Thinking about your old website content? What are their ratings, why have they been downgraded, or what happens to them when they are updated?
Usually, the SEO and content production team in active online magazines focuses on publishing new content and increasing site visits. The good news is that with only one-third of this focus, you can increase the number of visits and clicks on the old content of the site.
The subject of this article is to investigate the impact of updating old content on site traffic, how to do this, and the traditional and different methods of updating site content. Stay with us to measure the ratio of content updates to site traffic.
Table of Contents
Why updating old content is good for increasing traffic?
Before I write about how to update old website content, let’s talk about why with four specific reasons.
1. Reducing the average content age
Even evergreen content gets old and its subjects need to be updated. This update is often not about educational content, but sometimes you need to update keyword density and consistency based on what the user is currently searching for.
It is good to know that one of Google’s important criteria for establishing a website’s position on the search engine results page (SERP) is to be up-to-date. Google gives more credit to domains with up-to-date content compared to old, un-updated content.
2. Increase CTR or click rate
When we talk about click-through rate, we should not only look at the number recorded for CTR, because the increase or decrease of click-through rate is also dependent on two measures, the number of views and the rank of the link.
By updating the content based on the user’s opinion, it is possible to improve the ranking of the content on the Google results page, and as a result, the content attracts more clicks.
Also, the more recent the publication date of the content displayed to the user in the search engine, the more likely he is to visit the content.
3. Always complying with Google’s content SEO standards
Google’s search engine is updating its algorithms most of the time. Algorithms are criteria that Google ranks sites based on these criteria.
When you consistently update old content based on new metrics, you signal to Google that you’re keeping up with its metrics trends, and that’s a good thing.
4. Less cost, more profit
In addition to being cheaper than creating new content, updating old site content is more profitable. Because new content needs more time to attract credit and be in the top position of Google. Whereas the old site content has rank and credibility and you just want to improve it.
If you take a look at the website’s search console pages, more than 70% of your magazine’s traffic is from old website content. So, it is better that in the content strategy of the site, in addition to planning for the production of new content, you should also take a look at updating the old content of the site.
Step by step to update the old articles on the site
Now that you’ve concluded why you should review and update old website articles, it’s good to know how. This work requires small and consecutive steps so that the work proceeds carefully and orderly.
The first step is to collect information
Which article should we update? This is the first question you should ask yourself. To answer this question, you should go to the site analysis tools. Tools like Google Analytics and Search Console allow you to filter different links based on impressions or click-through rates. For example, you can go to Google Search Console and see the statistics of articles published in the magazine in the search results section.
The second step is choosing the right pages for optimization
Now that we have all the information in one place, it’s time to analyze the information. Here we decide which content will be updated in what way.
For this, put the link of all contents in one of the following three categories:
- Content that has high traffic but a low conversion rate.
- Content that has low traffic and a good conversion rate.
- Good content has dropped.
Now sort the links that fall into these three categories based on priorities. Which category is prioritized for you? Content that has a good conversion rate, but low traffic? Next, it’s time to consider different content strategies that will solve the problems of the articles. For example, with what method should you increase the click rate of the article, what method will increase the traffic of the article, and…
The third step is to check the keywords of each article
Applying any content strategy to articles should be based on new keywords, or better yet, the right keywords. It’s the SEO expert who feeds those words to the content team with keyword research at the same time as the update. This work is very important. Because when you plan to update old content, if you don’t check and choose new keywords, the chances of success of the update will decrease.
In fact, by checking the words with which the content has attracted traffic, you can increase the position of the article on that word so that it receives more traffic.
- Choosing keywords based on the search goal
One of the most important determining factors in increasing the rank of content on a keyword is understanding the purpose or type and characteristics of the content that has been ranked with that keyword. Every SEO specialist must analyze the user’s search goal of keywords and what Google displays to him to increase the probability of success by choosing the right keyword for the article.
The fourth step is to check the content titles, especially the main title
One of the most common and important methods among experts to increase the conversion rate of articles is to improve titles. In the first step, the article should have an attractive and functional title and main title (H1).
Most users look at titles before doing anything. If the title attracts them, the text will also be read, otherwise they will close the page very quickly. Now see if the titles of your content need to be updated according to suitable keywords, search purpose, and attractiveness.
The fifth step is to review important content items
Well, after specifying the small and large problems and checking the keywords, it is time to check the content of the article. Now you have to go to the content as a reader. And change any information, sentences, images, and even links that are out of date or invalid. In addition to reviews like this, many add another type of content to the article for updates; for example, video or podcast content.
The sixth step is to check on-page SEO
Now that the new content is ready to be uploaded, the SEO specialist should enter the On-page SEO parameters review phase as the update supervisor. The following list is the things that must be checked in the update of the article:
- keyword density,
- Keyword integration in the article,
- Using keywords in the main titles and SEO titles.
- Checking and optimizing the meta description,
- Optimizing the size and format of images,
- Checking tags (bold tag and H tags).
The seventh step, checking the CTA used in the article
Call to action or CTA is the way to convert a visitor into a buyer. A digital marketing or SEO expert should check the call-to-actions of articles within a specific time cycle. For example, if a new product is added that wasn’t there before or a special service related to the topic of the article is provided that didn’t exist before, you can add one of them as a CTA to the article and increase the conversion rate of the article.
What are the last arrows to update the content?
After passing 7 steps, now the work is done. From this point on, you can show the content to Google and the user by clicking on the update button with a new icon, so that both its rank and conversion rate increase. If you still don’t get a good result considering the above, you can try things like updating the publication date of the article in the magazine, replying to comments, introducing and promoting the article on social networks, and things like that.
Updating the old content of the site is a topic that the SEO specialist should not simply skip and ignore its effect on the improvement of the site’s SEO. Updating old site content can keep a website alive even when it has no new content to publish.