Create Less Content

I have been blogging since 2008 and now have a library of filled with thousands of blog posts. I wrote them as resources for clients and because Google wants new fresh content in exchange for keeping you at the top of a search page.

Unfortunately, only a fraction of those posts continue to drive traffic. It is exhausting to churn out 3 – 5 posts a week, only to have them sink into oblivion buried in the sea of new posts, so, I switched my approach to blogging.

Sure I still write one some new content every month, but the majority of my blogging time is spent reviewing and updating old posts. In addition to reducing my overall workload, I have rich content which is better for building SEO authority, fresh content for social media, and an improved visitor experience with more answers to their questions.

This process of updating old posts is called re-optimization. Here’s how it works in seven easy steps

1) Research

Review your old blog posts. Some will no longer be relevant, some will need a little refresh and some are as good today as the day they were written. Relevant content which once attracted a lot of attention, but no longer does is a prime candidate for re-optimization. So are posts where things have changed and you can update the information and key words.

2) Select a specific key word

While a good blog post may contain information to support several key words, you need to pick one. Use it in the title and meta description.?Since this is an existing post, don’t change the URL. This will break any existing links to the page. If you are using a rich snippet tool, be sure to update that text as well.

3) Add one hundred words

Now the hard work begins. If you want Google to see the blog post as updated, you must add at least one hundred words. For example, on most posts will add the following information to the top of the page:

"EDITOR’S NOTE This blog post about (insert keyword or phrase) was originally written in 2018. While most of the information is still valid, we have made a few updates to include the latest….."

That introduction is about thirty words. Just inserting that phrase in the beginning of your article puts you one quarter of the way to your goal. Make sure you use the key word you want to rank for in the new text you are adding as you comment on something that has changed or provide additional examples to round out the post.

4) Don’t forget the pictures

Remember that 25% of all search is image search. If the post didn’t have one originally, add a photo. Find a picture that improves the user experience by supporting what you are talking about.

Search engines will read the image label to decide what the picture is about so be sure to use the key word in the title and image description. Do this to all existing images on the page as well.

5) Add links

The quality score of your blog posts depends in part on both internal and external links. If you are like most businesses, you often return to the same topic so link to at least one related article. This will help users find more information on a specific topic and keep them on your site longer. The links also give search engines a sense of the overall authority of your website.

External links help establish you as a subject matter expert. Don’t pepper a page with tons of links, but if you find one good authority resource link to it and say “For more on this topic.” The link helps establish credibility. And as an extra bonus, the author of content to which you linked might look at your content and maybe even share it on their social media platform.

6) Add multimedia

If you have a podcast or a video on a related topic, add that to the post as well. This will enhance the user experience and keep visitors on the page longer. Since Google looks at the time a visitor spends on your page as a sign of engagement, multimedia helps increase that rank criteria.

7) Re-share

Now that you have updated all this information, you’re going to want to let people know that you have something new. Create a new social share graphic to give the content an updated feel. Then share, share, and share again on social media and in your newsletter.

If the post is a few years old there is a good chance most of your audience never saw it or forgot they did, so it will feel new to them. And finally, driving traffic to the page sends a positive signal to Google that there is something people are interested in on this page

Re-optimization takes less time than a new blog post

There you have it, re-optimization in seven easy steps. The process builds on your existing content, making your original posts richer and more authoritative and it reinforces your existing inbound links.

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