Website traffic is a topic that it’s written about often. After all without traffic, where would our website be? where would our business be?
It can be overwhelming to someone that wants to start improving their search results and increasing traffic. It seems like there are so many pieces needed to get the results that you’re looking for.
However, there is one place that we can start and that is with old content. I knew many people that would actually go into their website and delete content that was old and had outdated information. Until I explained to them an easier process and why all content was critical, then the lightbulb went off.
So why is old content so important? That’s the content that has been ranked in the search engine and because of its age, it may be what’s driving the most traffic to your site. It can take a little while for new content to rank on the search engines, so old content is very important.
So how can we improve our traffic by updating our old content? Let’s look at six things you can do to help improve your results.
How to Improve Traffic by Updating Old Content
1. Update Images
This is an easy way to refresh older content by adding fresh images with the correct alt text behind them. The search engines look for changes to a website once it has been crawled. Image changes when you don’t have a ton of time are easy and can help.
2. Adding Additional New Content
Adding a few paragraphs to an older article allows you to easily refresh those pieces and make them relevant to today. Maybe new techniques have come to light since the post was written. Maybe you can make it deeper and a more in-depth article which will improve authority.
3. Create a Pillar Page From Old Content
If you find you have been writing in the past about a specific topic and you have enough to create an overall topic view or pillar page, consider creating an additional page housing information and links to those posts. That old content will serve you well as the additional page will be full of established content and you can continue adding to it to show and grow your expertise.
4. Create a Free Report
You can also take some of that all content, once it’s been refreshed, and bundle articles or a series of articles for a free report. That will help increase traffic and also grow your email list.
5. Create a Series of Articles
Sometimes we have a topic where perhaps we did not complete all of our thoughts but you can definitely expand and update that topic. Refresh those posts and then continue to develop a series of articles on that whole topic. Then link it to the pillar page that you have been creating to help get that new information out.
6. Develop a Report or Convert Your Topic into a Book
If you have a load of great content, think about converting it to a larger report or e-book that you can offer for sale and share your knowledge on the older content.
Just because you have older content you may not be utilizing does not mean that it is irrelevant and not to be used ever again on your website. This content can be traffic gold if you take the time to update and refresh the information. Then bundle it to create those cornerstones or pillar article pages, along with free resources, e-books, etc.
Always think refresh instead of delete when it comes to your content unless you completely have changed careers. But even I would never get rid of everything completely as there are always ways to reuse some content. IMOHO
Hope this helps you with your content.
Got questions or need help developing your site? Contact me today.
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