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15 clever ways to refresh your old blogs

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Want to know how to improve your website content? Spring clean your old content and breathe new life into blogs you published a while ago, with tips that I use whenever I’m doing a content update.

Injecting new life into old blogs helps you attract new readers and improve your SEO rankings for more organic traffic. In this blog, I share tips on how to improve website content so that it’s fresh and juicy, just like a couple of slices of orange!

Here’s a list of my tips:

  1. Go through my On-page SEO Checklist to make sure you’ve optimised everthing. 
  2. Add a new image or video- can you create a new video tutorial or a Pinterest pin?
  3. Turn your content into audio (like I have below) or into a podcast episode?
  4. Update your keywords- do some more keyword research using my brainstorming planner
  5. Add a graphic or table
  6. Change the introduction- try to include your primary keyword in the first 100 words
  7. Change the heading- try to optimise with a keyword if possible
  8. Change the published date to make your content appear new
  9. Add a summary near the start of your blog (just like this list!)
  10. Add a quote from another business owner and link to their website
  11. Add more content- can you dig deeper into your topic?
  12. Introduce case studies, examples and comparisons
  13. Tidy up your grammar and punctuation- use tools such as Grammarly or Hemingway
  14. Change the featured image
  15. Update your links- use Dead Link Checker to check for broken links

Prefer to listen to this blog post? Check out the audio below!

How to improve website content for SEO

Check that you’ve optimised everything for SEO

It’s easy to forget to do all the SEO tasks, which is why I’ve created a free On-page SEO Checklist to help you keep track of all the things you need to do. Sign up for the checklist here.

You can also read my blog about on-page SEO here.

Add a new image or video

We’re a visual society- we consume most of our content via videos and images also play a huge role in grabbing our attention. For this reason, it’s a great idea to add a new image or record a video to include in your existing content. This will make your page visually appealing and your readers will stay on your site for longer. You can embed a Youtube video or create your own- have a go!

Turn your content into audio or a podcast episode

Audio is also a growing way we consume content. The beauty about audio is you don’t have to watch the screen while you’re listening- you could be washing the dishes, working out at the gym, walking your dog and still consuming content. This is great for those of us who multi-task!

Download software such as Audacity, and record your blog post then upload it onto your website page.

How to improve website content using more keywords

When was the last time you checked which keywords your blog post is ranking for? Have a look at Google Search Console, and then make sure the relevant keywords appear in your blog post. If not, add them in (naturally, and only if they are relevant and useful).

Do some more keyword research to find new keywords you could add.

To help you get started with this process (and to stop you getting lost in a keyword research rabbit hole!), sign up for my free Keyword Research Brainstorming Tool:


Here’s a quick tutorial I’ve recorded showing you how to find these keywords in Google Search Console:


Add a graphic or table

Turn a stack of text into something visually appealing such as an infographic or table. If your infographic is useful and unique, other websites may use it in their website content and link back to your website to give you credit- this helps with building website authority. What tends to work well with infographics is detailed processes or industry statistics.

Change the blog introduction

Boring introductions don’t make the best first impressions of your pages. Rewrite the first paragraph of your blog post and make it something attention-grabbing, otherwise you’ll lose your reader very quickly. Ideally you’d want to use your primary keyword in the first paragraph as this can help with boosting keyword rankings.

Change the page title

Make your title more punchy (but don’t change the URL or you could muck up your SEO) and try to optimise it with your primary keyword if possible. It’s okay to sacrifice your keyword if it means writing a more effective title.

Change the published date

Want to trick Google into thinking your post is newer than it really is? In WordPress, you can change the date that the blog was published and make it a more recent date.

Add a summary

Summarise your blog post listing the main points covered, and try to experiment with putting the summary at the start or end of your post. This will help reduce reader overwhelm which could keep them on your page longer.

Add a quote from a reputable source

People love being inspired- it gives them the warm and fuzzies. Include a powerful quote in your blog post– you can turn the quote into a graphic using something like Canva (and for bonus points, share it on your social media!).

Dig deeper into your blog topic and add more content

Yeah, this one might be a drag but often adding more USEFUL content is the best way to freshen up an old blog post and get some SEO brownie points. You will also drive more traffic to your post. Make sure your post is at least 700 words long but don’t write crap just to fill the page! Always be amazing with your content.

Case studies, examples and comparisons

Case studies are interesting and powerful ways to back up what you’re saying. People like to see proof of what you’re claiming!

Tidy up your grammar and punctuation

Run a spell check and use contractions to take your language from formal and boring to readable and interesting. Use tools such as Hemingway to help you with sentence structure and grammar.

Change the feature image for your blog

A feature image is like an introduction to your blog post and is what you see when you share the URL on Facebook and other platforms- make the image something new and fresh.

Update your links

Check that all of your internal and external links are still working by running a link scan through Dead Link Checker. Check that you have links pointing to other relevant blogs and pages on your website. Also have at least one external link to a reputable website.

In Summary

Set yourself a challenge to improve your blog post clicks, impressions and shares! Here’s a summary of the tips I shared above:

  1. Double check you’ve implemented all the On-page SEO elements
  2. Add a new image or video
  3. Turn your content into audio
  4. Update your keywords
  5. Add a graphic or table
  6. Change the introduction
  7. Change the heading
  8. Change the published date
  9. Add a summary
  10. Add a quote
  11. Add more content
  12. Case studies, examples and comparisons
  13. Tidy up your grammar and punctuation
  14. Change the header image
  15. Update your links

To make it easier to track, I’d recommend copying my summary into an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet and then checking off each one as you complete it. This way, you can keep track of what you’ve updated and not feel overwhelmed!

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Nat Alleblas- SEO Sleuth: helping copywriters, marketers and web developers with their SEO needs. When she's not slaying SEO, Nat can be found with her head buried in a book or is smashing out a spin class. But not at the same time. Loves eggplant lasagna.

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