How to Make Outdated Content on Your Website Fresh
Most famous websites have one thing in common, they refresh their existing content. After all, one of the primary benefits of including a blog on your website and content strategy is to continue reaping its value. In addition, refreshing outdated content allows website owners to add quality and incorporate more keywords, potentially increasing their rankings in SERPs.
Updating outdated content gives you a competitive edge in your business and content marketing approach. However, when it comes to application, most business owners tend to miss out on the ‘how.’ So to help you better, we’ve curated a list of possible approaches you could give to your outdated website content.
Continue reading as we guide you through updating your existing website content in the following blog sections. But first, let’s understand the why.
Updating Existing Content? Why Bother?
If your website has been in the business for some time, it’s evident that your blog section must have articles that are now outdated. SEO, being a user-based experience, favors updated articles (in terms of information), provides better insights, and has the right keywords to help visitors with their solutions in no time.
Therefore, you should prioritize refreshing your updated content with new data in addition to adding new content. This way, you can not only provide a better experience to your users but also have a chance at boosting your SEO rankings.
To get started, you can easily scout your existing blogs for the top-performing posts and relevant or trending topics.
Now that we understand the what and the why let’s focus on how to update outdated content on your website.
How To Refresh Outdated Content On Your Website
#1 Use the same post and URL
Rather than publishing an additional article to your blog section, which indicates the risk of plagiarism, it’s smart to modify the original article at its source. To do the same, copy/paste the post into a new draft, edit and make the necessary changes, and copy/paste the HTML back to the source once it’s ready to be re-published. This way, you can easily bring your visitors to get value from the new, updated content.
Note: While you might be tempted to update the post’s URL slug, doing so will depreciate its link value. Here, it’s best to keep things as they are.
#2 If you’re modifying the title, keep the keywords
If your update requires changing the post's title, keep it close to the original. Even though it's more crucial to maintain the URL than the title, try retaining the previously used keywords in your title. This way, even with a changed title, the targeted keywords will bring the same results to the users.
#3 Include an editor’s note for transparency
Including a brief editor's note at the bottom of your updated blog piece is an excellent idea if you’re doing it for transparency. This is a smart idea, particularly if your post has received a lot of comments. We suggest adding a note because readers might get confused seeing a recent publish date but comments from weeks or months ago.
#4 Optimize the meta description of your post
Another great approach to refreshing your website content would be to optimize its meta description. Here, we suggest you examine its meta-description and look for answers to the following:
- Is the meta description still accurate today?
- Can I change it to something better or more interesting?
Remember, a good meta description might not affect your SEO approach but adds to your clickthrough rate. So ensure your meta description accurately describes the article's content and is compelling enough to entice people to click through from SERP pages.
#5 Track the performance before and after the update
It's a good idea to note the post's "before" stats before publishing your updated or refreshed content. This way, you’re better at assessing how your updates have affected the post's overall performance, as you can compare it to the post's performance after it has been republished. Eventually, this could help you decide which posts are worth focusing on for updates.
Takeaway To Revamp Your Website Skilfully
Apart from revamping your website’s content, it’s also essential to modify different aspects of your website. For instance, with customers’ increasing awareness of crypto payments, you might want to install payment plugins from CoinGate. The platform allows you to accept crypto payments without attracting additional costs in fees or taxes.
Now You Know!
This brings us to the end of our article on how you could modify your website’s content to suit the ever-adapting SEO approach. However, while you’re at it, don’t overlook the significance of adding new blogs and optimizing your website. Remember, don’t overlook the basics of making the most with the basics. All the best!
