Content Refresh: Why Is It Critical For SEO In 2024?

Intro

Performing a content refresh can be a transformative endeavor. Many businesses today, no matter how big or small, have their own blogs and social media profiles where they consistently publish content. Essentially, performing a content refresh can give a new life to both blogs and social media profiles.

But a content refresh is actually bigger than that. It’s a complex process that, if done right, can have very positive short-term and long-term outcomes. Hence, here’s everything you need to know about a content refresh and why it is important for your SEO.

What is a content refresh?

To put it simply, a content refresh is an analysis of all your existing content and a subsequent edit of it all. The content you work with can include pretty much any kind of web content you have ever published: articles and posts on your blog, the content on your website, e-books, webinars, social media posts, and so on.

Usually, a content refresh aims to “rejuvenate” your content by updating it or even completely changing it. You can work with both textual and other types of content i.e. visual and audio. If you decide to update a piece of content, you may want to add the newest findings related to the topic, change outdated facts, and add quotes from experts. Alternatively, you might want to find a completely new angle for the entire piece.

Of course, performing a content refresh doesn’t mean that you will be remaking all of your content entirely. Likewise, it is not about getting rid of old content to replace it with the new content you create. It’s more of a combination of a variety of approaches and techniques that together allow you to make the most of your existing content before you can start working on new pieces.

Why is it important for SEO?

(Image source: Unsplash)

There are various reasons why you would want to perform a content refresh. Besides the benefits it has for your SEO, a content refresh is necessary:

• If you want to get better results from your old content by updating it instead of creating new content which could save you money.
• If you want to keep your old content relevant and up to date so that when someone discovers a piece that is several years old, they will see that you have added the latest updates on the topic.

In case you want to do multiple things at the same time (i.e. perform a content refresh while creating new content), you may want to outsource some of your tasks. You can do this by hiring professional writers from the writing services reviews site Trust My Paper who will handle some of your content creation. This way, you will have enough time and resources to manage everything at once.

When it comes to SEO, a content refresh is actually mandatory rather than optional. The reason for this is that a content refresh is meant to make your old content work for you. Most businesses and content creators want to create content that will keep ranking high in search results even after several years. In other words, evergreen content. But even evergreen content can become outdated.

This is precisely why a content refresh is necessary at least once a year. By updating your old content or maybe even remaking it to an extent, you can ensure that this content performs well. From the keywords you focus on to the links and backlinks you have for each piece, all of these elements are important for your SEO – and all of them are addressed during a content refresh.

What are some examples of a content refresh?

So, what does a content refresh looks like in practice? Here are some examples of what you might do during a content refresh:

• Updating an article or blog post on a specific topic with the latest findings related to that topic. You might want to delete some parts of the piece while adding new ones. You can also add quotes from experts or new industry examples.
• Changing the keyword density of the different pieces of content on your blog. Some keywords might become less effective over time (i.e. they become low volume and high competition instead of initially being high volume and low competition) which is why you may want to change the keywords you used or add some new ones.
• Adding internal and external links to specific blogs and articles that can be relevant and useful for your audience. For example, if you wrote a new article on a related topic, you can add a link to this new article to older articles on the same or related topics.
• Remaking visual content, including infographics, videos, images, and visual elements on your website. You could even decide to change the design of your website as a part of your content refresh as long as you think that it is a good decision (e.g. your website’s design looks outdated).

What are the basic principles of a content refresh?

(Image source: Unsplash)

When you are performing a content refresh, the first thing you will need to do is actually analyze all your content and select the pieces that you want to refresh. For updating and remaking your content, you can hire professional writers from the best essays and writing website or you can do it all yourself. But when it comes to selecting content at first, you should do it all yourself.

To help you select the most appropriate pieces of your content for a refresh, you can use the basic prioritization principles used during a content refresh:

• Check the Search Engine Rank – Check the search engine rank of your different pieces of content. Are they on the first page or not? If they used to be on the first page but dropped to the second or third page, focus on these pieces. You might need to make only a few changes to make these pieces rank on the first page again.
• Consider Your Branding – Have you changed your branding recently? Is your audience different from the one you had before? If that is the case, look for the pieces of content that are targeting your old audience. Then, find a way to update or remake those pieces to be relevant to your current audience.
• Look at the Metrics – There are numerous metrics you are probably tracking, so just by looking at them, you can already decide what needs to be refreshed. Views, likes, comments, shares, etc. can all be good indicators of which pieces need to be changed. For example, just by changing a headline a little, you could increase your click-through rate.
• Make Yourself a Though Leader – If you want to build a specific brand image around yourself where you are considered an authority and a thought leader in your field, then you should definitely update older content with new findings. Find pieces on topics where new findings or developments happened since you published those pieces. Then, add new information to those pieces of content.
• Try to Generate More Leads – Some pieces of content will consistently generate more leads for you while others will underperform in this regard. If you find specific pieces that could be improved and could generate more leads as a result, then you should try to prioritize them during your content refresh.

How can you perform a content refresh?

Once you have planned your content refresh, analyzed your content, and chosen the pieces you will be working with, you can start performing the refresh. Remember that each piece will need to be updated or remade in some way. Here are the best practices to follow during a content refresh:

• Utilize different writing tools and other apps and programs to help you perform your content refresh. For instance, by using a backlink checker, you will better understand which kinds of websites are interested in specific pieces of your content. Use a keyword research tool, a grammar checker, a graphic design tool, and so on.
• Don’t underestimate the power of visuals. If you decide to update an old article or blog post, don’t just work on the text itself. In addition to that, create graphics that you can add to the article to make it even more interesting and shareable. For example, take some quotes from the article, create graphics with them, and add them in different places throughout the article.
• Redesign visual content if it looks outdated. The visuals you used for an article you posted four years ago can already look somewhat outdated, so it’s definitely worth creating new visuals and adding them to the article.
• Repurpose some of the content and actually post it as new content on different channels. You don’t necessarily only need to update old content. You can also use this occasion to repurpose old content and create a new one. For instance, take an old article and use the statistics in it to create an infographic that you can then post on your social media profiles.

Final thoughts

To summarize, performing a content refresh will definitely be very useful to your overall content marketing strategy. Use the tips in this article to help you plan, organize, and execute your own content refresh successfully.