How (and why) its important to update old articles

Giving a new life to an old blog is the challenge for the next few months of work. I reread some outdated articles on the web that had been useful in the past. I realized that rereading an old blog post is a bit like looking at photos from 20 years ago: it's always you, but you don't recognize yourself; maybe you embarrass yourself for what were you wearing or for that out of fashion haircut.

The point is not the changing fashion, but we have written the company contents to last over time, with a strategy to create a flow of qualified traffic to the site. So, as much as "vintage" has its charm, the value of new and updated content is always more excellent.

Yet, writing new articles may seem increasingly difficult because KissAnime has already explored many topics and you have run out of ideas, or simply because you have already positioned the most exciting keywords in your sector. You have probably already noticed that the template or graphics are no longer in line with the company's identity or that some statistics and data are not exactly current.

These are all things that generally happen to those who have a blog with many years of activity on their shoulders, which contains many articles and results from years and years of publishing activity.

Now, this is where the whipped cream comes in.The Whipped Cream

If these descriptions reflect you and you too find yourself a bit stuck in front of the blank sheet, it means that yours is one of the pioneering companies in content marketing and that over time you have written and published a lot; this is undoubtedly a pride. Now it's time to take all the legacy of written lines and give these lines a "sprinkle" to make the old blog posts shine again.

This activity makes sense on an aesthetic level, but also and above all on a technical level. What am I talking about? Of SEO.

In the book "Vademecum SEO," written by Sara Borghi, who in addition to being an SEO expert today is the Digital Marketing Manager of Costa Cruises, a technique is described that the author defines "Whipped Cream," which is precisely that little bit more that is adds to a well-done and structured job (regular scheduling and publishing of blog posts over the years) to make it even better and more complete.

How does all this have to do with SEO? Older blog posts tend to get fewer views, bringing less traffic to the site and less chance of a conversion. Updating old posts with new information and images solves two problems simultaneously:

Adapt content to the times

Apply the new Seo techniques that are updated continuously.

That's why there is no doubt that you should plan for the next few months an activity aimed at updating the entire editorial production or entrust this task: consider that in the end, this whipped cream will give you satisfaction in terms of increased qualified traffic, to your site.

How to Update Old Blog Posts

I have developed a reasonably schematic method that can also be used as a "To-Do List."

First step: check the "target keyword."

Today there is no longer a single keyword. When you update a post-it starts with the target keyword or main keyword that we want to position, which must correspond to the search intent: enter the URL of your article in an SEO Tool and see what happens.

Scenarios open up:

The post currently ranks in the top five results for some keywords - the Update could earn us the top spot or a zero position or a snippet.

The post may have little or no traffic volume. In these cases, it may be useful to check if that keyword has low or zero search volume and choose a different keyword with which you are not yet positioned, reviewing the content also with the inclusion of infographics, statistics, videos, or images in a way that to respond to the search intent.

If the Update is already classified very well for specific keywords (between positions 1 and 5 of the SERP), be careful to apply changes because the risk is to lose traffic and ranking after the Update. In this case, it might be rewarding to add a paragraph to update the content if necessary entirely. Otherwise, don't touch anything.

If you find that the post has not been optimized because the keyword is completely missing in the six fundamental parts of the page, it's time to do it and give it the possibility to bring you an organic traffic flow.

Second step: secondary keywords

Until mid-2019, there was no talk of it; today, after identifying the main keyword, it is good to do a little more research on related and secondary keywords to help Google recognize the topic proposed in the article synonyms.

It is forbidden to skip this job: the stake is to position oneself with the main keyword and "synonyms" with the same search intent. To do all these activities, you need a platform for SEO, such as Sozoom, Semrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, you choose the most intuitive.

Third step: update the blog post on Hubspot

If your blog is on Hubspot, too, here's a quick checklist:

1. Go to the post and click on the "Edit" button.
2. Make sure all links are still working and update the "broken" links.
3. Replace "outdated" images and screenshots.
4. Update statistics and outdated content.
5. Check for any typos.
6. Add statistics, case studies, or anecdotes inspired by recent experiences.
7. Use the SEO tool that opens on the Edit screen left to check all the settings, enter the target keyword in the main title of the blog post, in the first paragraph, and the H2 in the paragraph headings.
8. If everything is ok, click Update.

Fourth step: go hunting for snippets

Snippets are generated automatically, but it has been proven that formatting your content in a certain way could be useful to facilitate generation.

How to format the text to get a snippet?

Make sure the text is made up of:

• Short sentences
• Paragraphs to increase readability
• At least one bulleted list
• Explanatory videos
• Graphics or infographics

Fifth step: the Links

Let's not forget about the links, which are of great importance in SEO because they allow Google to understand the links between pages without wasting time. Often the first published blog posts contain few links pointing to one another; adding internal links that lead from one topic to another is a good boost for your SEO.

If possible, invest time in building relationships (these are off-line activities ) that will lead you to create a backlink exchange from reputable sites with high Google Trust.

ALT!

While we're at it, we also check the alt text for the included images, ensuring that the primary keyword is also present here, i.e., the images' Alt Text property.

Useless or harmful things that absolutely must not be done

Updates are updates, not complete rewrites!

• Don't completely upset a text significantly if it is well positioned because Google has recognized it as a good value, so possibly add something.
• Change the title only if the post has zero visits; otherwise, check that in H1, there is the keyword with which you want to be found;

Do not redirect or change the URL if the article ranks well. Otherwise, you risk losing positioning.

Publish the revised content

As a best practice, you can write a note at the end of the post indicating when the post was written and edited to help the reader understand if the information is still valid.

Another good idea, announce the Update on social networks to invite people to read or reread the content.

The SEO topic is exciting and powerful because it opens doors that you would never have imagined: knowing its secrets, you will see your pages with entirely different eyes. I've prepared a tutorial so you can continue training to better position your pages.

I am Alex Musk I am a content writer and Seo expert in sky ray ventures. KissAnime is the best website to watch anime online. Completely free. No registration required.