As we often preach (but rarely practice), maintaining a good blog is about more than creating new content and adopting best practices for SEO. Just as the TikTok dancer must learn a new set of algorithmically-determined moves every week, so must blog content be periodically refreshed to maintain its relevance. 

Worried your content might be stale? Unfamiliar with the concept of a content refresh? You’re in the right place. We’re spilling all the tea on why you need to keep your content current, and how to do it. 

How to audit content

Before you start your content refresh journey, it’s important to have a good lay of the land. Head on over to your website’s analytics page (or Google Analytics) to determine which posts are performing well and which posts have descended to the depths of obscurity. Search Engine Journal recommends prioritizing posts to refresh that fall into one of the following categories:

1. Posts that did perform well but have “fallen off.” When new content arrives the old content must make room for it, which often leads to a drop-off in engagement and clicks over time. 

2. Posts with valuable content that never performed well. These “hidden gem” posts are perfect candidates for a content refresh — plus the process of identifying and correcting flaws in the original content can be very insightful.

3. Top performing posts. That’s right, even your top-performing content can benefit from a preemptive refresh. As Search Engine Journal puts it, “It’s best to update these pages before their rankings start to drop. By anticipating challenges and updating your content to match, you can stay on page one instead of riding the rankings rollercoaster.”

5 best practices for refreshing blog content

Though the specific needs of each blog post vary, there are several best practices we recommend adopting when refreshing content:

• Check your facts. The Internet is fluid and the current changes quickly. Make sure the sources you cited in your original post are up to date and all the links are still working correctly. More importantly, make sure your facts and references are still relevant. No one wants to read a post about working-from-home with stats taken from 2019 — just like no one appreciates a meme once it’s moldy. 

• Fix your keywords. QCC has been in the SEO game for less than a year, which means we have plenty of posts written without keywords in mind. If you’re like us, it’s a good idea to go back to those pre-SEO blog posts and give them a little keyword makeover. Even posts written with SEO in mind can benefit from a refresher if your keyword recommendations — or user behavior — have changed.

• Freshen up your appearance. Formatting can make or break blog conversions, so when you’re refreshing posts — especially those underperforming hidden gems — make sure the layout, headings, and images/video look right. Bonus points if you take the time to make sure the content looks equally sharp on mobile. 

• Know your function. The best way to improve a piece of underperforming content is to pretend you’re on the other end of a search engine. What did you Google to end up on your blog post? What information are you looking to find? How do you know you’ve come to the right place? Answer these questions and you’ll have a good idea of your blog post’s ideal function. Refresh the content to match that function and you have a fresh piece of SEO-powered content on your hands. 

• Revise your CTA. If the clicks and conversions aren’t coming, try revising your call-to-action. Instead of asking readers to book a consultation, adopt a softer touch and ask them to subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on socials, or even recommend another blog post. Whatever your CTA, make sure the instruction is clear, concise, and not overly complicated to mitigate any potential confusion. 

What to do after a content refresh

Once you’ve made changes to your blog content, it’s time to republish and repromote it. Though there are endless ways to promote blog content, there are two channels we recommend for recently refurbished content. 

1. Email — Adding links to refreshed posts in your newsletter is a great way to get new eyes on new and improved content. For niche posts, try sending targeted emails to constituents with a demonstrated interest in similar subjects.

2. Social — Whether you’re refreshing content about cryptocurrency or caring for fine china, chances are there’s a clever way to repromote that content on social media. For inspiration and a built-in algorithmic boost, check out the current social media trends and figure out if there’s one you can co-opt in your quest to drive blog traffic.

Once you’ve repromoted your refreshed content, all that’s left to do is keep an eye on the analytics dashboard and mark your calendar for your next content refresh (we recommend auditing your blog and refreshing applicable content at least once a quarter).