No matter how search engine algorithms shift, one constant remains: Content is King! However, older content that was once the pride and joy of a website may cease to rank well as other sites create similar content over time. Fortunately, your hard work isn’t wasted. You simply have to update your outdated content to re-attract Google’s and the audience’s attention. Here’s our holiday gift to you; an in-depth look at the benefits of updating older content and 5 easy ways to get your pages ranking again

Why Should You Update Your Older Content?

In short, even great or evergreen content won’t sit at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) forever. One of Google’s biggest goals is to provide users with the most relevant search results possible to their queries. Therefore, there will always be another site that comes along and creates new and unique content that meets Google standards and gets ranked above your older content. However, you still want your pages to remain relevant, so, updating older content is a necessary step for a website owner that has a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in mind. Aside from beating the general competition, some of the biggest reasons to update your content are:

• Improved content accuracy
• The opportunity to improve grammar and catch potential spelling errors
• Improved click-through rates
• Building up your brand’s industry authority
• More frequent site crawls

Which Pages Should You Update?

You know you need to update pages when your rankings drop; but where do you start? Some of the best pages to consider are:

• Pages that currently reel in high traffic but yield low conversions
• Pages that have high conversions but don’t attract equally high traffic
• Past popular content that has lost its luster with readers and search engines over time

What Are the Best Ways to Update Older Content?

While there are many ways to get your content ranking again, here are some of our favorite ways to approach old content with a new outlook.

Supplement Your Words With Audio/Visual Content

Taking your old content and updating it goes beyond just adding new written information (which we’ll address soon). Modern audiences love to get their information quickly and with a dash of entertainment. The best way to add these features to your older content is to create video content that adds updated information or infographics that quickly summarize your points in a visually appealing format. Even creating new visual and video content has the potential to put your older content back into the relevant territory. So, put on your creative caps and turn your old favorites into the new SERPs hotness.

Focus on New Keywords Within All Content

Keyword relevance can change on a monthly basis. So, the keywords you focused on in your main content, titles, and meta descriptions from a year ago, maybe hold your excellent content back from ranking well. Performing some basic keyword research can help you discover what related keywords have fallen out of favor and which are on the rise. From here you can make minor or major updates to your content’s keywords and ensure an SEO boost that gets your older content noticed again.

Add New Information to Evergreen Content

Evergreen content may seem constantly relevant, but the truth is, you will need to update it eventually. No matter your industry, new information is going to emerge about your once uber-relevant blog topic. The best thing about online content is that it’s purely flexible. Since you can edit what you want when you want, there is always the opportunity to update your evergreen content with current information and a new keyword focus.

Examine the State of Search Intent Within Your Industry

You may have written your older content at a time when audiences widely searched for the topics you focused on. However, audience interests are constantly changing and your specific content just isn’t a point of interest anymore. Take some time to peruse your social media accounts, industry forums, and general industry news to find out what’s new with the products and services in question. From there, you can make adjustments to your content that preserves the main points but focus on subjects that audiences want to see. Understanding the state of audience search intent gives you a direct approach to updating current content to match current trends and keyword interests.

Expand Your Numbered Lists

Lists make up some of the most popular blog posts on the internet. However, if some of your favorite lists have fallen out of favor with search results, it may be time to expand the universe of these articles. Repurpose the valuable information in these posts by cherry-picking your favorite points and turning them into their own blog posts that implement the content qualities we’ve discussed earlier.

Keep Your Content Ranking With Dallas SEO Dogs

If you have older content that you want to rank again or simply need help creating refreshing, relevant content for your site, Dallas SEO Dogs can get your content goals back on track! We are a team of SEO experts that have the experience to optimize your site from main page content to technical, backend solutions. We’ve helped businesses from across all industries succeed on the SERPs and are ready to meet you! Schedule your free consultation today with a member of our team! About the author: Dallas SEO Dogs is an award-winning, full-scale digital marketing team. We are experts in SEO, Google/Yahoo/Bing Ads, display and retargeting ads, social media advertising and content marketing. Our talented team of designers and developers creates websites that both users and Google love—including WordPress websites, eCommerce stores and enterprise applications. For more than 15 years, we have created digital strategies for businesses of all types and sizes worldwide. We continuously learn and innovate, adapting our strategies to the ever-changing digital world. As a medium-sized agency with a reasonable growth plan, we remain committed to offering top-level customer service and expertise.