links – You’ve most likely written a variety of new articles since the original article. Now is the time to connect to them from your old stuff, if that makes sense. This will enhance the structure of your site and increase dwell time.
Conclusion
If you want to improve your SEO, you should update your old stuff. This is an excellent way to maximize the amount of traffic your website receives from search engines, and it will almost certainly boost how high your content ranks.
Create new content to enhance your existing posts. Include new resources, fix any broken connections, and add multimedia to your web. You should also strive to enhance the quality of the content and ensure that it is current with the most important facts. Consider promoting it in the same way you did before, emphasizing fresh importance to readers and fans.