How to Update Your Old Blogs for SEO in 2021: 5 Tested Tips

You know how you keep getting notifications about updates being available for your smartphone apps?

Well, your website wishes it could do the same for your blog posts.

While some of your content may be evergreen and high-quality, other articles you wrote a year ago probably contain information that simply isn’t true anymore.

But does that mean you should remove these posts?

Of course not. There’s a much better strategy, and we’ll show you how to implement it.

Read this article to find out how to update your old blogs for SEO and make them relevant again.

1. Cover the Topic More Thoroughly

When updating your old blog posts, go back to the original outline and see if you could add new sections and subheadings to cover the topic more comprehensively.

Many experts agree that adding to your word count – if it’s quality and relevant content, of course – is one of the best ways to skyrocket your older posts back to the top of search results. It’s important to remember that your job isn’t done after you hit the publish button – regular updates are crucial if you want to maintain the quality of your posts.

2. Merge Several Blog Posts

A longer form is more likely to perform better when it comes to ranking than several short forms. There’s a simple solution to this – merge your posts!

You can do this for shorter articles that cover the same or similar topics. Find as many blog posts that fall into the same category, freshen up the content, add external links, check the main keyword, and put them together in one piece of content with a larger word count and a broader primary topic.

To keep your backlinks and avoid 404 errors, make sure you redirect all the URLs you have merged to the new consolidated post. 

3. Add New Visuals

Visual content, like photos and videos, is almost as important as the text you write.

You know that blog post you wrote back in 2019? If you’ve used an infographic or a graph to illustrate poll results, chances are things have changed by now. Find a new survey and add a new poll image to freshen up your article.

Embedding a video is also a fantastic idea to boost your blog post quality. Videos help to increase time spent on the page, so make sure you also add captions to make it easier to watch.

4. Double-Check Your External Links

External links won’t help your SEO efforts if they’re broken or outdated. In fact, they can sabotage your SEO efforts and harm the credibility of your content.

However, checking external links is an aspect of blog updating that many seem to neglect.

But, it’s quite important, especially if you’re updating blogs that are three or more years old. The older your blog posts are, the more likely they contain at least some broken external links.

Check all your external links and replace those that lead to a 404 error or outdated content.

5. Optimize for New Keywords

Finally, use a tool, such as a keyword explorer, to find out how people find your blog posts.

You can then discover the search intent behind these keywords and identify new keyword opportunities that will help you rank even better. You can use Google Search Console to discover queries that are driving a lot of impressions, or generally speaking, content that needs to be updated (one indicator is high impressions but low CTR).

When you find the keywords you’re ranking for, rewrite the blog to optimize it for them. Make sure you update the title, URL, meta description, and alt tags on your images.

Ready for an Update?

The great thing about your blog posts is that you don’t have to remove them and write new ones from scratch.

Simply follow the tips from this article: optimize your posts for new keyword opportunities, replace outdated or broken external links, add new valuable content, merge posts with similar topics that currently aren’t performing well, or freshen up your posts with new visuals.

Then you can sit back and enjoy watching your old content contributing to your SEO efforts again.