Content is king. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to constantly produce high-quality content. When you’ve trouble keeping up with your content release schedule, you’ve got another source for producing content.
Instead of continuously producing new content, you can spend some of your available time updating old content. Whether you’ve hired a writer or written your own content, you don’t want it to be wasted.
Why should you consider updating old content?
First, it’ll be easier to get this content ranked. It has a longer history than a new post. The life of your post is a factor in determining search engine rankings.
Also, you don’t have to spend as much time or money generating new content. It allows you to stick to your release schedule without developing new content.
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Find New Developments related to the Topic
The first way to update your old content is to determine if there’s been any developments or news related to the topic of the blog post.
For example, if you created a blog post about social media marketing that was published in 2015, there’s a good chance that there are new techniques to discuss. Also, any post that includes data or stats could be updated as new stats are released.
Once you’ve gathered the updated data or news, you can include it in your original blog post. Make a note at the very top of the post that the content has been updated to include new figures or data.
You then include the updates in your content. Instead of deleting old sections of your content to include the new information, you should include the new information in notes below the existing content.
2. Add Images and Videos
Another way to spruce up old content is to add new images or videos. You could use your own original videos that you create to provide more details on the topic of your blog post or you could find a relevant video on YouTube.
Infographics can also be added to your old post to provide new data. You could even compile the existing information from your post into a new infographic and include it on your post.
3. Change the Format
Updating your content isn’t the only way to make use of existing content. You can also recycle your content into a new format. This includes the creation of videos, infographics, and eBooks or guides.
These updated formats can be linked to from the existing blog post. For example, at the end of the old post, you can include a call to action directing visitors to the source of your new content – whether it’s a video, infographic, or eBook. You could even use this new content as a free offer for your lead magnet.
When recycling old content into an infographic or video, you simply need to highlight the main details of your content.
For an infographic, make a list of the most important facts or details presented in your content. Then, create a base image related to the topic of your content.
There are several free programs that provide templates for building infographics. Or, you can use an image editor to create your own infographic from scratch.
If you decide to recycle your content into a video, you should first copy your content and paste it into a word processor document. Rewrite your content so that each paragraph only contains 2 or 3 sentences.
You want to make the content incredibly easy to read. The total word count will impact the total duration of the video. The average person speaks at about 180 words per minute. So, a 900-word article will take about 5-minutes to read out loud.
Most people begin to lose interest after two minutes. For this reason, you should focus on the most valuable information from your blog article.
4. Turn Old Content to an eBook
The other option for recycling old content is to compile several old blog posts into an eBook or guide. For this step, you simply need to select 5 to 10 blog posts that cover similar topics.
Arrange these posts in order based on the information that they provide. Each post is a different chapter in your eBook. Another option is to expand on the topic of one of your most popular posts.
These tips will help you make better use of old content. Just because you have a post that’s a few years old doesn’t mean that it can’t help improve your current search rankings.
Update the content or recycle it for use as a lead magnet or to drive more traffic to an older post. After you’ve updated your content, you should share the post on social media and perform all your typical internet marketing strategies to get people to read your updated blog post.
Make sure that the page includes an updated time stamp.
Then, you need to ensure that search engines are aware of the update. Submit your updated sitemap to Google and other search engines.