What’s the oldest piece of clothing you own, even if you don’t wear it anymore? I have 3 outfits my mum wore back in the early 70s. I’ll never part with these, but I do like to do a regular declutter of my wardrobe.
You know what else needs a declutter? Your blog posts!
I know, I know, it’s one of those things you WANT to do but just haven’t gotten around to it because…well, you know…BUSY.
So I’m sharing 5 ways you can refresh old (and embarrassing) blog posts in UNDER 25 MINUTES!
5 ways to refresh old (and embarrassing) blog posts in under 25 minutes
1. Remove outdated references- I’m looking at you, lockdowns, Brexit, cancelled celebrities!
COVID pop ups and updates regarding lockdowns should be removed from your website and any blog posts referring to lockdowns as though they’re still continuing should also be updated. Not doing this sends a signal that you’ve neglected your website and if you’ve neglected your website, how are you going to treat your ideal customer/client?
Other things to look out for include mentioning events or people that are now seen as a no-no- cancelled celebrities and language that’s no longer appropriate.
2. Change the year in your title. I know you miss any year before 2020 (we all do), but it’s time to move on…
The only places I mention a year is in the page title and in the copy, never in the URL/slug. To keep your content evergreen, you need to keep updating the year. This isn’t as easy to do if you have the year in your URL/slug because it involves creating a new page with an updating URL and redirecting the old URL to the new one. You can skip this hassle by not mentioning the year in the slug in the first place.
And if you’re going to mention the year in your title and in the content, make a note to update it at the start of each new year!
3. Check your CTAs- are you getting readers to buy stuff you no longer sell?
If you’ve stopped selling your e-book or you’ve changed your course platform from one to another, make sure any CTAs that point to these digital assets have been updated too. Check this by clicking on each CTA button and link you have on each page. If there are any broken links, fix these. Find new websites to link to if the previous ones are no longer around.
4. Check your blog photos have alt text (no keywords should be used in decorative photos!).
If you’re using decorative photos, don’t use keywords in the alt text but describe the photo in detail. This is important for accessibility and not alienating your audience. If you have any photos of yourself on your website, then use your name and business name as the alt text. And for product photos, use keyword-rich, descriptive alt text for each photo. This will help your images rank in Google (because people are visual shoppers when shopping online!).
5. Delete a sentence. It’s like getting dressed up for a Friday night party and removing one piece of jewellery before you walk out that door (yeah I know, WHAT party?!)
Less is more- read over your blog post and delete a sentence or paragraph that isn’t really necessary. Something too wordy? Too complicated for your reader to understand? No one ever complained about reading one less sentence or paragraph. You might even be ruthless and delete a whole section of your blog post!
Got a few mins left after doing the above? Paste your URL into the “inspect any URL” bar at the top of your Google Search Console account- signals to Google that it’s time to recrawl your updated blog post!
Google decides when it will re-crawl your page but you can kickstart the process by pasting the URL into Google Search Console, which sends a message to Google that you want your page recrawled. Only do this once- resubmitting multiple times won’t make it happen any quicker. Google has its crawling priorities.
If you want more ideas for how to freshen up old blog content, I shared 15 other clever ideas here.
Want to know where to put your SEO keywords? Get my free On-page SEO Checklist that explains where to use your SEO keywords for optimised content. No more stressing, trying to memorise where to put the keywords and no need to waste time Googling it either! Get your checklist here.
Latest posts by Nat Alleblas (see all)
- 42 Helpful Content Ideas For Service Businesses - August 19, 2022
- 7 time-saving Excel tips for keyword research - August 18, 2022
- Should you outsource SEO or do it yourself? - August 7, 2022
