It’s a new year!
Is it time for a new strategy?
Your content has been online for some time – maybe years.
When was the last time you refreshed it?
Is that content working as hard as it could be?
Probably not.
2017 is a great time to rethink your branding and your content. It’s a fresh start to the year. A perfect time for a fresh approach.
But while it may be a new year, you will certainly be just as busy on January 1 as you were on December 31. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of easy, non-time-consuming ways to give your content a refresh this year.
Table of Contents
Check for the Obvious
Pull up your site and check it out. Is there a big broken image on the front page? Are you still advertising a sale that ended two years ago? Grab that low-hanging fruit and fix the issues that are the easiest to spot and the fastest to get right.
Revise with Fresh Eyes
Sometimes we miss a glaring problem when we make a site because we read it as what we meant to say, not what we actually say. Did that happen on your site? Check it out and see. Use your fresh eyes to read what you’ve written, look at the images you used, and check to be sure your site still says exactly what you meant it to say. And if it doesn’t? Better a late fix than never!
Remove Excessive Material
Often you can say more by saying less. Long-page sales letters have their place, but the average website visitor spends just a few minutes scanning your site. Can you change some of your bigger paragraphs into lists? Would a table or graphic say more than the big article you included the first time? If nothing else remove all of the jargon and extra words you used a few years ago when you were trying too hard.
Add Updates
If everything on your site is still looking good, why not do the simple thing and simply add some updates to the more popular posts and pages on your site? Add a special offer to catch people’s eyes. Add a few paragraphs to the top of a blog post to provide an update on what you’ve been up to since that post was written. You don’t have to start from scratch when you can just add a paragraph and breathe new life into a page.
Look for Broken Links
Stuck on hold? Take that boring time and click on your links. All of your links. Find the links that are broken and remove them or replace them.
There is nothing that says “sloppy site” more than links that go nowhere.
Add New Affiliate Links
While you’re replacing old links, why not look into adding some affiliate links to your more popular posts? If everyone is reading about your adventures, why not link to a travel book or your favorite adventure gear? Just be sure to add a disclosure about affiliate links to stay honorable.
Identify Popular Posts
Pull up your stats and data from the last year or so and see where your visitors spent most of their time. Then, rather than refreshing the whole site, spend some time improving those pages to encourage readers to visit other pages of your site or add some monetizing techniques to make those pages work a bit harder for you.
Check on Old Strategies
If you had an old strategy for monetizing a website, check back and see how it’s doing. If your site was sandboxed years ago, see where it is now in the rankings. Chances are if your site is old enough to forget about, Google may have forgotten it too. What better site to revisit than one that used to be a grand experiment?
Improve Conversion Techniques
You probably know a lot more about building websites and grabbing conversions than you did just a few years ago. When you revisit an old site, you’ll often see that your best work is now sorely out of date and out of touch. Use some of your new knowledge to improve the site by making small changes like images, formatting, and even text selections.
Add Images
The world is more image-conscious now than it ever was. People like pictures. If your site is light on pictures, dress it up with some new ones, but not the same tired pictures everyone already has. Invest $10 on some new images that will impress new (and reoccurring) visitors.
Identify Native Advertising Opportunities
Native advertising is a huge new field, and if you’re not taking advantage of it already, revamping an old site might be a nice way to try it out. You can experiment with hosting native ads and creating your own without risking your current sites and brand while you find the perfect tone and approach.
Look For and Use User Comments
If you’re stuck on what you can do to update and add dimension to your old site, check out what your previous visitors have asked you about. Use those comments and questions as fuel for new posts and updated topics. Simply answer the questions, slap on a new image and you’ll have a new blog post ready to go.
Clean Up Your Architecture
If it’s been a while since you played with your old site, consider looking at the architecture before adding too many new things. A site that is poorly structured and laid out is hard for visitors to understand and navigate. It could be that cleaning up your categories and subcategories is enough to breathe some new life into your post without having to write a word!
Creating brand new content for a brand new site is time-consuming. But improving what is already there and what has already been working for you takes just a fraction of that time. Why not spend thirty minutes to an hour refreshing your site? It may pay off handsomely.
Oleg Calugher
Hi SM,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you liked the article,
thanks,
– Oleg
Nishant
Nice article,
It is a good strategy too revamp the website. Last time when i checked for broken links i was able to find a couple of broken links in my website. Broken links can affect your SEO rankings. Definitely search for old content, having an expired promotion on the site will give a negative impression. Make sure that your website is updated with recent and trending information.
Ryan Biddulph
Hi Oleg,
I find stray comments and respond to them when sifting thru old content. Super tips dude.
