Last Updated on May 4, 2020 by ellduclos

How to Update Old Content to Grow your Blog Traffic

Maybe you’re like me and you have SO many old posts & old content collecting dust… I feel you!!! I recently have been going through my old content to make updates, the results are shocking! I never really thought to ever do this until I looked back at my old content and realized just how unprofessional some of my posts looked! I also didn’t write old content for it just to be seen once!!! It should be seen more!

WHY SHOULD YOU UPDATE OLD CONTENT?

1. To make sure that your content is always staying relevant and that you are providing the most accurate current information.
2. It helps grow your blog traffic if your old content is up to date and optimized to its full potential!

I started updating my older blog posts & saw an increase in my organic SEO traffic, as well as more traffic from Pinterest!

WHAT I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT TODAY IS:

1. What you should be including in all your blog posts.
2. How to make sure your content is as optimized as possible.
3. How to bring old posts back to life.

---

Disclaimer: This post does include affiliate links. If you purchase via my link I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read my full disclosure here: Disclosure Here 

---

---

HOW TO UPDATE YOUR OLD CONTENT TO GROW BLOG TRAFFIC

You might be wondering, Okay, how can I best update old content so that it is optimized to it’s full potential? Such a common question. There are so many ways to update old content!

1. GO BACK AND INTERLINK TO NEW CONTENT

Interlinking is SO important! First, it’s important for SEO, it will actually help you to rank higher on google. Second, it helps your bounce rate! If you are interlinking to old posts, your readers are more likely to click onto your keywords and continue to read more of your content. It’s a win, win!

You can interlink a few different ways. You can highlight keywords that relate to the post you are linking to and have those keywords link to previous posts that you’ve created. OR you can have a “Related: (title of related post)” and link it that way.

Play around with the two ways and see which is more effective. Remember, everyone’s audience is different, what works for one person might not work for another.

2. SEO OPTIMIZATION

Is your old content SEO optimized? When we first start our blogging journey, most of the time we don’t know all the tricks as newbies. Which is completely fine because blogging is a learning process. We tend to forget that our old content might not be SEO optimized. Going back and optimizing our old content to be search engine friendly will do WONDERS for our traffic.

If you are self hosted (which I always recommend, & if you aren’t already it’s super easy to do – Siteground is the self host I use and love – you can use my link to get their packages starting at $3.95 a month. SO affordable, they also do free site transfers.) then you can use the plug-in that I LOVE: YOAST SEO. This plug-in will give you guide lines for the best SEO practices and how you can best optimize your post to be SEO friendly.

A few key points for SEO: 

1. Use keywords throughout your post, in alt text of images, in your title, in your headings. Don’t over use the keywords (Yoast will help guide you.)

2. Interlink your content (like mentioned above)

3. Proper permalink structure

4. Getting back links – (Like guest posting on someone’s blog!)

I am no SEO expert, this is just some key points i’ve learned.

3. UPDATE IMAGES

I will be the first to admit that my images on my old blog posts are horrendous. At the time I thought they were great, but once I started using Canva more and started investing in stock photos, I realized that my old images were NOT all that. If you want your content to be taken seriously, and come off as professional, I suggest updating your images and making sure they are clear and crisp.

If you use stock images, I suggest purchasing them! Using free stock image sites are cool and all, but there can be two issues.

1. It’s not 100% reliable for copyright. You can still run into copyright issues so be careful.
2. Everyone and their mom uses free stock images, which can decrease your “uniqueness”

Ideally, you should use your own images when you can, BUT if you aren’t a professional photographer and really don’t like how your images come out, then here are some stock photo sites I recommend!:

1. Creative Market – I love creative market because their prices vary. So many images to choose from and many affordable options.
2. IvoryMix – I love IvoryMix because she constantly is adding new images to her collection, & you can sign up for a membership.
3. Etsy – You can find anything on Etsy.

This brings me to my next point. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PINNABLE IMAGE ON YOUR BLOG POST.

When someone reads and shares to Pinterest you want them to have the option to share a bright, crisp, LONG image that shares what your blog post is going to be about. You can see an example if you scroll up on this post. Long, vertical images tend to preform a lot better than horizontal images on Pinterest.

& If you are afraid the vertical image is too distracting or that it takes up too much space, you can hide the image. This way it doesn’t show on your blog post BUT it will be an option to pin when someone hits the “share to Pinterest” button.

First make sure you are in the “text” section of your blog post editor not the “visual” section. You will see an image code which is the code to the image you have inserted into your post. Next insert this code right before the image code:

<DIV STYLE = “DISPLAY:NONE;”>

Then after the image code close it out with

</DIV>

I use the Social Warfare plug in for my social media share icons because the paid plans allow you to choose which image you want to show up first when someone goes to pin your post! You can set your long vertical pin to be the first image to pop up!

4. ADD AFFILIATE LINKS

Usually our older posts don’t contain affiliate links because we were just starting out as bloggers. Maybe at the time you didn’t even know affiliate links was a thing! But now that you know, it’s time to go back to your old posts and add affiliate links where you can.

