When you first started posting content, you had some awesome stuff that only generated a few unique visitors per month. Now that you’re site is taking off, you’d like to turn those old posts into something that you can use for your visitors who are craving new content. Imagine how much traffic you’d receive if every older post you had could generate 5 new visitors every day. It could be a massive increase in growth for your site.
There are a number of strategies which are easy to implement right now that can breathe new life into those older, but still valuable, posts that you have. Here are some of the most effective strategies you can begin using as soon as today.
#1. Add new images to your older content.
If you’ve had a site operating for awhile, then there’s a good chance that your older posts are following some of the older SEO rules if you haven’t updated them. You may have even changed the design or structure of your site since your initial posts. One of the easiest ways you can add some life to this older content is to add new images to them.
If you are adding new images, it is important to follow some of the “new” rules that are in place to maximize your traffic.
- Use images that are friendly for your preferred social media platform. Pinterest, for example, prefers vertical images instead of horizontal images.
- Have your new images match your current branding and site structure so it fits in better with your new content.
- Consider adding text elements and other visual enticements to your image so that the image on its own can promote click-through traffic.
The best way to get started is to go through the posts that bring you the most traffic. Update the older posts on that list and wait to see results. You might be impressed at how many clicks you’re able to get.
#2. Include older posts into your newer outreach efforts.
You might have written that post in 2008, but it’s evergreen content that is still important and useful for readers. Instead of letting it sit there by itself, include that content in your outreach efforts. After all, you are the one who is in control of what gets shared to your marketing lists or your lead generation opportunities.
When using older content with your newer outreach efforts, there are 3 basic ways that you can increase traffic levels to your site.
- Use older posts as part of your initial sign-up process. Including a link to an older post as part of your autoresponder setup can help your conversion rates and improve traffic. That’s a win/win.
- When you create a sales campaign, include links to your older content. Most prospects want to research your sales claims before clicking the “Confirm Purchase” button anyway, so including older content can keep your brand at the top of that person’s mind.
- Put it out on social media. You can share an old link at any time and make it feel like it is new to a new follower.
Whenever I am strapped for time, I email out one of my older posts that performed well in the past. Just like musicians, your greatest hits will be loved over and over again.
#3. Give your site a deep tissue massage.
Older posts will often briefly mention subject materials that you later decided to create in-depth content about. This provides you with the perfect opportunity to create a link between the two posts. You can also use your older posts as a way to link to new sources of information that support your perspectives, creating two-way link traffic that is very much loved by search engines today.
It also adds value to your site because your visitors are able to quickly access more information that they’re interested in having. This keeps them on your site longer and search engines love the concept of value as well. You might see an increase in your site traffic, your search rankings, and even in your sales conversions just by adding related posts and deep linking.
Although every older post can benefit from this process, you may wish to start with your top-ranked older posts and update them in descending order for best results.
#4. A fresh title changes everything.
Titles have always been an important part of maximizing site performance levels, but it hasn’t been as important in the past as it is today. Many visitors will judge the quality of a site based on the titles of its content. Specific phrases and emotional statements make for highly clickable content today, especially on social media. That’s very different than something like “My Thoughts About Using Old Posts.”
Don’t overthink the creation of a new title. Use a specific phrase, like a long-tail keyword, which someone might use to find your content. That could be your title. List-based titles also work very well, especially in combination with other keywords. Just look at the title of this content as an example of this fact.
While you’re at it, you might want to take another look at the keywords you targeted in those posts as well and update them as necessary.
#5. UX Is Needed For Both XX and XY
Sometimes the best strategy for turning old posts into top performers is to improve the navigational process needed to take a visitor to that content. Both men and women prefer websites that are UX friendly. In the past, you might have included some menu options to specific searches or a list of your most popular posts.
That’s good, but it’s not good enough for modern UX. It’s time to take things to the next level.
You can do this by adding specificity to your navigational profile. Instead of a generic list of top articles, offer visitors a chance to see your best list articles, or your best how-to guides, or your best hummus recipes. Just make sure you’re using content that is already visited regularly to promote a better UX. If no one likes hummus, they’re not going to click on those recipes no matter how much you might wish for it to happen.
As an added benefit, you can use a UX update to refer visitors to lead generation pages as well. This might not give you a surge of extra conversions, but over time you’ll see more than if you didn’t have this structure in place.
#6. Add new content to the older posts.
