Refreshing material is a terrific way to maintain the information on your website current and fresh, and it's also one of the best methods to increase traffic to your existing content.
However, the content refreshing process isn’t always straightforward. For example, some people worry about tanking their organic traffic if they update the content (a valid concern). Other people find that it just doesn’t bring the dramatic traffic increase that some marketing experts promise.
Fortunately for you, I’ve been both of those people. | SEO Content Refresh
I’ve updated probably more than 50 blog posts in the past 12 months, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. However, I’ve also seen outstanding results, such as content that drives 10 times more traffic and soars in rankings.
Nevertheless, I was curious as to why some posts do so much better after an update than others.
I thus conducted a statistical analysis to see what causes some material to become significantly more effective after an update and why others keep failing. My content refreshing success rate has increased dramatically as a result of the strategy I developed using this data. I'd like to share that tactic with you today.
The following topics will be discussed in this article:
Which blog entries need to be updated?
How to make your blog entries current
Contrary to popular belief, not all blog posts are worth updating. This is one of the single most impactful realizations that has improved my content refreshing success rate. In fact, I only recommend prioritizing updates for old content that earned 20+ monthly visitors at peak performance.
Why?
In the data study mentioned above, 45% of the updated posts had fewer than 20 visitors per month pre-update. Unfortunately, this 45% of updated posts only contributed 15% of the total traffic increase (of a 96% total organic traffic increase).
That means blog posts that already had 20+ monthly visitors before the update contributed the majority of the total organic traffic increase.
Posts with higher pre-update traffic, in my opinion, already rank for some keywords in positions #5–10. As a result, moving from positions #5–10 to first is far simpler than moving from zero to first.
What therefore ought to be done with blog entries that receive less than 20 visits each month?
It's definitely worth upgrading these posts if they offer significant thought leadership ideas or are targeting keywords that are beneficial to your company. Additionally, because it takes time to become popular, a smaller site would typically have a lot more blog entries with fewer than 20 monthly visitors.
As a result, updating them is still beneficial, but start with the posts that have the greatest potential.
How do you actually edit posts once you've decided which ones need to be updated? I've discovered that many businesses provide freelance writers with a procedure that resembles this:
Update historical data, facts, and quotations
Include more paragraphs for the keywords that are lacking from the postings.
Eliminate any parts that are no longer pertinent.
But I've discovered that the aforementioned tactic isn't the most effective way to update content. Although it updates the content, it ignores whether the post is meeting the search intent or not.
To put it another way, you need to consider why the postings that rank highly on Google are more helpful than your content. (I'm ready to wager that it's more than simply the third paragraph's out-of-date statistic.)
According to my research on content refreshment, your post is most likely not ranking since there is another post that:
is more recent.
provide practical guidance (or additional pertinent information).
provides a first-rate user experience.
is more appropriate for the searcher's goal.
Update any out-of-date information.
Although I just stated that changing out-of-date material is only one aspect of refreshing content, it is nevertheless a step in the process.
Furthermore, I'm not only referring to replacing outdated data and quotations. Frequently, you will need to revise (or alter entirely) the samples to better align them with the search intent.
One of my best examples of content refreshment, for instance, is this one. When I updated it for the first time in 2019, it was receiving roughly 4,000 visits per month. It brought in roughly 20,000 visitors a month at its best.
"Knowledge is learning something new every day," says Farshad Asl, a best-selling book and business leader. Letting go of certain negative habits on a daily basis is a sign of wisdom. In order to acquire the necessary SEO abilities and break any negative habits you may have developed along the way, you will need both knowledge and judgment when it comes to keyword ranking.
There are a lot of different viewpoints on the internet, particularly about SEO. Therefore, it's understandable why novices in SEO are misled when they unintentionally adhere to out-of-date or incorrect advice. Because of this, the most effective strategy to significantly raise your keyword ranks may be to unlearn bad behaviors and replace them with positive ones. You may rank for keywords that are relevant to your website and business by deliberately making small, gradual changes to your SEO strategy. This will help you achieve the organic search success that initially motivated you to learn SEO.
Search Algorithms Take precedence Over User Experience | Search Algorithms SEO Content
Search Algorithms Take precedence Over User Experience
When it comes to SEO, you're usually more concerned with what Google wants than with the people who will really utilize your material if you want to achieve organic success. Page experience is one of Google's most well-known ranking variables this year since the company wants the websites it promotes to prioritize people.
What to Do Instead | Content for SEO
Write for people, not machines. Consider what people are genuinely searching for when they use a specific keyword. Then, discover a way for your content to anticipate and meet these search intents better than what is already on the SERP.
By performing some study and considering the following, you can ascertain the search intent of a keyword:
Examine the SERP: Determine what Google thinks the search purpose is; they are typically quite correct.
Read the Top Results: In a competitive SERP, they’re probably the top results for a reason. What are they offering that other sites aren’t?
Consider What Your Readers Would Want to Know: You should know your audience and what they want to know. How can you help.