Why refreshing your blog content is essential in 2022

Whether you’re publishing content on your business blog once a day or once a week, it’s easy to forget about some of your older posts. But, that “old” content you think no one is paying attention to is still accessible. This means it should be the best possible reflection of your business. That’s precisely why refreshing old blog content should be at the top of your to-do list for 2021.

Revisiting old content is a great way to look at how far you’ve come, too. It’s an opportunity to apply everything you’ve learned about creating content that people want to engage with, so don’t be afraid to look back at old content you’ve published (even if it’s cringe-worthy).

Instead, dedicate the time to make it stronger and drive up the future traffic to your blog. Ultimately, more traffic may mean more potential customers for your business and more students for your online course.

Why is refreshing your business blog content beneficial?

Consistency is key

SEO has the potential to bring consistent traffic to your blog

According to research, 75% of search engine users don’t scroll beyond the first page. Search engine optimization, better known as SEO, is probably the most valuable way to drive traffic to your business blog. Ranking high on search engines allows potential customers to land on your content when searching specific keywords on Google.

Unless you’re routinely creating viral social media posts that promote your blog content or you have an out of this world click-open rate for your marketing emails, SEO is one of the few things that almost guarantees consistent eyes on your blog content. Most importantly, you can do it on your own without needing to pay a professional.

Chances are when you first started creating content for your business blog, you weren’t as familiar with SEO as you may be now. If you’re further along in your journey and know the basics of creating valuable content that ranks on Google, it’s time to optimize older low-performing posts to bring consistent, organic traffic to your website.

SEO quick checklist

• Longtail keywords
• Meta descriptions
• SEO titles
• Internal and external links
• Optimized images

If you need a refresher on SEO best practices, this post can guide you through it.

A quick success story on the power of SEO—directly from the author

“I’m somewhat of a sneaker enthusiast, particularly the classic White Nike Air Force 1. In the winter of 2020, I wrote a post about the sneaker and the best practices for keeping them clean. For the first month or two, the post barely got any traffic outside of the few clicks earned by sharing it on social media—think 40 views per month at most.

In the spring of 2020, I decided to clean up the SEO and re-promote the post on my social channels as people generally wear this sneaker in the spring and summer. The combination of perfect timing and good SEO now means the same blog post averages 1,000 views a month alone.

It’s also on the first page of Google when you search “how to keep Air Force 1s Clean”. That is a perfect example of why organic search and SEO are essential—it’s quite literally the difference between getting 10 views on your blog post and 1,000 views.”

Quality trumps all

Make your post more engaging with a quality check

Because the business owner and content creator you are today isn’t necessarily the same person you were when you first started publishing content, it’s natural to see your quality improve with time. Refreshing blog content allows you to fix any errors or update content in your post.

Update your blog to make your content more engaging by adding elements you may not have considered the first time around such as video content. Use successful blog posts as benchmarks for update underperforming posts.

In addition to checking the overall aesthetic and reader experience, it’s worth checking for not-so glamourous things such as broken links or images, 301 redirects, and embed issues. From a consumer’s perspective, there’s nothing worse than landing on what seems to be a good blog post only to find the resources and imagery referenced in the post are no longer available.

Timeliness matters

Refreshing old content relevant to your audience

As we saw throughout 2020, life as we know it can change at any given moment. That post you wrote a couple of years ago may not be relevant to the times we’re living in now. Whether it’s something as simple as updating statistics that you may have shared or a link to your new course, you want to go back to make sure any information you’ve shared is relevant to your audience today.

Pro-tip: Regularly schedule out time out to audit your content for relevancy. Your audience trusts you to provide them with accurate information consistently.

A break for the creative mind

Refresh and republish content when creative blocks hit

No amount of organization or planning can stop a creative block. Unfortunately, it’s a part of the creative process that all creators have to embrace and work around. One of the best ways to continue putting out valuable content on your business blog when the ideas aren’t generating is to refresh a blog post and republish it.

Republishing an old piece of content entails refreshing it so that it feels like new. Putting a new publish date on it also attracts readers looking for the most up-to-date content for the keywords they searched. This works particularly well for an underperforming blog post that may have subject matter relevant to a trending topic in your industry today.

Pro-tip: Republish old blog posts with a new date only if you’ve done your due diligence to make it feel like new. If you’ve only made some small changes, it’s probably just worth leaving the date on it alone. Also, keep in mind that comments may still appear from when the post was initially published—consider hiding them to avoid confusing readers.

Sparks fly

Generate ideas to promote your posts on social media

Working smarter, not harder is probably some of the most valuable advice that you can give a creative. Instead of starting from scratch to create social media content, make posts based on content you’ve already created for the blog.

How to get started with refreshing content

Depending on how much content you have published on your business blog, it may feel a bit overwhelming trying to overhaul your content. But, there are two ways to go about doing this, depending on what you’re prioritizing at the moment.

Start with your highest trafficked posts

If you’re an SEO pro and have quite a few posts on your business blog that are getting tons of organic traffic, it may be worth refreshing those first. Starting with these posts is wise because they already have plenty of new eyes on them.

But, you want to make sure those eyes are only reading the most relevant and up-to-date information you have to offer. However, you still want to be wary of updating these posts to the point where the search engines no longer see them as valuable and drop them in the ranks.

Start with lower-performing blog posts

On the contrary, if you find your higher-performing posts to be pretty solid, you can start with your not-so-trend posts first. Focus on cleaning up these posts to get them the traffic and audience that they deserve.

Either option can work when it comes to updating and republishing—it all depends on your goals and preferences.

The creator’s toolkit: Tools to help you refresh your content

Of course, we always want to make sure you’re well equipped with the tools you need to refresh your blog content successfully.

Google Analytics: To determine which blog posts need a refresh, you need to see how they’re performing. Tools like Google Analytics analyze the traffic on your blog posts and other behaviors such as time spent on a page and the bounce rate. Use Google Analytics to make your lists of posts to refresh on your business blog.

SEO Plugins: If you still need help optimizing your posts for SEO, a plugin is a perfect tool to guide you. All you have to do is insert the keyword you wish to rank for and let the plugin tell you how to improve your post to rank high on search engines.

Our pick: Yoast

Other key tools

Google Trends: Sometimes finding the right keywords is difficult. If you struggle in this department, tools like Google Trends can help you analyze top search results across different regions and even languages. You may even find keywords that you’re not targeting and generate some content ideas behind those keywords.

Hootsuite: After you’ve taken the time to refresh your blog content, it’s time to share your hard work with the world. Schedule posts on your various social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to let potential customers know about the new exciting content you created.

And don’t forget, your blog is the perfect place to promote any upcoming course launches, coaching sessions, or additions to your online school. Updating your content provides extended value to your existing audience and gives you an opportunity to attract brand new students who may be eager to invest in your course or product.