I added a popular posts widget to my sidebar last week. I checked out some old posts from 2014, with over 100 comments, and saw I forget to respond to a few. So I responded to them and also visited their blogs for a tweet or comment. Fun way to build bonds. But you must needs be vigilant to scoop up these comment outliers. Per usual with my blog, I did so by accident 😉
Ryan
Oleg Calugher
Hi Ryan,
thank you for the comment,
Love your blog and the activity that you have there,
So far none of our posts have crossed 100+ comments, we average at about 40+ mostly …
I make sure to respond to every single comment myself and do check old posts in case I have missed out in replying anyone,
thanks,
– Oleg
Darrell Harris
Hello Oleg
Great post! All the points you mentioned are very helpful and useful. This is some extremely timely and wise advice. I will definitely be implementing your advice as far as refreshing my site and keeping my brand fresh. Thanks for sharing Oleg and have a super day
Oleg Calugher
Hi Darrell,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Great to know that you liked the tips,
Let us know your feedback after implementing the tips,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Dana,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you are checking older posts and updating them with fresh images etc.
Content is our biggest asset and we should take proper care of it.
Thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Chery,
Thank you for the comment,
Good to know you liked the article and the tips,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Nithin,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you liked the content,
looking forward to see you more often,
thanks,
– Oleg
Joy Healey
Hi Oleg
That’s a great post. Some of the tips I have used before, others I will try out.
One question please…. if I significantly change / update a post, is it a good or a bad idea to change the publication date?
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Oleg Calugher
Hi Joy,
Thank you for the comment,
Yeah, if you edit the post a lot, then perhaps changing the date is a good idea. New posts get an edge in the ranking algos of search engines – so changing the date will give you a direct benefit.
If the post has too many comments showing a back-date, then perhaps you can even mention at the bottom of the post that – this post was re-published.
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Akaahan,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Yeah, I have noticed some of your new sites already and looking forward to see more.
Good work, keep expanding and keep growing,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Bren,
Thank you for the comment,
Yeah, very true – a 3rd party assessment is always good to know what others think about our blog.
Surely, less is always more.
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Suresha,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you have followed me on Twitter, always good to keep expanding our social networks,
thanks,
– Oleg
Vayam
Hi Oleg,
Excellent blog. We should redesign our site time to time. Now simple, sleek designs are in trend which include quality rich content, high resolution images etc. Thanks for sharing.
Shamsudeen Adeshokan
Hi Oleg,
Yes, writing a new post is more time-consuming and stressful than updating an older one to make it more appealing and better.
Since I started with updating older post regularly and usblihin new once less often, I realize the positive impact it had on my blog growth. What makes this tactic good enough to try is the rise in organic traffic to these older post.
This is something I might consider doing throughout the new year holiday week.
Thanks Oleg, nice share.
Oleg Calugher
Hi Shamsudeen,
Thank you for the comment,
Yeah, totally agree with you – updating content is far easier and creating new from scratch. Since the older content is already indexed and ranking somewhere, updating it and fine-tuning it with fresh content and a bit of SEO will surely help it to rank better.
thanks,
– Oleg
Shameem
Hey Oleg
Good tips I’ve tried some of yours between do we keep changing the post date will gets any result in SERP ?
Oleg Calugher
Hi Shameem,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Yeah, changing the post date does have a positive effect on the SERPs, but we shouldn’t keep changing it all right time – because that will result in manipulation which might not be a good idea.
When you change the date, make sure to update the post with fresh content,
thanks,
– Oleg
Mark Stephen
Updating the content is beneficial especially to maintain the quality of work. The more your content will be updated the more you will get the appreciation form your new as well as existing users.
Babanature
hello Oleg,
You have shared some tips that will help bloggers kick-start their blogging this coming 2017.
I find your first point brilliantly said. Sometimes, we do need a third eye to check out our work in case if there is any problem or something the author misses out.
Have a good week start 🙂
Oleg Calugher
Hi Babanature,
Thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you liked the article,
Yeah, the 3rd eye is absolutely required for pretty much everything that we do online – because if you are the creator, you will only see from your own point of view.
Thanks,
– Oleg
Renee groskreutz
Your point about checking out the obvious is so right on. It is funny how we can start to overlook the obvious on our own blogs. Great post here.
Dhaval Parmar
Hello Amar!
You have shared some very Helpful tips here with us to easily update our old content! I am going to go and take a look around my site.
Amazing Share.
Thank You
Pingback:
Emenike Emmanuel
Hi Oleg,
This is awesome. With these strategies you listed here my blog will take a new look in 2017.
