The world is creating new blog content at an astronomical rate. About 70 million new blog posts are published each month, and that’s just on Wordpress. Whether your business has just started blogging or been pumping out content for years, we all know the blood, sweat and tears that go into maintaining a consistent content calendar.
Historical optimisation provides a unique way to get more out of your blogging efforts without putting in too much effort. I like to think of it as the “love the one you’re with” approach to content marketing. It allows you to give a spit and polish to an outdated blog post that still has some gas left in its tank.
Same same, but different
Putting a new spin on something that’s already gained online search traction gives you a head start that could result in new visits and potential leads. Making a few minor changes to existing blogs and reposting them will help to improve their SEO ranking. Google likes shiny new things (and so do people using it to search for solutions). Search algorithms are always changing and new keyword research could be the difference between a page two result and a Google-featured snippet.
The more you research and write about a topic, the more you know about it. Historical optimisation allows you to bank on this knowledge to improve your existing content. You can update statistics, tips and tricks and include fresh links to more updated resources to create a better-quality product that provides more value to your readers.
The mechanics
Historical optimisation isn’t that different from your existing blogging process. You can include it as a line item in your content calendar. It’s all about selecting the right blog post to optimise. You’re looking for blogs that are older than two years, those that have performed well and need a refresh but not a complete rewrite.
Editing is the most important aspect of content optimisation. You want to ensure you implement the following: refresh outdated information, write a new headline, implement new keywords, add additional content if needed, insert a new blog image and a more recent call to action. But whatever you do, don’t change the URL. If you do this, you risk losing your backlinks and the rankings you’ve already achieved.
You want to ensure that the blog is accurate, fresh and still makes sense. If you can tick these three boxes, you should be able to implement enough noticeable improvements to make the blog seem new and worthy of republishing. Once the blog is live, ensure that you share it as a new post on your social media, newsletter and other promotional channels.
Use sparingly
As nifty as content optimisation is, it shouldn’t replace your regular blogging efforts. The blogs that you optimise were all new at some point and you need to continue to replenish your creation pipeline. You want to remain agile to capitalise on new keywords and topics in your industry to maintain your thought leadership.
The League of extraordinary content
At League, we use smart analytics to determine the performance of each of our clients’ blog posts to optimise the content we create for them. Our specialist team of copywriters is always upskilling on the latest SEO and user experience tactics to ensure our clients’ content get the attention they deserve.
Download our digital marketing brochure to find out how our content marketing capabilities will boost your blogging efforts and secure better online visibility.
