Why your old content is as important as your new content

You probably have lots of content you’ve generated previously, like blogs, web pages and guides, which may seem redundant once you start producing newer stuff – but there’s value in old content. 

Here’s how to improve what you already have to make it work harder for your business.

Evergreen content

Evergreen content is that which is always relevant to your audience – no matter what time of year it is – so it never dates and always feels fresh to them.

Evergreen content often starts with titles like ‘how to’ or ‘5 types of’. Accountancy software company Xero does this well, with a website full of evergreen content that’s relevant to its audience of small businesses. Each article answers a problem or question, giving Xero a bank of content that can be used all year round.

Building a good proportion of evergreen content on your channels is a great way to get value from your content. It means that when you have a quiet week, with no topical hooks or exciting company announcements, you can turn to your evergreen content for inspiration.

The key to creating evergreen content is to either write it without any references that might date, or commit to updating it on a regular basis. Another tactic is to link out to reputable resources that are constantly updated or even linking to other areas of your site that will be more up to date.

Repurposed content

Of course, there may be times when your evergreen content needs to be refreshed. When you’re evaluating your old content, you might find a piece which makes for great evergreen content, but needs to be refreshed and improved. Enter: repurposed content.

Repurposing content is simply about updating old content that could be performing even better for your business.

A simple trick here is to use Google Analytics to identify your high-traffic posts and pages. Look at what gets the most traffic over a long time period, like six months or a year, then analyse the content on those pages one by one. Ask yourself:

• How useful is it for our audience?

• Does it answer their most pressing questions on this subject? 

• Is it a good length, well-structured and easy to read, with useful subheadings?

• Does it include useful links and drive people to other parts of your site? 

• Does it include a meaningful call to action at the end to encourage users to stay on your site or channels?

• Is it optimised well for SEO?

• Could you add some colour with quotes?

• Could the images be improved?

Sometimes old content has a title that hooks your audience in, but when they click through, it could do more to deliver what they need. By answering these questions you can identify what needs to be done to improve your content. 

After you’ve identified your edits, amend and republish the content within the same webpage. That way, you’ll still benefit from the traffic that the title is driving to the page, but your audiences will stay on the page for longer – and ideally go on to another part of your website afterwards.

Calls to action

Of course, your first objective is to create content that’s meaningful to your audience – but how can it also be helpful to your business? Could some of your content help to generate leads, make sales or achieve goals? 

A call to action – or CTA – is a short piece of copy that directs users to take a certain action.

Think about how to add meaningful CTAs to old content to make it work harder. You could look back to your business KPIs to help you; for example, you might want to increase number of people who:

• Request a demo of one of your products

• Book a call to discuss the services you offer

• Download a report or PDF guide

• Sign up to your newsletter

• Follow you on social media

• Come to an event

Not all of these calls to action will be relevant for every piece of content you produce, so consider which is most appropriate. You could write generic content for each CTA and then tweak it to the content when you add it in.

Here are our top tips for writing a compelling CTA:

• Keep it short: stick to the point and make it well 

• Make it stand out: if you can, get a CTA box designed so it stands out on the page. Otherwise, highlighting in bold will help

• Start with a clear command verb: things like ‘join’, ‘sign up’ or ‘download’. This makes it clear exactly what action you want users to take. If you can, add a button link to reiterate this command verb

• Create a sense of urgency: are you offering a free consultation for a limited time? There’s nothing like a little FOMO to make people act

• Make it obvious what users will get out of it: are they getting something new or something for free? 

• Make the CTA as relevant as possible to the content of the article: you want the next step to be as natural as possible

Persuasive writing like this can be used throughout and at the end of your content – and in marketing materials too, like your company email and website pop-ups. You should also include them in your social media mix, scattering the odd CTA amongst other social posts. 

At Inkwell, we’re experts in creating content strategies that drive traffic and get results. You can find out more about what we offer on our services page, or get in touch with the team to talk about how we can help you.