This is one reason why you should embrace the idea of list-based content even if you hate it. When you create lists, you’re creating an easy way to update the article later on when your expertise has evolved. Lengthy posts may also provide a benefit to search rankings, just as refreshed posts may also give you a boost.
When you go back into your older content, you can also remove outdated material which may be hampering the value proposition you’re trying to offer. Companies go out of business, links become broken, and apps become inactive. Fix these issues, add current info if you can, and that older content will feel like a brand new post.
#7. Throw the spam out of your comments pantry.
Spam might be a beloved food in some homes, but it detracts from your credibility when it’s on your website. Filters that automatically remove spam are a great thing to have, but they might miss some of your older posts. No one likes seeing 60 spam comments on a blog post they found to be interesting. Instead of getting to engage with the community, they’re presented with 60 different links to ways that you can save money, lose weight, become an affiliate, participate in a one-day sunglasses sale – whatever.
Delete this stuff if it is there. Even if it hasn’t harmed your credibility, removing spam will improve the aesthetics of your site.
#8. Add older links beneath your newer posts.
Your sidebar can get crowded with all the links you’d like to put in there. Since simple is always better, take your related posts away from the sidebar and include it with your new content posts. You can even manually insert links into some of your older posts into your new content to encourage visitors to read related materials.
If you have a WordPress site, there are plenty of plugins that will do this for you automatically and display as many related posts as you want. As a general rule of thumb, however, you will want to limit the number of links to 3-5 beneath your newer posts so you don’t create hesitation or discomfort with your visitors.
If you decide to use this strategy, you’ll also want to limit the links available in your footer. It also looks bad if you duplicate links in your footer with your related post links.
#9. Consider giving your older posts an edit or two.
Typos. We all want piece on Earth, right?
Even the best writers have grammatical errors, typos, and other mistakes that creep into their content. Those mistakes can even creep into your content after you and all of your best friends have given it a thorough proofreading.
If your older posts are still incredibly valuable, you can still turn it into a top performer by giving it a good edit. Search engines think in value terms, which means the best content will typically get the best ranking. If there are errors in that content, then unless your competition has more errors, you won’t be considered the best.
Here are some ways that you can make sure all of the mistakes are out of your older content.
- Read your content out loud. By processing the words into speech, you’ll be able to evaluate the tone of your content and it will become easier to spot subtle mistakes that might get missed.
- Print out your content instead of reading your content on the screen. This will allow you to mark specific changes you may wish to make.
- Use online tools, such as grammar and spelling checkers, so you can fix errors you might not realize are there.
Once a visitor notices an error, they’ll become skeptical of the value your site provides. Limit them in your older posts and you’ll remove that skepticism, improve traffic, and maybe even improve your reputation.
#10. Change the formatting of your content.
When we all first started publishing content online, we often did so using the rules that authors followed in their books. It made sense at the time. People read books and love them. They’ll do the same thing with online content.
Readability is very different today than it was 10-15 years ago. Content tends to be more acceptable if it is broken into smaller chunks. Think 2-3 sentence paragraphs instead of 8 sentence paragraphs that are 150 words in length.
People also skim online content today for key points that they can use immediately, which is a habit that wasn’t around a decade ago. Older posts may benefit from including bullet points and subheadings that weren’t always necessary in the past.
You’ll often find that these older posts become top performers because the content is amazing, but it was too difficult for the visitor to read. They decided to skip it.
The best part about this strategy is that you can refresh lengthy posts with only a couple minutes of work. Just look for large blocks of text that may be intimidating and break them up in some way.
#11. Republish it.
Sometimes all you need to do is republish the old post. Maybe give it a new title and let people know that you’ve already published it in the past, but that’s really it. You get a new post to promote and new readers get content they haven’t seen before.
What about those readers who did see the original post? Invite them to share what happened when they applied the advice offered in that older post. Their experience can help you begin to build a highly engaged audience.
In Conclusion
Older posts can still be a top performer for your site. You’ve already invested time in creating that content. Why allow it to just sit there, isolated from all of your other content?
The 11 strategies listed here can help you begin to build increased traffic levels, improve conversions, and give new visitors fresh content with very little effort on your part.
Consider adding your older posts to more than just your social media platforms. Use them for email marketing campaigns. Include them in newsletters. Rework some of them into guest posts that you offer to other sites. The options are virtually limitless.
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