How to Update Old Blog Posts for SEO Purposes

You might be wondering what the purpose is of reusing old blog posts. There are actually several benefits to repurposing and updating existing content for marketers and their clients. Alongside boosting SEO rankings, it can also ensure that more relevant traffic is drawn in, the user experience (UX) is enhanced, strong CTAs can be harnessed and more up-to-date articles and content can be used, therefore improving accuracy, trust and authority in the search engine results pages (SERPs). If you’re looking to benefit from those things, then here’s how you can update your old blog posts for excellent SEO results.

Research current & on-trend topics 

Take an existing piece of content that needs to be updated. Look at the topic or subject you’ve touched on and do some research around it. Have there been any recent developments or updates about it? Are there any new statistics or certified facts you can use? Have people’s perspectives or stances on the matter changed? 

Once you have the answers to those questions, take a look back through the copy and see where information can be updated to reflect more on-trend and updated information, facts or statistics. For example, you might have written an article about the TikTok ban, but that was overturned at the start of the new presidential term. 

Therefore, your old content about it being banned is no longer relevant. Instead of deleting that post, open it up and update it with the most relevant and recent information you have. Also, don’t be afraid to amend the title. Just remember to update other elements of your blog post, like the meta tag and meta description, for instance.

Use the ‘Stand Out Content’ principle

The ‘Stand Out Content’ principle tells you how content can be made that will stand out from the crowd, essentially. While there are no hard and fast rules for creating stand-out content, there are some bread-and-butter principles that you need to draw upon for the purposes of content creation. 

When you have existing content that needs to be updated, maybe because traffic has stagnated or it’s generally out of date, like our above TikTok example, it can be more difficult to apply those ‘Stand out Content’ principles. 

Go back through the content you have, and see how and where you can weave in new elements and content that aligns with the ‘Stand Out Content’ principle. Some of the ways in which the ‘Stand Out Content’ principle can be achieved are as follows:

• Put a unique spin on your existing content – it might well have had a unique spin initially, but update it and inject some current information and ideas into it to make sure it’s been updated properly
• Reformat – reforming your content, maybe to accommodate a new website design, for instance, is an important and easy way of reusing and updating old blog post content
• Make it actionable – you need to make sure that old content is just as actionable, if not more so, than it was before. Include links and buttons that people can click on, and make sure there’s a CTA, especially if there wasn’t one originally
• Go above & beyond, proving more than just an answer – people will search for answers to a question, but give the reader more than that. You can go through existing content and reword it to include more useful information, rather than just giving one answer to a question they had
• Use multimedia – this is important, especially if you didn’t utilise it originally when the content was first published. Multimedia can include anything from videos and podcasts to articles and infographics. Take an existing blog post and turn it into an infographic, for example. This is an easy way of updating old blog posts, but it’s also fun. We’ll be going into further detail about this later on in the article 

Review keywords, meta titles & links used

Keywords are changing all the time. The keywords you used for a blog post five years ago are unlikely to be as relevant and searched for as they are today. Redo some keyword research and use those analytics to refresh the keywords used in your original blog post. This is an effective fix if you find that traffic to the post has stopped or completely slowed down. 

The other thing you should do is look back through your existing content for broken links, whether they be outbound or internal. It might be that you’ve linked to another article or website that just doesn’t exist anymore. Remove those broken links and replace them with others. 

If there’s a statistic that needs backing up, research the topic again and look for new data to link to. This can increase authority in the SERPs, along with trust between yourself and your website visitors. Meta titles and meta descriptions also need to be updated, mostly to include your new keywords, if there are any. 

Republish & reshare

Once your updates have been made to your existing content, republish them. Make sure they have a more recent date stamp or add a disclaimer to the bottom of that page that states when the information was updated. You should also look to reshare that content on your social media platforms, making your followers aware that relevant and up-to-date information is now available on your blog. 

Use multimedia 

Multimedia, as already touched upon, can include anything from podcasts and infographics to podcasts and posters, and everything in between. If you have an existing blog post or article that needs to be updated, then use that and translate it into a different form of content. 

This is far easier, quicker and more fun than just regurgitating continuous prose into another, reworded body of text. Simply take your existing blog post and use that as a guide when creating your new form of media. You should then share that new content piece on your social media account, especially if it’s a short-form video or a simple infographic. 

At Kumo, we provide comprehensive digital marketing solutions to clients throughout the UK. Located in the centre of Nottingham, our skilled team specialises in SEO, PPC, content development and website design, to name just a few of the marketing services we offer – each tailored to enhance your brand and set it apart. Want to learn more? Get in touch with our friendly and experienced team – we’re here to help.