Regardless of whether you are an all-rounder ace in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or a novice merely dipping your toes in, it’s for sure your web content will require some adjustments after a certain period. Nonetheless, as enticing and straightforward as it can be to plug in a couple of catchphrases and call it good, we are here to tell you that SEO content marketing is much more than strategically placing keywords within your content.
When it comes to old content, it is always a good idea to go back through some of it and re-optimize it for SEO. Maybe you didn’t include any SEO keywords and metadata beforehand, or you’ve learned a lot since the last time you did it. No matter the case, going back over old content is key to optimizing your efforts.
Why reviewing, revising, and optimization of existing content is necessary
Imagine if somebody comes across your post on Google, they go straight into the blog, and the content is out of date. That’s not good for you, and it’s not good for them. The first impression of you is with an old piece of content, which you do not want. A good rule of thumb is, after two years or significant developments, update mature content. Especially if your content ranks high and brings in a large amount of traffic.
What you can do then is republish that blog post, so you make the changes, and you republish it. You change the date of publication, so it appears like a brand new post. Nothing wrong with doing this at all, it’s good practice for content marketing.
While upgrading and optimizing your current web content may take less time, the inquiry is, which technique is best for engendering targeted traffic to your website?
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SEO alteration of content vs re-writing it from scratch
About improving your substance for SEO, you should look at a variety of factors. Altering what’s there by just updating data and adding better keywords, is the quickest and easiest method. It also allows you to keep the same traffic stats and before and build upon this. In most cases, this is the method you should pick.
However, sometimes the content is just not good, but the idea around the content is gold. In situations like these, it is essential to go ahead and re-write the whole piece! Nothing to shy away from, but also not something you should do for every piece of content (You can easily check how much traffic your content is generating via Google Analytics).
Look at how often the keywords in the title get searched to decide if it is something worth re-writing. For instance: “How does water taste on mars” does not receive the same high volume of searches as “How much water should I drink.” If your content is the former, you shouldn’t worry about re-writing it.
My posted content isn’t generating any traffic anymore:
It is likely the motivation behind why you clicked on this post to start with. You need to get more traffic to your site, it isn’t occurring, and you are thinking about some solution for it.
You aren’t getting enough traffic to your site, it could be for a variety of reasons, and re-writing one page of content may not be the answer. Nonetheless, it may be a good start; you need to weigh it out, as mentioned in the above point.
Ensure you are following best practices for SEO optimization, figuring out the best keywords, and enhancing your writing.
If you aren’t receiving the traffic you’d like, look at all the angles. Does your site, in general, receive adequate traffic? Do you have a good enough audience base? What are other sites like yours receiving? By looking at all the angles, you can better determine your next steps as far as revisiting old content.
Within Google Analytics you can easily see which pages are not generating a lot of visitors to the site:
Reading tip; Google Analytics 4 Property; Google Analytics upgrade
Another great tool SEO tool to check out is SEMrush, it can give you more insights regarding your content or the content of your competitors. Start understanding which content actually drives traffic to your site.
Reading tip: The Best Tools for Keyword Research
What if you hate the content:
The primary rule of thumb, if you hate the content on your site, it’s likely that website visitors won’t either. It would be best if you asked yourself the following questions:
- Did I learn something while writing or reading this?
- Is it actionable?
- Do I (in general) like it?
If the answer is “no” to any of those, especially the last one, then you need to take another look at that piece of content and either add to it, re-write it. Or get rid of it.
Your website has a high bounce rate:
When you saw within Google Analytics that many people end up on your page and are leaving your site immediately, this situation is referred to as the high bounce rate, and this is likely to be a copywriting issue based on your landing page. It could mean that the visitor doesn’t feel like the page suits what they are looking for. A good site has a bounce rate of 30-40%, if you bounce rate is a lot lower than that it could mean something is wrong with your tracker (Most common issue is to have Google Analytics triggering twice, once via GA itself and once via Google Tag Manager).
Having a high bounce rate could imply that they can’t find what they are searching for. You need to keep clients connected on your site until they join, call, or purchase.
Make sure your landing page copy provides clear direction on what the next steps are in the “buying” process. Look at tool like Unbounce for creating high converting landing pages.
Recommended reading: 10 factors that impact your bounce Rate
Going through the rebranding phase
If your business has experienced a rebranding, the tone and style of your brand have changed. You may have re-write your statement of purpose because rebranding transcends hues, logo, and web composition.
Now would be an excellent time to orchestrate out which pages merit keeping, which ought to be thrown out, and which should be modified to better fit in with your new branding. You may even need to draft up another content style guide to ascertain your content aligns with your brand messaging.
Final Thought
If the substance isn’t pertinent to your site, throw it out. If it’s not relevant to your audience, throw it out. If it doesn’t fit it’s intended purpose, try fixing it. By adopting procedures that will make your content intriguing and valuable, you help the website visitor in their journey as well as improve your website rank higher. If you are considering re-writing your content; check out this blog first about Keyword research.
Need help to get started with SEO? See our services!
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