How To Update Content For Your Website
Creating content might not seem to be an easy task at first. You need to know what to create content about, how to create it, where to post your content, when to time your posts and more.
Content is the first step of the sales funnel, even if you aren’t directly selling anything.
Why Content Is Important For Your Website
It is important to understand why content writing is crucial for business marketing. Even if you are in niche market where content writing is optional, you need to create content for you readers. High quality, relevant content helps you to stay in their head.
The need for content never goes down. And if you are thinking to write few post for your website and relax, and it will maintain its position in Google’s ranking algorithm. It is not true. Google’s algorithm is constantly changing. You need to frequently write content for your website, otherwise your site will go down in search results.
When To Update Content?
Maturity Cycle
Once you have created a content it will have increasing traffic pattern, then after a while it will become constant and after some time it will start to decline. So, you have to update it. Again it starts hiking in the traffic. This goes on in a cycle meaning you have to update your content frequently.
How To Update And Republish
1. Keep the post URL same
Instead of publishing a new article about the same topic, make changes on the same old post. Posting a new article can cause duplicate content problem. Make changes in the original post and keep the URL slug same, even if your software creates a redirect. Redirects can remove some of the link value, so keep it the same.
2. Add A Note About The Update
It’s a great idea to add a little editor’s note at the bottom of your updated post for transparency. This is particularly a good idea if your post has accumulated a lot of comments; your readers will be confused if the publish date is current, but there are comments from months or years ago.
3. Keep The Keywords
If you are thinking to change the title try to keep the keywords same in it. Also, try to avoid changing the title dramatically.
4. Update The Content For Accuracy
Many things become outdated over time. Remove the content which are irrelevant and evaluate what needs to added, edited or removed. Scan through your post and make changes accordingly.
- Remove content that is no longer relevant.
- Update outdated copy.
- Replace outdated data/stats with fresher, more timely ones. Add new, fresh examples or replace outdated ones.
- Add any new best practices that have emerged.
- Check and replace internal links particularly if there are now better resources.
5. Update Meta Description
Meta description does not affect page ranking but it helps to increase the clickthrough rate from search. Try making it a little catchier and also relevant to your post.
6. Now Republish It!
By you might have prepared your new content. Replace it with the older one and be ready to publish the changes. You can send email notifications, personally, to your instant subscribers.
Lastly keep track of your republished content. Maintain a record of your post’s before stats. It makes easier to compare the post’s performance after republishing it. It also gives some idea about which posts need to be updated.
Many people neglect the importance of content and ignore the content marketing strategy. If you are a newbie, remember practice makes everything perfect. Improvise your writing by posting on small blogging sites and carefully analyse the feedback.
Finally, nothing beats doing your research, rewriting your content with time, and keeping up with the analytics.