You can write the most amazing blog post today and have it become irrelevant tomorrow. If you don’t take the time to update your blog content occasionally, by the time most people find it, it might not be factual anymore.
For your blog to succeed, people need to be able to trust what you say. That means regularly making time to ensure all your content is accurate, that your pages are loading correctly, and that you haven’t missed any new developments in your niche.
It sounds like a lot of work, and it is. However, updating your blog content often means your posts will continue to bring in traffic for years to come. Let’s go over how you can make that happen!
What is Evergreen Content?
The term ‘evergreen content’ gets thrown around a lot in blogging. Basically, evergreen content includes posts and pages that are always up-to-date and keep bringing you traffic indefinitely.
Let’s say, for example, you publish a roundup of the best smartphones in 2019. That kind of blog post is always popular, but as you might guess, as soon as 2020 rolls around, traffic begins to die out. Now, two months into the new year, when you look for best smartphone reviews, it’s all recent articles:
Here’s the thing, though – many times, it’s much easier and more efficient to update old content, rather than to start anew. Take that smartphone roundup, for example. If you update it a couple of times per year, all you have to do is switch that 2019 in the title for 2020, and you’re good to go. The content is up-to-date and at most, you put in a few hours of extra work, spread throughout the year.
That same approach works for a lot of blog content. In a nutshell, if you write product or service reviews, comparisons, or tutorials, you’re missing out by not keeping that content evergreen.
How to Update Your Blog Content to Keep It Relevant (4 Tips)
Depending on how large your blog is, there may be too much content for you to keep track of and update. That’s why the smart move is to focus on a handful of key articles. Let’s start there.
1. Identify and Monitor Your Most Popular Articles
For most blogs, there are a few key articles that bring in a lot more traffic than their peers. It’s not a matter of luck, either, but just the fact that some searches are more popular than others.
What you want to do is identify those overachievers and check out which of them are worth updating. That way, they can keep knocking it out of the park for your blog.
In my experience, the easiest way to do this is by using a service such as SEMrush. This particular tool enables you to find out what keywords you’re ranking for, how much traffic they’re bringing in, and more.
Although it’s a premium service, you can use the free plan to run a quick analysis of your website. All you have to do is type your site’s URL and jump to the Domain Analytics > Organic Research tab. Inside, you’ll find a breakdown of your domain’s top pages, ranked by traffic:
As I mentioned before, there are always a few overachievers and our blog isn’t the exception. Once you know what your top performers are, make a list and see which of them could benefit from some updates.
2. Schedule Revisions Periodically
If you just tell yourself “I’ll get around to updating those pages later,” chances are you’ll forget about it. What I like to do is set reminders, usually two or three times per year, so I know to check out my blog’s top posts.
As for how to do that, there are a million tools and services you can use to set reminders. Since I’m a big fan of WordPress for blogging, I like to use plugins to make my life easier. For scheduling revisions, there’s a plugin called PublishPress Revisions that enables users to request them and me to schedule them:
You don’t have to go too high-tech, though – in most cases, simple calendar reminders will do. Just make sure you don’t put off the work!
3. Re-Check Your Facts and Figures Often
When it comes to updating blog content, you don’t need to go crazy. Here’s what you want to focus on:
- Are any of the tools or services I recommended outdated?
- Did I cite any numbers that aren’t valid anymore?
- Am I providing outdated advice or instructions?
- Are the images I used still displaying correctly?
Basically, whenever someone visits one of those pages, everything they read should be accurate. If it isn’t, they’re going to go somewhere else for information – usually to your competitors.
Finally, it’s important you also pay attention to images. In a lot of cases, blog posts use outdated screenshots. If you focus only on the text, you might miss those.
4. Update Your Post Titles
Last but not least, you want to make sure that if you go in and update your blog content, you also brush up their titles. For example, for any title that includes a year, you want to update it as soon as the next one rolls around (and even a little earlier).
As far as changes go, this one should only take you a second, depending on how much the content changes. It’s a small change, but it can have a huge impact on your content’s click-through rates.
Conclusion
Not all your blog’s content will stand the test of time. However, when it comes to posts such as product and service reviews, comparisons, and tutorials, updating that content is critical.
Ideally, you want to update your key pages at least twice a year, although more can never hurt. The more often you check your blog, the less work it should take to update your content, which will pay off for years to come.
Do you ever update your old blog content? Tell us why or why not in the comments section below!
Image credit: Pixabay.