Photo by Karolina Grabowska
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Update your Web Content Because It's Always New to Someone
Because content creation is important to both your website’s SEO and to your social media marketing, don’t hesitate to mine content you have already published.
Articles, videos, and other content highlighting your expertise do wonders for providing a strong foundation for your SEO and provides you opportunities to post links elsewhere that go back to your website. But you probably have days when you struggle to churn out new and relevant content. Here’s your reminder that you are overlooking an easy-to-access source of content. Your previous blog articles, whether weekly, monthly, yearly, or whatever, make a great resource for your marketing efforts!
On a regular basis, look back through your old articles and see if any need revamping. Check to be sure the links still work, and that the information provided is still accurate. Update any information that is old news, clean up the spelling errors you overlooked, and shine up your prose. Swap in a spiffy new graphic, too.
It’s a good idea to keep your information accurate and up to date for several reasons. First off, if a customer stumbles upon an old article, you want to be seen as a reliable source for information, not someone totally out-of-touch. Check your Google Analytics or your on-page view counters. You may be totally surprised by how many of your old posts are still getting clicked on. One of Sprocket’s most-read articles is one I wrote way back in 2018!
The second reason is that you can use this content again in your current marketing efforts. Those old posts don’t have to be dragged out only on a #ThrowbackThursday. Promote your revamped articles today as relevant content for channeling visitors back to your business website.
Do you have a ton of old articles? Then use the divide and conquer method. Choose a few to check back over this month, a few for next month, and so on. You might want to start with the posts that Google Analytics says is getting the most attention. It always makes sense to give people what they want!
It may sound tedious to go back and clean up your old posts, especially if you’ve been writing weekly articles since the dawn of time. Your website content, however, is important to your SEO and tidying can bring improvement. Do the links work? If not, either delete the links or replace them with new ones. Is the information provided still accurate or is there “expired” information that needs to be removed? Obsolete posts like that contest you ran in 2019 should probably be deleted entirely, but it might be better to rewrite some other articles. If certain posts have had a lot of readers, you don’t want to lose that kind of history.
Keep in mind that though an article may be years old for you, it can still be the first time someone else has come across it. Make sure you are presenting your business in the best possible light. Read your old posts as if you are reading them for the first time and punch them up as needed.
As you are updating your old content, remember to make use of it. Here is a vault of valuable information at your fingertips. While sharing your favorite industry articles on social platforms, dip into your own archive as well. Share these updated articles and rework them in new ways, ways that may not have been available when you first wrote them.
There will be new content to write and share, but do the “work smarter, not harder” thing by cycling your older content into your social media calendar as well. Keeping your website fresh is a definitely effort, but so important. Do you need assistance to fix broken links, rework your menu, or generally renovate an old website? We can help! Just give us a call.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska
This article is an update to “Content Marketing: Revamping and Reusing Existing Content” dated 8/17/2015.
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Breanne Bannon
Breanne is a Content Writer, Social Media Marketeer, and Sales Associate for Sprocket Websites.
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