How many blog posts have you written but then forgotten about? Millions of blog posts get written and viewed every day. However, they then end up discarded and overlooked, and no one ever sees them again. If you think about it, you’ll probably be able to identify with this all too easily.
If you aren’t driving traffic back to old blog posts, you are slashing your ROI dramatically. Spending hours of your time and vast amounts of your marketing budget in this way is pointless. In today’s economic climate, saving every cent is key, so creating maximum value is vital.
Are you creating blog posts then letting them disappear into the ether after they’re no longer on the front page? Then, it’s time to think again. Here, we’ll look at six easy ways to supercharge your old blog posts. With this advice, you’ll be able to breathe new life into your previously created content and generate more organic traffic.
The Importance of Updating
According to a 2017 blogger survey, only 55 percent of marketers update old blog posts. However, those who do update their blogs have a 74 percent greater chance of seeing strong results. It’s clear, then, that you should harness older content marketing to achieve maximum benefit. So, how do you go about doing this efficiently and effectively?
Older posts are capable of generating organic traffic. There’s one clear way to view it. If a new reader finds your most recent blog post and enjoys it, surely, the reader will like older posts? So, it makes complete sense to drive more traffic back to those older posts, so they can increase your ROI.
As you can see from this chart, a large proportion of blog writers aren’t repurposing old content to their advantage. Thirty-six percent of bloggers get less than 10 percent of their leads in this way. This is something that you could and should turn around.
The chart above shows how the number of visitors spikes after a website has repurposed an old blog post. This is clear evidence that supercharging those old posts can make a big difference to your business.
There’s a misconception that new blog posts are more valuable than older ones. This isn’t true. In fact, an old post can be a lot more valuable. This is because it has already matured with time. A blog post’s value isn’t all about the visitors it receives as soon as you release it. It’s the visitors that you’ll get over the years to come from organic search results. This shows old posts represent a useful tool to grow your blog and take your business to a new level.
Getting Started with Content Supercharging
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=xnjZeg_5lQA&feature=emb_logo
This video shows that it needn’t be difficult to supercharge those old blog posts. However, to reap maximum benefit, you’ll need to take a structured and coherent approach.
The first step is to create your content inventory. Draw up a list of every old post on the blog and examine how they relate to your business. Not every blog post offers the same value. Some will be more valuable because they are:
- More shareable
- More in-depth
- Resonating more effectively with readers
- Producing a higher rate of conversion
That means there’s no need to treat every blog post equally. Your strategic plan should be to direct all efforts toward achieving optimal search results. Identify which posts have had the most impact on your business’s success and then follow the next steps.
1. Control Your Sharing
Some search engine traffic sources are beyond your control. However, your social media accounts and e-mail lists are something you do have some control over. You can control which content you share, as well as when and how you decide to share with your followers.
There are a few ways you can use this to its full potential:
- Include links in your autoresponders. This is quick and easy to achieve and can make a big difference. A link to some of your older blog posts in your first few autoresponder e-mails is the first step. A subscriber is most likely to open the first few e-mails he or she receives. Therefore, harnessing this potential is beneficial.
- Linking to content when running sales campaigns. Providing educational material to your prospects before you make a pitch is important. So, add links to sales pitches. You’ll inform your potential customers while also increasing your chance of a sale.
- Share your old content regularly on social media platforms. Producing a large volume of blog posts is hard work. This means you have limited new content for sharing online. However, the solution is to share old posts instead. Drawing readers back to your blog is an effective technique. It raises your brand awareness and increases your chance of a conversion.
2. Using Internal Links
The above chart shows how important internal links in blogs are to improve your search rankings. In fact, internal links are part of your ongoing maintenance. They funnel readers toward relevant content that will interest them, thus improving the user’s experience.
How can you utilize this potential for the benefit of your business?
- Link frequently when you’re writing new posts. Use links to previous content to prove your point or to provide extra value to the reader.
- Make a list of the most important blog posts you’ve created. Separate them into categories that you’ll be writing about. Add links to these in your content as much as possible. This will ensure optimal user experience and a better chance of conversions.
- Return to old posts and add links. This is a step that many often overlook. If you’re adding links to old posts in new ones, you can add links to new posts in old ones. Go back to previous posts about the topic you’ve just written about and add links to the most recent post. It isn’t too onerous, and it can refresh old content quickly.
