Updating your content can be an easy and effective way to get more traffic, and get more value from what you’ve already created. Every year, it’s a good idea to take a look at your content, see what content has lost traffic, and consider refreshing it. For many businesses, blog posts are an important part of organic traffic generation. With this in mind, let’s take a look first at why it’s a good idea to update your old blog posts, and then the checklist to update them.
In this blog post
Why update old blog posts?
Which blog posts should you update?
Why do a few blog posts generate most traffic?
The checklist to update your old blog posts
Why Update Old Blog Posts?
This chart tracks traffic to a high-performing blog post. After making an update in February using this checklist, you can see traffic come back.
Previously, we discussed the importance of refreshing old content, including everything from landing pages to blog posts to videos and more. Specifically, why should you update old blog posts? Here’s an overview of a few reasons:
- More traffic: You’ve probably noticed over time that traffic to your top-performing blog posts has dropped off. Making updates can help you regain these numbers.
- More value: Your top-performing blog posts already have a backlink profile and steady traffic, which helps improve SEO significantly. It will be easier and most cost-effective to get more traffic from these posts than to create new content from scratch.
- More accurate: Over time, the numbers, links, studies, or other information you’ve referenced in the blog post gets old. A content refresh will give you some time to make sure everything is accurate. You can also update CTAs and internal references to make them more relevant and effective.
Which Blog Posts Should You Update?
Google Analytics shows which landing pages, including blog posts, generate the most traffic. Go to Reports, then select Engagement, and Landing page. To view the entire year, change the dates in the upper right.
As you consider updating old blog posts, it’s important to prioritize. Some blog posts will show more traffic increases and give you much more value than others. There are a few things to look for in blog posts that should be updated. Here are a few:
- High traffic: Using tools like Google Analytics, Hubspot, or similar systems, you can determine which pages on your website get the most traffic. Filter these by blog posts, and choose the best posts to update.
- High conversions: These tools can also show you which pages generate clicks to landing pages, downloadables, and contact pages. Sometimes, the blog posts with high click rates and conversion rates aren’t the same as posts with the most general traffic, since they sometimes appeal to a smaller audience.
- Pillar pages: Pillar pages cover a topic in-depth. They might have a lot of traffic and conversions, but they might not be among the best. However, these pages often serve as link hubs, including internal links to other pages around your site, and outbound links to and from other websites. These are also valuable to update regularly, even if they aren’t at the top of the list for traffic and conversions.
Why do a Few Blog Posts Generate Most Traffic?
Google Analytics highlights a website’s high-performing landing pages in a chart like this one.
As you look at your blog traffic and which blog posts perform best, you may notice an interesting phenomenon; roughly 3 to 5 blog posts bring in the majority of the traffic to your blog. This isn’t cause for alarm, and may in fact be somewhat unavoidable. Though this may not be true for all blogs, it’s certainly true for many, and in fact holds true for the internet in general. Let’s take a closer look.
The 80/20 Rule in Internet Traffic
The top two websites in terms of traffic—Google and YouTube—accumulate almost 60 billion visits monthly. Traffic to the next 18 top sites combined only add up to about half that much traffic. This may seem surprising at first, but not when you consider an estimated 96% of web pages across the internet get little to no traffic at all. Furthermore, remember that about 90% of internet users don’t search beyond the first page of results on Google. This means that the websites that are already popular are more likely to continue gaining popularity, and that obscure websites are less likely to be discovered.
This may be a version of the Pareto Principle, also called the 80/20 rule or “the law of the vital few,” at work. This is a power law which describes a mathematical distribution across a set of parameters. Under the Pareto Principle, about 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. This distribution, or similar versions of it, have been observed in a wide range of situations, from worldwide wealth distribution to computer science, engineering, occupational health, and even literature. In the case of internet traffic and blog posts, specifically, the rule might be closer to 90/10.
Why Does This Happen?
