How to update old content in 5 steps

When you start blogging it is mostly figuring out what you want you’ll write and how you write it. It is a lot of hit and miss and not every post will be the best post ever. That is why it can be handy to update old content sometimes.

Updating old content has loads of benefits;

1. It keeps your content fresh and relevant
2. You can keep promoting it as long as the topic is relevant
3. It makes the content foundation of your blog stronger because when you are updating your posts you keep improving their quality

What I first did is making a small scale of what post did best and what post did worse. Any post that I want to update will fall somewhere between those two values. This gives me more of an overview of if the post did reasonably or if it really needs drastic change.

Some content is beyond rescue or just not a good idea in the first place. It is better to trash that content then to spend valuable time trying to save it.

Updating the content can be done in these 5 easy steps. Keeping in mind that everybody has a different style of wiring blog posts, these steps give you a quick overview of what things you can update to improve your posts.

Title

Titles are important but writing a good catchy title can take some practice. If your old post didn’t do so well take a look at these firsts.

There are a lot of posts about writing good titles so if you think your title could use an update take a look at these.

wonderlass.com // How to create catchy blog titles

Elleandcompanydesign.com // Creating catchy headlines

Also, by now you are probably aware of the amazing tool by Co-schedule that helps you create better titles. The co-schedule headline analyzer helps you create better titles.

If your site is already amazing, you can still try creating some alternative titles to help you promote your posts online.

Update images

Are the images in these posts breathtaking? Do I have ideas to improve on them? Do I have too few images?

Images are more and more important across the web. I love a good picture in a post because is breaks up the texts and makes your blog looks nice and professional.

If you want to work on your blog photography I have two posts about this;

What I learned from food photography for my art blog

How to work on your blog photography

Another great way is to just find some great free stock images and edit them to look unique.

Links

Check all the links that are in that posts. Make sure they still work and are relevant. Especially if you are updating your title it is important to fix the links as well. Personally, I use a WordPress plugin called Quick Redirects to help me redirect viewers to the right posts and pages.

If you have no links;  see if you can find any relevant posts, pages or tools to link to. You will need both links that link to other sites and links that link to your own posts. The first (links to other sites) Help your pages do well on Google and it makes your content more valuable to your readers. Linking to your own content helps to keep readers on your site.

The Styling

Did you use headers in your text? Did you break up text into readable little blocks and used italics and bold? Make sure your text is easy to read by including these.

If you want to reorganize, this is the moment. Make sure to include some headers and some variations on just the normal paragraph style. It really makes it easier to read things.If a blog post isn’t easy to scan you risk losing readers who only want to read things that they know for sure are valuable to them.

The actual content

This is where you actually update your old content. By now it should look awesome so it should be awesome as well.

Firstly, did you go in-depth? Your posts should have value.

Not; three tips to tide your house;

1. tidy
2. declutter
3. clean

That is unless you mention real tips in those that are somewhat new and or unique.

How long is your post?

If you have very short posts, see if you can make them slightly longer by including more information. Maybe you have learned something new since you last wrote that post. Longer posts seem to do better for many bloggers. Of course, only do this if you actually have something extra to share.

Filling up content by including irrelevant text or repeating things just makes you a less valuable source.

Proofread 

Try to look for any grammar mistakes and make sure you sort any typos out. A great resource for this is the plugin Grammarly for chrome which helps you spot grammar and spelling mistakes.

Further, you can use the Yoast- SEO plugin for WordPress to check the readability of your blog post.

Also, this is a great time to update your writing. As a blogger, chances are, your writing keeps improving with every post you write. If you are updating an old post, try looking for things that you would have written differently now. Rewriting these parts can help you make your blog more consistent.

Repurpose

Repurposing content is something different from updating the content. Repurposing content means that your blog posts and use the content in other formats and settings.

If your post is too long (or getting too long with all you have learned) consider trying to separate it into a new post. This way you can repurpose old content and make it work for your blog. This is a great way to find more content in an easy and quick way.

Also, when going through your old posts look for other ways to repurpose the content like social media updates, or maybe you can create an amazing infographic to share.

Updating old content makes sure that where ever your new readers land, they will get a good first impression of your site. When your site keeps growing you will never know if someone will just end up on the front page or has found your first ever post on Pinterest.

You should keep your whole blog fresh and updated.

Of course, updating old content will take some time if you start while you have already written over 50 posts but it will be worth the effort and it will make your blog even better. A good tip to update old content is to set yourself a small goal. This can be something like two updated posts a week. Or update any post that you are linking to.

Let me know if you think I missed anything.