Getting New Value From Old Blog Content [INFOGRAPHIC]

Unless you run a news organization or a current-event-themed blog, you probably have great blog content from a few months or years ago that is still relevant to your communities, but has an aging publication date. Maybe it’s still relevant as-is, or maybe a few key points need a review and an update based on industry or market developments. But knowing how to prioritize and get the most value out of this older blog content can be a challenge. Where to begin?

Q: What’s the best strategy for addressing older blog content and using them to bring new traffic to your website?

A: Conduct a simple content audit.

We know, the word “audit” is a huge turn-off. But really the goal here is to assess your inventory of existing blog content for best value, identify those key performers, and revive those blog posts that are still relevant and valuable to your communities. Here’s what to look for:

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Review your old blog content and sort into these three groups:

1. Old But Still Relevant Blog Content:

This content is still providing value, it’s just dated. So leave it up. But also look for ways to repurpose this content to make it fresh. Can it be turned into a video, infographic, or podcast? Also link new blog content to these older, but relevant posts. This will improve engagement and can help boost search ranking.

2. Relevant But Poor Performing Blog Content:

This content is still of value to your communities, but it’s just not getting the attention it deserves. Start by reviewing and refocusing for SEO. Then look to see if the content is too short. Recent content marketing studies have found that longer form content – over 500 words – performs better than shorter posts. A good way to lengthen content is to add new information such as an industry expert’s take on the topic or relevant data or statistics. Lastly, look for ways to repurpose this content into an infographic, animation, or explainer video as these content types typically perform well.

3. Outdated and Irrelevant Blog Content:

A moment of silence for these assets, please. It’s tough to say goodbye, but before you do, check to be sure that no significant web traffic is generated by this old content. If there is traffic, set up redirects to newer, relevant alternative content.

Schedule regular content audits.

Moving forward, block off time on your calendar to review your inventory of blog content, check performance, and optimize content based on results. Is there a slow month in your industry? Then that’s the time to do it. Depending on how frequently content is published, this could be every three to six months or at least once a year.

Conducting content audits and reviewing old posts takes time. But the extra effort and attention are worth it in the long run. According to Obit Media and their survey of over 1,000 blog content creators, only 55% of marketers update old blog posts but those that do are 74% more likely to see strong results. So there’s clearly an advantage to be gained by conducting regular content audits and reviving old but valuable content.

Resources:

Obit Media Blog, Blogging Statistics and Trends: The 2017 Survey of 1000+ Bloggers

Entrepreneur.com, Why You Should Republish Old Blog Content