How often should we be updating blog content to make sure it performs well?
Clients often ask how often they need to update an article or learning hub to make sure it appears near the top of Google’s search results.
Updating a page is a great way to improve your audience’s experience. You can capitalise on content that’s performing well and making updates can improve the page’s search engine ranking.
We wanted to share our thinking on updating existing blog content and a simple rule of thumb you can use to prioritise resources.
why update existIng blog posts?
Let’s start with why. There are two reasons to update existing content:
Changes in an industry mean a post is no longer accurate or you can add more value
You want to get more from a post that’s performing well
In both cases, you need to prioritise, so start with content that’s performing well or content that’s important to your strategy.
Updating a post because of industry changes
The information your audience is looking for changes over time. Perhaps, the legislation or rules that govern an industry are updated, or best practice evolves.
You’re better off updating an existing post than starting from scratch because you can leverage any existing traction and backlinks.
The regularity that you do that depends on the needs of the subject matter. Rule changes set an easy-to-follow timetable. If techniques and best practices are changing, it’ll be a question of effort vs. reward (see our simple rule of thumb below).
Make sure you’re looking after your perennial content
Perennial content often dominates site traffic, with a handful of older posts that are performing well for long-tail keywords accounting for a significant share of traffic.
That cornerstone content may need to be updated to make sure it’s on-brand, search engine friendly and is contributing to your marketing goals.
First there’s the housekeeping:
Start with the SEO basics by making sure the layout is accessible, keywords appear in primary locations, there are helpful internal and external links, and you’re using images.
The content is likely to have been written some time ago, so make sure it fits your brand voice.
Update any links that are broken or where there are better resources.
Finally, the page needs to contribute to your marketing goals. What’s the next step you want the reader to take to engage with the business?
This ranges from reading another article or viewing a product page to booking a consultation or buying a product. Whatever your desired goal, make sure the content has call to actions that match the intent the reader has.
They’re the basics. The amount of effort you invest after that point depends on how valuable the content can be for your business. That could mean adding additional advice, creating case studies or templates, using images more effectively, adding video etc.
The more value you provide, the more engagement you get and the higher you’ll rank.
What blog posts should you update?
It’s important to get the most value from your efforts, so start with the articles that have the highest volume of traffic or perform best for your conversion metrics (dwell time, email sign-up etc.).
If you’re getting a decent amount of traffic to a page, but everyone’s leaving immediately (low dwell times, high bounce rates) you need to look into why.
The post might not be answering the reader’s search query. In which case, it’s a good candidate for updating.
The search traffic you’re getting might not be relevant to your business. This happens when you rank for a long-term keyword you weren’t expecting.
Be realistic about what you can expect from the reader and don’t put lots of time into pages that aren’t going to support your marketing goals.
A Simple rule of thumb for updating existing content
SEO starts with the reader. What help are they looking for when they type in a search query? How can you answer that question in the best way possible?
Updating content can have a big impact on your site traffic and conversion, so think about:
Whether you can add more value
The resources you have
Prioritise the pages that are performing well. Every time we complete a site audit, there’s always low-hanging fruit or highly trafficked pages that aren’t converting. Don’t let that traffic go to waste!
Depending on your resources, you might decide to revisit your top 10 evergreen articles once a year or every six months, for example.
There’s also going to be content that’s important to your business, but isn’t ranking yet that you want to include in the mix.
Make updating content part of your marketing processes
When you know what you’re going to prioritise, add updating evergreen or cornerstone content to your marketing calendar.
Set reminders for content that needs to be updated due to industry changes. Build your updates to top posts into regular activity. For example, revisit one of your top performing posts every month.
When you do update something, make sure you shout about it. Change the publication date and promote it like a new post.
In short, determine your top performing articles, book regular updates into your calendar and reap the benefits of greater SEO traffic and conversion.
If you want to get a greater return on investment from your content marketing activities, message me on LinkedIn or book a call in my calendar.
