A big part of running a blog is keeping the content fresh. That’s why I’m constantly keeping tabs on my previous content and making sure that it stays up to date.
In this article, I wanted to break down my process of refreshing my content, and go over some of the reasons why I do so in the first place. We’ll start with the benefits it provides, and then I’ll dive into the process I use to stay organized.
Why Bother Refreshing Content Anyways?
The first question people inevitably ask is why refresh content in the first place. The answer is simple, it drives more traffic. By refreshing content you’re ensuring that it stays fresh and up to date, which is exactly what Google wants. I often see noticeable increases in rankings after going through and refreshing content. This is especially true for content that I haven’t touched in a few years that may have gotten a bit stale.
Outside of that, it also just generally marks your content better. It gives you an opportunity to revisit and reevaluate work you did in the past. It’s not uncommon for me to look at an older article and be concerned about its overall quality. I’ve certainly improved as a writer in the last few years, but older content doesn’t reflect that improvement. It also doesn’t reflect all the knowledge I’ve gained in a niche since publishing.
This ultimately leaves my content and my site in a better place than when I started. I’m a big believer in improving in any way I can, and a content refresh is a big part of that.
If you haven’t touched some of your articles in months or years, consider spending some time going over them and evaluating them with a critical eye. You’ll probably be surprised just how much better you can make them now with more experience.
My Process
One thing to keep in mind is I treat content refreshing as a constantly ongoing process. That is, I budget some time each week to refresh some of my older articles.
That said, I’m going to start at the beginning, as if I’m taking a site I’ve never done any previous refreshes for, and begin the process there. I’d generally start doing this around 6-12 months after the initial launch. It all depends on how much content I have, and how likely content is to go out of date. The less content and the more evergreen it is, the less need you’ll have to update it. It never hurts though just to revisit articles, even if they don’t need an update it can help just to review them to be sure. You might even be surprised at how much better you can make an article.
Sort Content By Publish Date
The first thing I do, before even considering a content refresh, is to make sure I track all of my content and have it sortable by publish date. I personally use airtable, but any sort of spreadsheet or tracking system will work. Just make sure it provides the ability to sort, and can do so by date.
This lets me quickly see which of my articles are the most outdated, and allows me to start prioritizing them. It’s not necessarily part of the refresh process, but it makes it so much easier when you have the whole view in front of you.
By the way, this is just good practice anyways in my opinion. Being able to pull up a full list of my content and search through it is a huge win when planning out my content marketing strategy. I’d suggest setting up something like this regardless of whether you plan to do a content refresh.
Schedule Refreshes Along With My Normal Content Plan
Once I have a list of my content that needs a refresh, I start to plan it into my weekly content pipeline. I don’t necessarily know at this point if an article needs it or not, but I put some time aside to put some eyeballs on it. If not, then I get some time back for other work, so it doesn’t really matter to me.
The great thing is that, in most cases, refreshing content takes a lot less time than writing a new article. I already have a general outline, I’ve already done a lot of the research, I just need to spruce it up a bit. I’d say in most cases, it takes ¼ - ½ as long to refresh an existing article than it does to write a new one.
Record Current Analytics/Rankings
I also like to take a baseline before I do any sort of rewriting. Generally, I look at the current rankings as well as traffic that an individual page is getting. That way, I can see the progress of an article through various refreshes.
The whole point of this is to create better articles that are easier to rank, and it only makes sense to continue if that’s what is happening. By tracking my starting position, I can make sure that my work is actually achieving my goals, and can pivot if it’s not. I dislike working without clear goals and metrics, and this sets that up for me.
Proofread and Correct any mistakes
Once I actually get to re-writing the article the first thing I do is always just give my article a reread. This is an easy way to catch any simple grammar or spelling mistakes, but I’m also keeping in mind the flow and content.
The big thing to keep in your head during this process is search intent. Essentially, what time of information is someone looking for and does my article provide it. I keep this in mind, and look for any gaps in my article during a quick reread.
Look For Ways To Improve
This is really where the meat of the work comes in and where I see the most benefit in this whole process. Keeping intent in mind, I look for opportunities to improve my article.
Two big areas where I tend to focus the most are:
Outdated irrelevant content: This is content that no longer applies or really didn’t fit into the article in the first place. Sometimes, as I become more familiar with a niche I learn better techniques or ways to explain things. I’m always looking for opportunities to simplify my content and make it easier to digest.
New or Missing Content: This is a big focus for me when rewriting articles, I want to make sure that I thoroughly cover the topic. Usually, I run through some similar articles from my competitors and look for areas I missed. If they have a section that I don’t I’ll typically add it into my article.
The core idea here is to make sure that your article is better now than it was before. That can mean cutting out uninteresting paragraphs, adding whole new sections, or including images/charts/links that provide more context.
Record any Associated Image Ideas
Before I publish, I also like to see if this article lends itself to any new image ideas to share on social media. My followers tend to grow pretty steadily, so I like to make sure that I reshare any updated articles to my social channels. Doing so, I also like to include new images so that old followers can still benefit from it.
I’ll keep a list of ideas, and then come back and work on them later.
Publish Updates and Evaluate
Last but not least, I finally republish the article and let the world know it’s live. This isn’t the end though, now it’s time to track the results.
Remember before where we took a baseline of the article? This is where we now measure the change and see if what we did made any difference. I generally look back after a few months as the world of SEO can turn pretty slow. This gives me enough time to verify any changes, and also avoids celebrating after a short-lived spike in rankings immediately after publishing.
And that’s really it. The whole process is pretty quick and doesn’t require that much time investment, but is well worth it. I’m constantly improving my sites, and refreshing my content is a big part of that.
If you’ve got any questions I’d be happy to answer them. Reach out, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.