You likely spend a lot of time planning and creating new content for your website.
It’s one of the best ways to boost your SEO. It’s also time-consuming.
There’s another powerful way to improve SEO that requires less heavy lifting.
You can update website content to refresh existing content.
It’s not a total rewrite, but an update to make it reflect current ideas and trends.
Below, we’ll go over all the steps you need to take to update website content and keep you relevant.
- Why Is It Important to Update Website Content?
- Does Updating Content Improve SEO?
- When Should You Update Website Content?
- How Often Should You Update Website Content?
- How Do You Decide What Website Content Needs Updating?
- How to Update Website Content
- How to Update Website Content Automatically
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Wrapping Up
Why Is It Important to Update Website Content?
By keeping the content on your website up to date, you create a better user experience.
This improved user experience will lead to more traffic and conversions.
Boosts Traffic
Content age is one of the factors Google considers when ranking content.
Newer content is seen as fresh. If your content is outdated, then Google may lower your site’s search rankings.
Updating your content can boost your ranking and earn you more traffic.
Keeps You Relevant
When your content is up-to-date, your website will reflect current trends and thoughts of your niche.
Even evergreen content can always be updated so that others view your website as one of the relevant voices.
Builds and Maintains Authority
Updated content shows readers that you are current in your industry.
You’ll establish yourself as an authority.
People will value your opinions, as you’ll always seem credible and in the know.
Increases Exposure
When your content is updated, people will be more likely to share your work on social media.
No one is going to share content that’s several years old.
Fresh content will get shares and more exposure.
Does Updating Content Improve SEO?
In most cases, updating your content should help with SEO.
If the content is several years old, it likely doesn’t account for Google’s algorithm updates.
You can work in new and relevant keywords.
Google also tends to favor fresh content over older material.
When Should You Update Website Content?
You should update content anytime something changes with your business or your industry so that your site contains the most accurate information.
You’ll likely update after a rebranding too.
How Often Should You Update Website Content?
As a rule of thumb, you should perform a content audit at least once a year.
Update anything that’s dated or no longer relevant. Posts that are more than five years old likely need a refresh.
How Do You Decide What Website Content Needs Updating?
Not all content will need to be updated.
You’ll typically focus on certain pieces each time you check your content.
Run a Website Content Audit
You should have a spreadsheet or other form of Content Management System (CMS).
A CMS makes it easy for you to keep up with all of your content.
You can keep a record of what you’ve published when you published it, and how it’s performing.
You Don’t Remember When You Last Updated It
If you can’t remember when you last updated a piece of content, then that’s a good sign that it may be time to update.
You can start with some of your oldest content and work your way forward.
The Images Are Outdated
Check through your images.
You may find some that look dated, whether they’re your photos or stock photos.
If you do have a lot of stock photos, see if you can replace them with original photography.
The References Are Outdated
It’s not enough to update your own content.
If you’re linking to references that are more than five years old, it’s time to update your backlinks.
Find new content with a high domain authority to update your links.
Try to find content that’s less than two years old.
It Isn’t On-Brand Anymore
If your business has undergone a rebranding, likely, your content may no longer reflect your brand.
You’ll need to assess each piece of content to ensure that it’s on brand.
It Isn’t Generating Leads
The ultimate purpose of your content is to generate leads and convert.
If that’s not happening, then your content isn’t working for you.
Sometimes performing some simple updates can make a world of difference.
The Links Are Broken
Broken links are bad for your site’s SEO.
Both broken backlinks and internal links can be harmful.
You’ll need to occasionally examine your links to ensure they all still work, especially the backlinks.
How to Update Website Content
Now that you have found the content on your site that needs updating, it’s time to go about updating it.
Below are some helpful strategies to update your content. You may also get suggestions using content optimization tools.
1. Follow a Content Strategy
A content strategy is an overall plan for content creation.
You can easily include updating content in this strategy so that you can keep up with what pieces need to be updated and when.
2. Find Old Content to Refresh
If you’ve had a blog for several years, it’s likely there’s some outdated content that is no longer performing.
You can do a quick refresh to make it more current and it will likely get a boost in the rankings.
3. Plan New Content
As you go through your old content, you can come up with a strategy for what you can change and add to each piece to bring it up-to-date.
You may even find gaps and come up with new content ideas.
If you no longer have time to create your own content, outsourcing content is another trick to help ease your workload.
4. Test What Works
When doing A/B testing, you create two versions of a piece of content.
You’ll then look at your metrics to see which one performs better.
You can also use your results to guide the updating of other content.
5. Ask Your Audience What They Want to See
Don’t forget your audience.
They’re a good resource to help you figure out what types of blog content people in your niche are hungry for.
You can use some of their ideas to repurpose old content.
6. Reference Current Events
If current events relate to your niche, you can use them to update website content.
Trending content may help you move up in the search results.
How to Update Website Content Automatically
You can schedule automatic content updates using a WordPress plugin like PublishPress Revisions.
After installing the plugin:
- Go to your Posts page on your dashboard.
- Under a post you want to update, go to “New Revision.”
- Make any revisions.
- Under Post, choose “Immediately.” You’ll see a calendar where you can schedule the update.
- Submit and approve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have more questions about updating website content? We have answers!
Is there a way to update website content automatically?
You can update website content automatically by using a plugin like PublishPress Revisions.
It will allow you to schedule automatic content updates.
How can I update my website on Google?
Google should automatically index content updates, but you can go to the URL inspection tool under the Search Console.
You’ll then paste your URL for the updated content and select “Request Indexing.”
If you’ve changed the URL, you’ll need to set up 301 redirects.
Wrapping Up
Updating your content can improve your site’s SEO and ultimately give your visitors a better user experience.
By identifying the content that needs to be updated and developing an update strategy, you’ll keep your website at the forefront of your niche.
If you have any questions or comments on how to update website content, please respond in the comments below!
While creating fresh content is essential, giving your old content a refresh is an easy way to keep your site relevant and boost your SEO.
