3 Effective Digital Marketing Strategies To Make Old Content Look New

Once you’re able to drive traffic to your website, you’ll want them to stay there for as long as possible in order to ensure better digital marketing and SEO rankings. But this is easier said than done. Visitors stay on a particular web page or site when they have access to information that is useful and insightful – not old and outdated. 

How Can Refreshed Content Make A Difference? 

According to SEO Shark – the leading digital marketing agency in Sydney, Google typically gives every page a freshness score based on its date of inception, which reduces over a period of time.

This is usually the time when the content has been uploaded on to the website and the search engine is aware of it. If the content is irrelevant and doesn’t keep up with changing times, Google will consider the content to be outdated and will lower your website’s rankings. 

Changing up content to meet the needs of the time can make an impact on the overall ranking of a website. Refreshed content should cover the following: 

• Provides answers to problems people face at the moment. 
• Entertains readers with interesting information. 
• Solves issues by showing people what to do and when to do it. 
• Delivers relevant information that may get shared on other platforms. 

If your content is able to deliver these characteristics in a refreshed and relevant manner, you’ll be rewarded by search engines. Here are some effective strategies to make old content look new for better SEO rankings: 

Identify Keywords People Are Currently Using

Your old website content was probably optimized for what people were searching for at a particular point, but search queries tend to change over a period, so it’s important that you identify keywords people are currently using and include them in your content pieces.

Follow these actions:  

• Use tools to research keywords people are typing into Google to find products and services related to your business. 
• Look for long-tail phrases and use language similar to these phrases to garner more traction. 
• Make sure keywords are content relevant and should appear natural without stuffing. 

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Once you’re able to identify these keywords and keyword phrases, you’ll be able to create refreshed content that optimizes for them. Track these keywords by search volumes so you know exactly how your pages are doing after refreshing your content. 

Add Links To More Authoritative Websites 

While this is simple, it can serve as a good way to build your SEO rankings. When you include links to more authoritative websites in your content, you are showing search engines that you have some kind of link to them. Where kind of authoritative websites work best for content linking? 

• Information news sites
• Government websites 
• Educational websites 
• Industry body websites 

By linking to these websites, you will gain some interaction with them. If the website happens to like your content, you may even gain an inbound link which is fantastic for your SEO efforts. Search engines consider these links to be positive and will eventually reward you with higher search rankings because your content is more trusted. 

Refresh Content Into Different Formats

The truth is that written words are soon becoming redundant and a thing of the past. The online audience today wants fast-paced and catchy content to keep up with their busy lives, so you need to mix it up by using different formats to deliver refreshed content. Consider the following: 

• Convert blog ideas to videos or podcasts to deliver messages in a more engaging manner. 
• Use infographics to share vital statistics and data with your target audience. 
• Create visual, picture-friendly content that can be shared across different social media platforms. 

Creating content for different platforms allows users to better resonate with what you have to offer. You will also be in a better position to share this content on different channels, which gives you the opportunity to reach out to more and more people. This will likely drive more traffic to your website than plain text.

While not all content will become outdated, certain ideas, methods and strategies on your pages that were appropriate for the time may no longer be the case – especially if you’re in a fast-paced industry that is constantly changing. Refreshing old content can make a huge impact on your website’s rankings by giving it a new lease on life. 

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Author: Stefan McDonald
Stefan is the head of content and digital marketing at The Marketing Folks. He follows all digital marketing trends and news. He is also passionate about search engine marketing strategies and social media sales techniques.