5 Ways to Elevate Old Blog Posts
Just because you hit “publish” doesn’t mean you can forget about that blog post. It’s best to go through your blog a few times a year to ensure the content is still current and that your post is as optimized as it can be.
Below are five ways to elevate old blog posts.
1. Check links
Broken links not only irritate your readers, they harm your search engine optimization (SEO). Whenever you go through an old blog post, check every link to ensure that it’s still working.
If you’d like to check the links on your entire website at once, try Check My Links, a Google Chrome browser extension.
2. Boost SEO
Speaking of SEO, you’ve probably learned much more about it since publishing earlier blog posts. But if you haven’t, here’s a guide.
How to improve a blog post’s SEO:
• Add more backlinks/outbound links. This might seem counterintuitive, but linking to external websites actually boosts your SEO- especially if these websites are well established.
• Link within your website.
• Verify that the post’s title is in the URL.
i.e. The title of this blog post is “5 Ways to Elevate Old Blog Posts” and its URL is “missmegabug.com/blog/5-ways-to-elevate-old-blog-posts.”
• Mention the blog post title in your copy.
• Rename photo files to “Your Business_Blog Post Title_Descriptor.” This is also known as alt text.
Learn more about SEO in my free guide, “How to Boost Traffic to Your Website (With SEO).”
3. Refresh photos
Maybe you didn’t have official branding photos when you posted your blog, or perhaps the original photo you chose doesn’t align with the look and feel of your website.
Browse Adobe Stock or free stock photo sites like Pexels to refresh the photos in your blog post.
4. Add calls-to-action
A call-to-action is a link to an offer on your website, such as a freebie, product, or your services page. The first purpose of blogging is to boost SEO to bring people to your website, and the second purpose is to get them to purchase your offer.
Calls-to-action can look like…
• Linked text, such as “Enroll in my Business 101 online course! It’s free. ;)”.
• Buttons
• Photos/graphics
Always make sure that these links are working properly!
5. Add Pinterest graphics
You’ve heard of “pin now, read later”? By including a Pinterest graphic on your blog post, it’s not only easier for someone to pin your blog post and refer back to it later, they’re more likely to.
Creating Pinterest graphics is easy. Canva - a free, cloud-based design software - has Pinterest graphic templates that are quick to customize!
If you’re new to Canva, check out my online mini course Create With Canva. It takes about an hour and we'll cover how to set-up the branding in your Canva account for ultimate efficiency, customize templates you can easily replicate, and how to download and post them.
Psst! Create With Canva is included in my online Marketing 101 course!
Updating your old blog posts keeps them fresh, up-to-date, and boosts your website traffic (and potentially sales!) for years to come.
