Content is the King of Internet Marketing!
A strategy for effective Content Marketing is a must, and there are many strategies to go with it. However, among all the content marketing strategies, refreshing old content is also a popular one.
But there’s an infamous question about content marketing: should you refresh your old content or not?
A straightforward answer to this question is yes, and there are various reasons why it is a great practice. So, let’s find out the reasons why you should refresh your content.
How refreshing old content is helpful?
There are many reasons why you should create a content refresh strategy for your old content. But let’s talk about the four most important reasons why you should do so.
Improved Search Ranking
In the world of content marketing, research led by Hubspot is very famous, which supports the argument of refreshing old content.
In an analysis, HubSpot found that the maximum blog views are coming from the older blogs. Moreover, the views contribution percentage of these old blogs was around 76%, which is a significant percentage. Also, the contribution to lead generation from the older blogs was higher. 92% percent of total leads generated through blogs were from the older blog posts.
Ultimately, they found that 50% of the total leads generated through blog posts were from the 1% of the content posted. The HubSpot team then made changes to their content strategy and focused on the optimization of old content along with creating new content.
So, the research shows how you can manage to have a significant amount of traffic from your old content with the help of a content refresh strategy. Your older blogs can keep ranking higher for years if you own a focus on Content optimization. Google pays extra attention to the freshness of the content to rank up pages accordingly. This is because the freshness of the content is an essential metric in Google’s ranking factors.
Brand Relevance
Change in trends is something that you’ll find common in any industry. The topics that are getting searched today may not remain a trend tomorrow. That’s why continuing to create new content and covering everything is essential.
But there are always some evergreen topics in every industry which never lose their relevance. For example, “What is SEO?” is an evergreen topic in the digital marketing niche. No matter what, this topic will never fade its relevance as it is a fundamental question and the foundation for other topics about SEO.
But, there can be many changes related to SEO happening from time to time. There can be new and updated strategies in SEO or the introduction of new terms and many more.
So, you need to keep refreshing your content with new updates. Otherwise, your content may lose its relevance and trustworthiness with the current information about the topic.
Improved Efficiency of Content Strategy
Creating a content strategy requires you to focus on multiple aspects. But sometimes, content marketing teams put all their focus on creating new content. It is because they start believing in the quantity of content and set its relevance aside. It soon turns out to be a bad idea when the results are not as planned.
In simple terms, rather than putting your content writer, SEO specialist and other members under pressure to continuously think of new content and research it, you can add a content refresh strategy.
It will help you avoid getting exhausted in researching and developing content that lacks Research resources. Moreover, it saves you a lot of time and money as old content can be refreshed significantly cheaply.
Now that you know how beneficial refreshing old content can be, here’s how you can create a great content refresh strategy.
How to create the best content refresh strategy?
Whether you are a content writer working on updating older content for a client or a marketing team head, a proven Content Strategy is a must. So, you can follow these steps for an effective content optimization strategy.
Get rid of minor inconsistencies
First, start by pointing out the minor issues with the content. It can be spelling errors, sentence fragmentation, non-functional links, unstructured formatting, etc. Here, you can use editing and proofreading tools to make your work easier.
Make changes respective to the industry or brand.
Now, make changes according to the newest updates and trends in the industry that the content belongs to. Moreover, if the content is branded like brand-centric blogs or website content, then make changes according to the brand’s tone and identity in the present time.
Blogs or Website content update process should include fresh SEO research as it is important to make relevant changes.
Finalise content with new resources
If you find space to put new resources, you must do it to enhance trustworthiness. It can be new links, references, images, and many more. It will help your content to top the search results, as Google will get a sense of freshness from your content due to updated interlinking.
By following these steps, you can create an effective content refresh strategy. Now, let’s talk about the best practices for renewing content as a content writer.
Tips to enhance productivity while refreshing content
If you are a content writer working on refreshing content, here are a few writing productivity tips for you. These tips will help you to contribute to the content refresh strategy of your company effectively.
- Update sentences that are contributing to poor readability of the content.
- Integrate new CTAs to the content if the content is branded or promotional.
- Remove information that has become totally irrelevant according to the current scenario.
- Remove expired SEO keywords and phrases or replace them with new ones.
Pro Tip – Content Writing services for new content can be expensive compared to refreshing your old content. A content writer will charge you less for old content optimization.
Final Words
Implementing a content refresh strategy is undoubtedly a worthy decision. However, it doesn’t mean that you should stop creating new content. New Content that follows newer trends is also important. Moreover, you should also keep in mind that the results from the content refresh strategy take time to show up, as that’s how SEO works.