You want to make sure you are giving yourself the best chance of making money from blogging. If you still aren’t using affiliate links yet and want to learn a little about it, check out this post!

5. SOCIAL SHARE BUTTONS

Make sure that you have social share buttons viewable on all of your blog posts! If you don’t have social share buttons you are losing the potential to get your blog posts shared and seen. Your traffic will most likely be very low if no one is able to share it on social media. One of my favorites, like I said before, is Social Warfare.

6. FIX BROKEN LINKS

Use a link checker plug-in to make sure all of your links are working and aren’t causing 404 errors. You can install the plug in “Redirection” to check if you have any broken links. This will also help SEO issues as well.

*Another tip: It’s important to have your permalinks set to www.yoursite.com/blog-post – This is for the best SEO practices. Refrain from using the permalink structure www.yoursite.com/date/blogposttile or www.yoursite.com/p=31434 as these aren’t as effective for SEO especially the /p=31434

If you need to fix your permalink structure you can do so by going to your dashboard > Settings > Permalinks and then selecting the /blog post option. You will then have to use the “Redirection” plug in to redirect any old links to the new link!

7. USE HEADINGS

FOR REAL THOUGH.  Old blog posts tend to be all written in “paragraph”. This can be very unappealing to the eyes and intimidating. It’s important to break up your text. Use headings to break up big text.

I use a mixture of H1, H2, + H3, and a secret, google picks up keywords from your headings to better understand what your article is about. SO – if you use headings in your posts, your SEO improves as well. We are all guilty of not using headings when we first start out. Just fix it.

---

Related: How to Keep Your Audience on Your Blog Longer

---

8. E-MAIL SIGN UP FORM

We all know how important it is to build an e-mail list. But do you have the option for your readers to subscribe in all your posts? I like to add my e-mail sign up form to the end of my posts. That way my readers have that chance to get to know what my content is about first, and it gives them the option to sign up for more if they’d like. A great way to build your list.

9. UPDATE YOUR CONTENT STATS

Maybe you have a post about how you got 20,000 Instagram followers… Maybe it’s a year later and you have 40,000 now. You can make an updated note that let’s the readers know that you are now at 40,000 a year later.

This helps to prove that your tips DO work and that you are STILL growing everyday. OR if you have a post that has any information that can be updated, do so! You want to make sure you are always providing the most current and up to date information.

10. CONTENT UPGRADES

Add content upgrades to your old posts. Maybe you created an e-course? Can you add it to your old posts? Or an opt – in freebie that you can offer to your readers. Content upgrades are a great way to grow your e-mail list as well as get potential buyers.

Some content upgrade ideas:

1. e-books or your e-book/e-course – full or mini
2. Printables (worksheets, daily planner inspo, and more)
3. Resource list
4. Challenges
5. Check lists
6. Tutorials
7. Guides
8. Infographics
9. Webinars
10. Podcasts

---

PROMOTE YOUR OLD CONTENT TO GROW BLOG TRAFFIC

Now that you have updated your old content, it’s time to RE PROMOTE your old content. YES – share your content on social media AGAIN. Many think you should only share your post once on social media and that’s it. NOPE… you should always continuously share your content on social media! If you have evergreen content (that’s not seasonal or specific to a one time only deal) then you need to keep sharing that good stuff!

My favorite way to continuously promote my old content is with PINTEREST. (I bet you knew I was going to say that.) I don’t want to beat Pinterest to death but it seriously is key to growing blog traffic. If you aren’t on Pinterest yet, you need to be!

I use one tool that helps me keep my old content coming back to life: Tailwind 

TAILWIND

What I love about Tailwind is that I can easily schedule my posts to my group boards and it will pin for me. This helps me make sure that I am constantly pinning on Pinterest and reaching my audience from all around the world.

I might have readers on Pinterest from across the world who are awake and reading while I am sleeping. Tailwind helps me reach that audience while I am sleeping. If you have 50 + posts on your blog, I recommend investing in annual Tailwind so that you can schedule Unlimited pins. Tailwind has also helped get my pins to go viral!

Create new fresh pins for your old blog posts and schedule those pins to Tailwind!

If you are still trying to wrap your head around a Pinterest strategy that grows your blog traffic and Pinterest. You should check out my $32 Pinterest Strategies e-course.

IN MY E-COURSE YOU WILL LEARN:

1. How to optimize your Pinterest for Pinterest SEO
2. How to set up your Pinterest to benefit your blog
3. My Pinterest pinning strategies that took my blog traffic from 5k a month to 25k a month in JUST ONE MONTH.
4. How to use Tailwind properly and to your best advantage.
5. Exactly how many times a day I pin and where I pin to.
6. How to create pins that bring you clicks!!!
7. How to use Pinterest to increase affiliate sales

& more.

You can also re-share your content on all other social medias too – like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram stories etc! Don’t be afraid to share old content that is still relevant!

---

Related: 7 Pinterest Truths No One Talks About

---

I hope that you found these tips + tricks to be useful!!! Now go revamp your old content and make that money + grow that blog traffic!!!

Would love to hear from you in the comments! (: