I’m currently going through old content on various websites. It’s important to do this regularly to make sure it’s updated, relevant and still high quality. Writing styles change over time, and experience grows. Your quality will have improved over the years, and you want your old content to look just like new.
But what should you do with your old content? Should you just update it, repurpose it or is it worth leaving? Here’s a few considerations to make.
Does New Information Need Adding?
You won’t always need to add new information. With my history content, I find that updating with a new image or new video is enough. Sometimes I’ll had a link to other content that is relevant, rather than actually updating the writing.
I will go through and fix any typos or strange formatting visible. I may also update the SEO, if it’s poor. Tags are one thing that I’m changing at the moment, after learning some new information about WordPress and tags.
There’s no point changing something just for the sake of it.
Could You Repurpose It?
There are times that you want to use the content elsewhere. This is known as repurposing the content, and I highly recommend doing it. When I repurpose content, I’ll rewrite it a little. It will say the same thing, but in a different way. It really becomes a new article or blog post for a new site.
If you want to use old content on the same blog, repurposing could be an option. Before you just straight into rewriting, remember you need to offer something new for your readers.
The best way to handle this is to add new information or a new opinion. I like to look for any new studies and include new results, especially if they contradict old studies I’ve used. That will also allow me to add a new opinion based on those results.
If there is no new research, that doesn’t mean you can’t add a new opinion. Maybe you have new tips that you’ve picked up over the years. You may have a new idea that will help your audience.
When you repurpose content, you could consider linking to the old piece. This is great if you’re creating a new piece as an update.
Could You Add a New Call to Action?
What’s your current call to action at the end? Do you even have one there? You may have adapted your blog posts over the years to include a call to action, such as sharing the post, signing up to your newsletter or purchasing your products. Go back over your old content to update that.
Calls to action are great for customers. They tell the customer exactly what you want them to do now.
Only give them the one call to action in each blog post. It makes it easier for your customers, so they’re more likely to do it. Don’t make it the same action in every single blog post. You want to keep your content varied.
Does It Just Need Sharing Again?
Sometimes old content doesn’t need changing. I find this a lot with my history pieces because something in the past doesn’t change! I also find it with my alternate history content because that doesn’t need changing—I can do a new story with a new idea.
In this case, it could just need sharing again. Tweet out your content to remind people that it exists. Getting eyes on it is the most important part if you want to grow your blog.
Old content shouldn’t just sit there gathering dust. You can do things with it, whether you just share it again or update it. Consider your options based on your content.
What have you done with old content in the past? Feel free to share in the comments below.
First I must share my first thought “Now you want me to fix my horrid mistakes and write good new posts?”
And think I mentally heard 10,000 voices say yes! So I will be checking back for ideas.
Haha! Yup, mistakes need to be fixed 🙂 It’s all worth it in the end. I have thousands of posts across various sites to fix (one site alone has 500+ articles on it) but I’m already seeing results in 24 hours so it’ll be worth it.
Great info! Thanks for sharing 🙂