How to Update Old Blog Posts – Bring New Traffic to Old Content

 

How to Update Old Blog Content

Has your old blog content stopped bringing you traffic? In this post, I’ll cover how to revamp your old blog posts to bring you new traffic!

This post contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here.

 

Why Update & Revamp Old Blog Posts?

If you are consistently writing blog content, you are bound to grow and evolve. Your writing may improve, your style could change. Even the entire direction you’ve taken your blog may have changed over time.

Some of your old posts may be downright embarrassing. Have you ever looked back at your old blog posts and cringed?

You may even be tempted to delete them (whatever you do, DON’T DELETE! This can really mess up your sitemaps and confuse Google).

So what to do? I’m here to tell you, those old posts are little diamonds in the rough, just waiting to shine. So don’t delete. Revamp. You likely have a good base to work with already, so why throw that away?

 

Let’s Start Revamping!

To begin, read your old post from top to bottom. Jot down a few notes of anything that pops out at you. I’m sure there will be some obvious things you’d like to adjust. Here are the questions I like to ask myself as I read my content:

1. Are you formatting your posts differently these days?

Maybe you’ve changed how you format your headings and paragraphs. Are you using a different heading size/style/color than you were in the past? Caps vs. lowercase? Regular vs. bold?

Be sure to update your formatting to match your current style to stay consistent and make your content easy to read/visually interesting.

 

Related Reading: How to Make Your Blog Posts More Visually Appealing

 

2. Is your information still valid?

With Pinterest and social media constantly evolving, it’s important to check your old content to make sure you aren’t giving your readers outdated advice.

Update any information that has changed to ensure you stay credible to your audience.

 

 

3. Have you learned more about your old topic?

It’s natural for your knowledge to increase over time. Re-evaluate the original information you provided.

You’ll likely realize your knowledge on the subject has grown and you have more to say. This is the perfect opportunity to provide new insights and tips to your readers.

 

4. Have your writing skills improved?

There’s a good chance your writing skills have improved since writing those early posts. Perhaps you’ve started using a grammar/spell checker or have just evolved in your writing style.

Take some time to make adjustments and improve the readability of your post. Are your paragraphs too long? Paragraphs that are overly long can cause your readers to lose interest. Keep it short and sweet to keep them focused.

Double-check that your grammar and punctuation are correct. Poor grammar can really make you look unprofessional and lose the respect of your audience.

Bonus Tip: If you aren’t using Grammarly yet, I highly encourage you to consider it. It’s the World’s leading checker of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and plagiarism. It’s not just for your blog.

Wherever you write on the web, Grammarly will make helpful suggestions. It can truly take your writing to the next level. The better your writing, the more credible you will seem to your readers.

Did I mention they have a free version? Check it out. You won’t be sorry.

 

 

5. Have you written any related posts?

As you re-read that old post, you may realize you’ve written another post related to the same topic.

Add links to those related posts where appropriate to drive traffic to more of your content. Keeping your audience on your site longer is great for SEO!

 

6. Have you joined new affiliate programs?

You may have joined a new affiliate program that relates to your topic. Take the opportunity to add links to those new products or programs that may interest your readers.

Looking for new affiliate programs to join? Check out ShareASale or Sendowl.

 

Related: 4 Ways to Make Money From Home With Sendowl

 

 

7. Are your links working properly?

From time to time, a link may become broken. Sometimes a product you’ve linked to becomes unavailable. Or maybe an affiliate program has changed their links.

A link that takes your readers nowhere can affect your credibility (not to mention it’s super frustrating). Check to make sure all links are still taking your audience where you say they will.

 

 

8. Are you happy with your images?

How do your images look? Still fresh and attractive, or old and dated?

Maybe your design skills have improved since you created your images. Or maybe a better image has been added to your favorite stock photo site.

You may want to take time to design a new main image that’s extra “pinnable”.

 

 

9. Have you filled out your metadata?

This is a mistake I made in my early days. I was excited and rushing to get my content out into the world. I uploaded all my blog images without bothering to fill out the metadata. Rookie mistake!

I was naive and just didn’t know any better. Make sure you’ve filled out your alt text for each image.

To give yourself an extra boost, check out the Tasty Pins Plugin. It is a game changer for filling out your alt text and Pinterest descriptions.

For more information on metadata and alt text, check out my previous post HERE.

 

10. Can you improve your SEO?

Your SEO skills have likely improved. Add any useful keywords, tags, and categories you can think of. And again, make sure your metadata is filled out. 

SEO can seem confusing and overwhelming at first. But it is SO important. If you want to really up your SEO game, check out this FREE Intro to SEO Course by expert, Debbie Gartner. 

 

 

Ta-Da!

That’s 10 things you can do to revamp that old, tired content. You should basically have a brand new blog post at this point!

 

What’s Next?

• Re-Submit your post’s URL to Google Search Console to let Google know your post has changed and needs to be crawled/indexed.

• Design one or two new pins for the post and share it to Pinterest with a NEW description. This will let Pinterest know it’s a new pin. And Pinterest loves NEW content!

• Reshare your post with new updated images to any other social media platforms you have. Make sure to check if optimal social media post sizes have changed.

• Add your new pins to Tailwind Tribes and watch the reshares roll in!

Now, get to work revamping those embarrassing old posts! Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do them all at once.

This is a great blogging task to take on when you’ve got writer’s block. When you are feeling stumped for ideas, evaluate your posts using these 10 questions and enjoy feeling like you’ve created brand new content to share and promote 😉 

To get the most out of those old posts, be sure to grab our free printable revamping checklist below!

Of course there are many, more advanced ways to update old blog posts. I recently took a training with SEO & Traffic expert Lena Gott where she taught me how to update posts using information gathered from Google Search Console.

I mention this because it was so incredibly valuable, and YOU can have access to the training too.

How?

This was a live training provided to members of the Beyond Pinterest Mastermind group I’m in. The monthly live training calls are amazing and the membership is well worth the price.

Check it out HERE if interested.

 

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Increase Traffic By Updating Old Blog Posts