I’m already beginning to cast my mind on images that must be removed and replaced.
I will be working from the beach the first week of January. There and then I will do an overhaul on my blog, especially adding more affiliate links on top performing posts. I’m excited I read this on time. I will surely apply them.
Thanks for sharing.
Emenike Emmanuel
Oleg Calugher
Hey Shafi,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Wishing you all the best for 2017, do keep us updated with your progress,
thanks,
– Oleg
Muhammad Tabish
Hi Oleg.
How Are you? Hope you good, This is Mindblowing Informative Post Thank’s For the Article, It’sMy First Visit Your Blog, I like Your Stuff, Good Work,
Have a Nice Day Ahead 🙂
Oleg Calugher
Hey Muhammad,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you found the post informative,
looking forward to seeing you around,
thanks,
– Oleg
Mi Muba
Hi Oleg
Nice to see here wonderful level of readers engagement and that’s the proof how engaging your contents are.
Diversity is must in updating contents just like it is in other blogging chores. Just updating the info and correcting links is not sufficient it requires a complete update as you pointed out with brilliant explanation.
Thanks for sharing.
Have a great weekend ahead.
Oleg Calugher
Hi Mi Muba,
thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you noticed the engagement levels here. We are particularly happy on how the blog section of Temok is getting active and growing its readership every day. This is only possible due to readers like you so thank you for your continued support.
thanks,
– Oleg
Erika Mohssen-Beyk
Hi Oleg,
I am glad that I landed here today. I id many of this tips you did give here and looked with “fresh Eyes” on my posts. I updated some of them and republished and changed the date. this I was not sure if it is right. Now I found the information about here. Thank you for all the tips.
Erika
Oleg Calugher
Hi Erika,
Thank you for the comment,
Always happy to see you around, please do land here more often 🙂
Good to know that you have already applied some of the tips. Adding more content and making the old posts resourceful and valuable is a great idea – one should do it actively, all the time.
thanks,
– Oleg
Aswani
Great read. I have been working on the content update for my blog. Though very frustrating, it has become very mandatory for me. I have been focusing on content quality as I believe low quality content is harming my website. And there’s a lot of them. Hopefully I can get rid of it all very soon. Thanks for sharing such informative post.
Joy Healey
Thanks for your reply about changing the date when I update my posts. Great tips and a nice reason too.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Jayce Ooi
Using user’s comment is a great idea. Will try to include that someday…
Emenike Emmanuel
Awesome. This is liberty that comes with running an online business, you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you are connected to the internet. Keep it up, Oleg.
sangeeta
hey, I read your blog first time and really this very creative and informative post about web design. Thanks for sharing with us.
Dhaval Parmar
Hi,
Updating old content of a blog has much importance & all the points mentioned here are way too helpful for doing the job effortlessly.
So I’m grateful for having a nice post to read & and obviously thank goes to Mr Amar for sharing such a nice post on his Facebook wall.
Navin Rao
I think I have landed at the right place… Fantastic Post.
I have seen plenty of bloggers kept on updating their older post by updating some fresh content into it. Which is an excellent idea as these days things kept on changing…
Thanks for the valuable post… willing to visit again and again.
Rajkumar
This is for sure wonderful a checklist to update a blog/website. Its is mandatory to update the expired posts and also to we need to upgrade the theme as well.
Thanks for sharing
Gaurav Kumar
Hi Oleg,
These are the really workable tips that you have shared here to update the blog content for 2017. It is always good to analyze which content has lost it`s worth with the time and change that with most updated content.
Blogger can also work on adding infographics and videos to blog posts. Adding images which are more appealing and also the title modifications can play great role.
Updating affiliate links, new advertising opportunities and continuous improvement always help in good way.
Thanks for sharing!
P V Ariel
Hi Oleg,
Thanks for sharing this informative piece.
I have a good number of old posts which needs lot of attention in this regard.
I will surely follow the tips mentioned in this post.
Great ideas shared.
Thanks for the comment shared on my post.
Keep sharing.
Best Regards
Wish all at Temok a wonderful weekend.
-Philip
Oleg Calugher
Hi Philip,
Thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you liked the tips,
Updating old content on a blog is perhaps one of the best ways to stay on trend and keep things fresh and actionable,
thanks,
– Oleg
Mary G. Harris
Thanks for this amazing guide. I have applied all the steps that you have metioned
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Mary,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you have applied all the tips, keep checking future articles for more ideas,
thanks,
– Oleg
Peter Johnsen
Hi,
Thank you so much for sharing this valuable guide. Google now focuses more on fresh content over quality. This guide will surely help us to keep our blog updated regularly.