When it comes to blogging and internet traffic, this also seems to hold true, and seems to scale across websites of different sites. Even very popular websites are likely to see a small proportion of their pages generating a large proportion of their overall traffic. Why does this distribution occur? The causes behind Pareto Principles are complex, although it may be related to preferential attachment or cumulative advantages and positive feedback loops.
The internet in general is rife with preferential attachment and positive feedback loops. For example, blog posts with more traffic are more likely to be seen by other blog writers, and more likely to gain backlinks from those writers. This, in turn, boosts their SEO value, which also further boosts their traffic, creating a positive feedback loop. As an example of preferential attachment or cumulative advantages, media companies that already own several media properties can insert backlinks across thousands of pages to other pages, improving the backlink profile and, therefore, the traffic, of those pages. These are just two examples of many mechanisms across the internet that can cause popular pages to become more popular, and unknown pages to stay obscure.
The Checklist to Update Your Old Blog Posts
Updating your blog posts probably won’t take long. Once you’ve chosen blog posts to update, go through this checklist. Making just a few simple changes can help increase traffic to your blog post, and reduce the chances that new contenders will take your high spot on a search engine results page or SERP.
1. Add Content
Adding content is one of the most important ways to update your old blog post. Either using more advanced tools like SEMrush, or by simply making a Google search, take a look at other pages that compete with yours. What have these other pages covered that you haven’t? Consider adding these sections.
If you’ve created a list-type post, consider how you might add to the list. Or, if you’ve explained a process, consider how you might explain variations of the process, or tips to make the process easier. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and consider what else you could cover to make the post more helpful.
2. Update Links
Links are an important part of your blog post, and they’re also important to your SEO. Generally, it’s a good idea to use outbound links to good sources. This shows that your post is backed up by other, outside information. If you don’t have any outbound links, consider where you could add some. If you’re already using outbound links, double-check to make sure they still work.
Consider your internal links as well. Where can you add links to other pages you’ve published? Check your current internal links and make sure they still work.
3. Consider Keywords
As you researched other, competing content, you may have noticed a few keywords or phrases popping up. Often, these might be long-tail keywords which answer readers’ questions or get into more specific information. Consider sprinkling these keywords into the content, signaling to search engines that your post is relevant to queries using these words or phrases. Remember to use these words and phrases naturally, just a few times; there’s no need to overstuff.
4. Review Formatting
If you’ve updated your web design, plugins, or made other changes, your blog post might not look nice and neat anymore. Or, perhaps it was lacking proper formatting from the beginning. This is a good time to review formatting and make sure your blog post is neat and easy to read.
Look for the following to make sure your blog post uses formatting best practices:
- Headings: Use sequential headings (H1, H2, H3 etc) in a logical way to break up the content into logical sections.
- Paragraphs: Break up big paragraphs into smaller ones, so the content is easier to read.
- Emphasis: Try not to use bold or italics as decoration. These text types have set functions within the text, and overusing them can make the text harder to read.
- Over-capitalization: Over-capitalization, or capitalizing words that aren’t proper nouns, is a common formatting error that can make a text confusing.
- Punctuation: Where appropriate, use commas and periods to help readers parse through the text properly. In general, using exclamation marks sparingly.
5. Update Meta Descriptions
If your page doesn’t have a set meta description, now is a good time to set one. Or, if your meta description doesn’t accurately reflect the page, or if it’s just a list of keywords, make some changes. A good meta description should summarize what the page is about, and include the main keyword. This helps both readers and search engines better understand the content on the page.
6. Update Publish Date
Finally, you’ll need to update the publish date of your post. This helps both users and search engines see that your post is current. You might also add this into the text of your post with a phrase like, “this post was updated in January, 2023, to give you the most current information.”
Remember, since your post has already been published, don’t set a date in the future, like you might for a new post. This will take your post offline, and break backlinks temporarily. You can always update the content of your post and update the publish date later to maintain the consistency of your publishing calendar.
Conclusion
As you update your old blog posts, check back periodically to see if your updates have worked. It might take a month or two to see results. Remember to continue publishing new content as well, or your overall traffic might suffer. Consider updating your top-performing blog posts annually, so you can continue to gain value from them.
