If you have had a blog for more than two years, then you may like to consider optimizing your old blog posts and maybe re-using the content. Before you start concentrating on your old articles, you should check to see if they have stopped receiving traffic. If your old blog posts are still receiving traffic, it may be worth leaving them as they are.

 

Your old blog posts are part of your blog as a whole, which means they have an effect on your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Many blogs and websites receive a lot of traffic from Google. For example, HubSpot receives over 45% of its traffic from organic Google searches. Take small baby steps as you change and alter your older blog posts so that you may monitor their effect on your ranking on the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

 

If your old blog posts have stopped receiving traffic, then the first thing you need to do is run a plagiarism checker on them. Use a tool such as the PlagTracker edit and duplication service to check to see if the content has been copied elsewhere on the Internet. If it has, then that may explain why you are no longer receiving traffic to it. If it has not been copied, but it needs refreshing, then consider using the essay editing team to fix it. If you are sure your content has not been plagiarized, and you are sure it is receiving very little (if any) traffic, you may move on to try some of the tips listed below.

 

Rethink Your Old SEO Methods

 

Since the Google Hummingbird update, Google has focused less on keywords, and you should too. These days, having one focus keyword is enough. If you are writing blog posts, then up to twelve tagged keywords are all that are needed.

 

With that in mind, go back to your old blog posts and articles and reword them a little. In the past, you may have been tempted to add numerous keywords and litter them throughout your post. You should go back and reword your posts a little. Concentrate on the flow of your text and the meaning more than fitting keywords in.

 

Your focus keywords should appear naturally in your text. For example, if you are writing about Paris, then it stands to reason that you would mention the word “Paris” numerous times organically without having to force such words into your text.

 

Go back to your old blog posts and articles and reword them a little so that they flow a little more easily, and so that they sound a little more natural when they are read aloud.

 

Do a little research into Google updates and the mistakes people make regarding them. You may have made honest mistakes in your old posts that you can easily rectify with a little research into what the Google updates were and how they affect your blog.

 

Plan Your URLs Ahead Of Time

 

Google likes web pages that are routinely updated. Updates every day are fine, albeit difficult if you are not using some sort of dynamic software. Weekly updates and monthly updates may be search engine friendly if you are updating with new and useful information. Google even likes annual updates, especially with regards to the year’s best lists and so forth.

 

With all of that in mind, try to plan your URLs to make them update friendly. If you are using WordPress, then the URL may also be called the page slug. Using a best list as an example, you could create a URL such as:

 

www.MyWebsite.com/Best-Eco-Kettles-For-2017

 

That is a fine web page URL, but you will have trouble optimizing it when you update it in the year 2018. Plus, people will see the page URL in the Google search engine results and figure that your page is out of date. Instead, you could create a URL that looks something like this:

 

www.MyWebsite.com/Best-Eco-Kettles-This-Year

 

When you create it, you could use the URL above “Best-Kettles-This-Year” and then have your post title as “The Best Eco Kettles Of The Year 2017.”

 

When you update the web page in a year, you keep the web page URL the same, but you change the page title to, “The Best Eco Kettles Of The Year 2018.” That way, you are able to update your web page however you wish.

 

Consider Keeping Your Old Content And Moving It Down

 

Let’s take the example given in the previous section about a best list for Eco Kettles. You may create a web page that features 10 fantastic kettles that are all the rage in the year 2017. However, when 2018 rolls around, you discover that all ten kettles must be replaced with descriptions of new kettle models.

 

If this is the case, then create your top ten lists and add it to your web page. The content from last year (i.e. last year’s top ten) doesn’t have to be deleted. Under your new top ten list, you can add a header that says, “Look At What Was popular Last Year.” Edit your old list and little and post it under that heading.

 

Not only do you get to recycle your old content, but you essentially double the size of your post. Just make sure you edit the old list a little to make it a little more concise, and to update people if an Eco-Kettle model is no longer available in shops.

 

Recycle Your Old Blog Posts

 

Let’s say you have 80 blog posts that either you wrote or your content writer produced. Take a look at your Google Analytics and see if your older posts are still getting traffic. If they are not, then remove them completely from your blog. Keep them off your blog for over two months, and then reengineer them into new blog posts.

 

For example, if you wrote a post about different types of lawn grass, you could change and update the text to account for recent developments and new products. You should keep the old content, but refresh it a little, and you should add new content to make the post larger.

 

Once two months has passed and your old posts are no longer listed on the Google search engine results, you may enter your recycled content as a brand new and updated blog post. Not only will this generate new traffic, it will also look like new content to Google.
Before you try recycling your content, just make sure that the blog post you remove has been dormant and ignored for months. If you are still getting traffic to the blog post, then it will damage your standing with Google if you remove it.

 

Conclusion – Use Your Common Sense And Consider What Is Right For Your Blog

If you put your mind to it, there are plenty of ways you can refresh and update your old blog posts. For example, why not go back and link your old blog posts with your newer blog posts? You can alter your old blog post titles to see if they become more search engine friendly. There is also nothing wrong with refreshing your old content and then sharing it on social media in the same way you share your new content on social media.