3. Revisit Keyword Targeting
In virtually all niches, long-term search traffic makes up a substantial percentage of blog traffic. While focusing on keyword targeting is important, sometimes it doesn’t always work as you planned.
Getting your keywords right is important to drive up traffic. This video shows how to research your keywords properly. Yet, sometimes, you just get the keywords wrong. Luckily, you can go back and adjust them to improve your targeting. Simply by adding the right words and phrases into your older posts, you can attract more readers. More readers mean more conversions, and more conversions mean higher profits.
4. Control Your Navigation
A key area within your control is your navigation areas. So, how can you use them to your advantage?
- Use your sidebar. Not every blog has a sidebar. But some do, and it represents an excellent place for including links. Don’t go overboard. You don’t need to include a vast number, but if you have plenty of content, it can make sense. Make sure the posts are interesting for your readers, though. Otherwise, your click-through rate will drop. On the upside, though, if you include links to valuable, engaging posts, your engagement level will increase. This will boost your SEO.
- Use menu links. Most blogs have a header menu. This is another navigation area from which you can harness the potential. The header menu is the very first thing visitors see when loading your page. It will stand out especially well if you have no sidebar. Use the header menu to include links to older content. Mix the links to lead generation pages and content pages since this space is valuable.
- Put below your post. The third option that you can use to include links to older posts is following any new post. This will allow readers to naturally move on to more relevant and interesting content.
5. Updating and Republishing
Rather than funneling traffic toward other website pages, you can try updating and republishing old posts instead. This strategy involves increasing your old posts’ value. This will encourage readers to go to new lengths to read it.
- Many well-established businesses have a blog that has grown extensively over time. This gives you the chance to refresh old content that you haven’t had on your front page for a long time. Refreshing old content improves your SEO. Revisit your old blog posts and read through them again. Is there any new information to add to them? Could you bring them more up to date? By adding a little extra, you can give an old, once-popular post more exposure.
- Create a brand new, updated post. Some posts lose their value with time. This means you can’t simply republish them as it would be pointless. For example, a post about something that was relevant five years ago won’t be relevant now. However, you can repurpose the concept of the post. Instead of simply republishing the old post in its existing format, create a new one based on the same theme. With this new post, try to make the content evergreen, with no dates. If you can keep this new content up to date, it will stay relevant in search engine searches. While this tactic won’t always drive more traffic to your old post, you can reuse some of the original content. This will reduce your content marketing costs. You may also be able to add links to your older post within the new one for double value.
- Simply update your old post. If a visitor finds one of your older blog posts, he or she will leave if it looks out of date. This person certainly won’t be sharing your content, and he or she won’t stay on your page for long. There’s no need for a complete overhaul. All you need to do is update a couple of smaller aspects. Do this a couple of times each year, and your blog will retain usefulness in the long term. It will continue ranking for keywords and will continue driving up traffic. This, in turn, will lead to more conversions and higher profits.
6. Consolidate Your Mid-Performing Content
Although you need to keep your top pages current, older pages may fall by the wayside. This means they may be getting some volume of traffic, but they could do better. One way to address this is to merge two or more pages into a single new post. This will increase traffic while reducing the number of website pages overall. As a result, your site will be faster, leaner, and more navigable.
Simply seek out older posts that have similar themes, concepts, and topics. See which one is performing best in terms of interaction, search engine ranking, and interaction. Then add in some of the themes and content for posts that are performing the weakest. This will strengthen the higher-performing post, lengthening it with nonfluff content. As search engines prefer content-rich pages, this will have a beneficial effect on your rankings.
Also, it will eliminate duplicate blog content that will be competing against itself for specific keywords. Optimizing and ranking for a single blog post is easier than for multiple ones. Also, you’ll be using existing quality content to save you money and time on content creation. This ensures the best possible value for money in the long run.
Recognizing the Importance of Your Old Posts
You can now see that older blog posts hold great importance for your business. They represent significant amounts of your marketing investment budget and are vital for your SEO. Investors don’t usually allow investments to sit untouched. Investors actively maintain and try to boost the value of their assets. This applies to your blog content, too. Use these six suggestions to drive up more traffic to your older blog posts. You’re sure to see a relatively rapid boost in your site traffic and conversions.
While the advice we’ve given you here will boost your content marketing strategy, you may need professional help. As a specialized team of content writers and content marketing professionals, we’re well-placed to assist. Contact us today to find out more about how we can repurpose and refresh your old content. We look forward to giving your blog a new lease of life.