11 Feb Update Old Blog Posts and Save Tons of Writing Time
Whether you’re crunched for time or feel completely out of ideas, here’s your get-of-jail-free card: update old blog posts.
This is not a new idea, but it’s one I had forgotten about until this morning. I was being a good marketer and reviewing my website’s Google Analytics for the past month. One thing I like to review is what pages are getting the most traffic.
For a couple of years, it has been this blog post, which was just a fun one-off. I have no idea why it has gotten so much traffic; obviously it was picked up somewhere. Anyway, I thought, “I should update this and see what happens.”
Update old blog posts – starting with these
Because not all blog posts are worth updating, focus on these four categories:
High-traffic posts per Google Analytics
Carve out 30 minutes on your calendar to review your Google Analytics. Right now. Go do it before you forget.
Visit Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. (If you have never visited Google Analytics, this guide can help you navigate what can be an overwhelming experience.) You’ll be able to see which blog posts are getting the most traffic.
I made another surprising discovery this morning. This blog post from 2015 has been getting decent traffic. You better believe I’m going to update that one, too!
Predictions and new trends
If you write blog posts on predictions around new trends, methods or ideas, do you ever revisit them and report back on what actually happened? That, my friend is low-hanging fruit.
The best way to remember to do this: schedule it on your calendar. If you wrote a “trends for 2021” blog post in December or January, schedule time to review it one year after publication.
I have to confess that I have not been religious about this. Though I write blog posts about content marketing trends (here’s one from last month), I don’t do so on a regular basis. I am making a note on my calendar to review that post in December and see how it held up.
Review of products, services, etc.
Sharing your favorite resources, platforms, tools, etc. that allow you to do your job is a great topic to cover. It shows you’re an expert and a good person – sharing is caring and all that.
The problem with these types of posts is that they can easily get out of date. Things change so quickly that they might be irrelevant in just six months. So again, go to your calendar and make a note to revisit them.
When you share these posts on social, tag the companies and people you mention. They may just share it with their own networks, greatly expanding your reach.
Evergreen topics
I know evergreen content holds up over the long-term. That’s why they’re called evergreen after all. However, there’s no reason you can’t freshen up these posts with a new introduction or call-to-action and share them again.
In fact, you might want to keep tabs on your evergreen posts and occasionally push them out on social media.
So, your homework is to update old blog posts from at least one of the above categories. Get two or three back out into the world and see how they perform.
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