What’s the Value of Updating Old Content?

If you have quality content on your website, keep an eye on it. Even the best articles you’ve put up for SEO purposes may have an unpleasant surprise in store. When they get older, they lose their effectiveness as SEO content. There are a number of reasons that content might age out of its usefulness.

Sometimes the issue is that the information in it becomes less accurate as events move forward. Other times, it’s just eclipsed by similar content getting more traffic. Sometimes certain links in it expire. Whatever the reason, updating old content can provide the same benefit to your search engine rankings as producing completely new content.

Repurposing Old Content

It might seem like once a viewer reads a piece of content once, they won’t have any more use for it. Repeat readers might be rare except in special circumstances, but that doesn’t mean you can’t increase the value of your content long-term. Website owners put a lot of time and effort into their content, and those reading it over can find opportunities for repurposing it.

When looking at old content, there are certain signs you should be looking for to find content ripe for repurposing. One of the clearest giveaways is a long article. Even if you got some good traffic out of it in the past, the odds are that it won’t get many repeat readers due to the investment involved. But this also makes it the perfect content to repurpose.

One of the best ways to repurpose old content is to turn it into new, smaller content. Breaking it up into mini-articles, making some updates to the content as relevant, and linking between the articles and the original can help you reach a larger audience of readers looking for bite-sized content. You can also use Ahrefs content explorer to find the perfect articles to adapt.

Is Updating Worth It?

Like with any content, you’re going to get out of updated content what you put into it. Whether it’s worth updating content will depend on a number of factors. First of all, are you likely to reach a new audience and get a serious boost in your profile? Is the content current enough that you can update it for significantly less effort than it would take to create totally new content? Does the content need limited revamping or a complete rewrite? Depending on these questions and the content of your website, you should be able to figure out if rewriting content is for you.

Keep an eye on your algorithms and search ranking before you make any decisions because it might be essential to update your content if you want to remain competitive as a website. This is especially important for any website in the Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) category, where you deal with critical areas like health and finance. Google keeps a close eye on these websites, and if your content is out of date, odds are you’ll find your website losing authority quickly. Even if you’re producing new content, updating is essential to keep your content current.

In order to keep your content up to date, you’ll want to have a fact-checker on hand. Eliminating any outdated information from articles is critical. You’ll also want to keep an eye on all your backlinks to make sure you’re not linking to dead or discredited articles.

Backlinking is a critical part of any content strategy, but it’s a double-edged sword. If your linked content loses credibility, so do you. Make sure to check all your links before publishing updated content, and have some backup links ready if you need to form some new partnerships.

Avoid falling into some old strategies that Google became wise to. This includes changing dates without updating the content or dropping in out-of-context references to trending topics to try to attract more searches. Not only will these not provide organic traffic, but Google may penalize you in some circumstances. To keep your content fresh and your search engine ranking high, you’ll want to make sure your updated content is as thorough as your new articles.

How To Update A Website

How often have you been on a website and thought that it looked frozen in time? Content that looked fresh and relevant months or years ago may not deliver the same results today, and Google’s search engine algorithm can tell the difference. Following best practices can help you get the most impact out of updating your content.

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