Whenever you post an update, it goes onto your site. What about when you’re making improvements or doing a site overhaul? When you’re revamping your page, you may be thinking about removing older posts that no longer fit your direction. Maybe you want to enhance your existing content and widen your audience. Whatever your specific reasons, we’ll show you how to refresh your posts and successfully update your website.
Table of Contents
Remove outdated content
When you’re paring down old content, you need to not only remove it from your blog or website, but you need to ensure it isn’t showing up in search results. So how do you delete outdated content and make sure it’s not showing up in google searches? Luckily, Google makes it fairly straightforward from the designated removal page. Now, you need to know how to go to “remove outdated content page.” Go to the Google “remove outdated content page” at :
www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals
From there, you’ll need to be signed into your console. Once you’re signed in and at the removal page, enter the URL of your page (only enter URLs for pages that have the content you want to get rid of). Then choose ‘request removal.’ Keep in mind you’ll have to be verified as the owner of the blog or page to permanently remove the content.
So, how long does it take google to remove outdated content? That answer is a little more complicated.
While your content will be removed in about a day, the removal is initially temporary, for 90 days only before it shows up again. You will have to request permanent removal after this if you don’t want your old content to reappear.
Republish
When you’ve already published a lot of content, it can start feeling like your ideas are getting stale. When you realize that many new visitors are looking mostly at your newer content, that can be a problem.
Instead of creating new content that you’re not totally satisfied with, you have another option: republishing blog posts that have enhanced your site before. New visitors likely haven’t seen these posts yet, and it could make a big difference in whether or not they stick around.
Posts that have gotten a lot of positive feedback, are more helpful or relevant, or have driven significant traffic for you in the past are all good places to start looking for content to republish.
If you correctly republish, you’ll still keep your ranking and backlinks. Keep your URL the same, but if your URL includes a post’s date, make sure to use a 301 redirect, so your new URL points to the old one. It may also be helpful to readers to include some information at the top of the post signaling that it was originally published on a certain date and edited or republished on the current date.
When you republish old content, you don’t have to simply repost it. It’s actually a good idea to update content where you see opportunities. You’ve grown with your blog and audience, so let your updates reflect that.
This is the optimal time to check for any errors whether grammatical or factual and keep any links and sources updated. Make it fit the current situation and tweak any writing that you feel can come across better.
how to update a website
You can really help drive your website when you update website content. There are a ton of benefits to updating website content regularly, especially when you plan correctly. Before you get too involved in the process, you need to know how to update website content. There’s no big secret in the technical aspects of how to update an existing website: add fresh, engaging content. What is equally important to providing fresh content is the regularity with which you post, and the reasons why. It increases traffic, it’s good for SEO, and it’s more social media friendly. A search engine constantly crawls through content, and new content improves your ranking, and therefore your visibility.
You’re probably asking yourself, how often should I update my website for SEO?
Well, that depends on a few things, but mostly it depends on the kind of website you’re running and how you promote it. For most blogs, especially those that provide content that isn’t typically going to become irrelevant over time, 2 to 3 times weekly is a fair schedule.
Sites that rely on current events need to update several times daily. If you use social media as a primary driver of traffic to your site, you also need to update more often and ensure that content is engaging enough to get visitors over.
Refreshing blog
Refreshing your blog can be when you post an update, refresh old content, or keep fresh content for your website at the forefront. First, it’s important because new visitors and long-time audience members want fresh content.
Without fresh website content, visitors won’t be able to keep finding reasons to visit your site. Likewise, without fresh content, new visitors won’t be able to continue finding your site if your search engine rankings take a hit due to stale content. You have more opportunities to leverage organic SEO when you provide fresh content, and your ranking is rewarded as a result.
How to update pages
Sometimes when you update your website, what you really should be doing is updating specific content and pages. Now, you’re probably wondering how to update web page content in a way that actually rewards your effort.
How do I update pages in a way that works?
First, make a plan. That also means you’ll need to do some research with analytics and take an inventory of your content. Having everything upfront, in the beginning, will give you an improved workflow because you’ll have a sense of direction.
Then look at your site analytics and see what the main catalysts for your traffic and interactions are. When you’re updating your pages, have a look at site architecture and make sure it flows consistently with how users need to navigate through your pages.
Google freshness score
Google has built upon its previous ranking algorithm, which it now refers to as fresh content SEO. But why should you care? Because it affects about 35% of search results, placing favor in rankings to those sites that regularly post fresh content.
That means your site traffic can either suffer as a result of or be rewarded as a result of, the freshness of your content. Hint: fresh content ranks higher than older content, even if the older content is only a couple days older.
Reposting articles on your website
When you’re reposting articles on blog posts, there’s some etiquette you need to follow. Not that reposting articles isn’t a great way to stay fresh, relevant, and project a more knowledgeable image because it is, but you need to follow some rules first. Not only is it a courtesy, but it can also land you in a lot of trouble if you don’t. Take note and follow these rules if you’re reposting other people’s content or reposting news articles on blog posts:
Give credit where credit is due. If it’s not general information, give your source credit.
Try not to repost an entire article: if you can, make do with smaller portions. That may mean using a quote and including the originator’s name, summarizing the article or relevant portions, or include a paragraph or two maximum of the article, and cite appropriately.
Ask permission: if you absolutely, positively, cannot go without reposting the entire article (perhaps the entire thing is relevant, totally captivating, or engages directly with the whole remainder of your post content), then you must ask permission of the original author to use it on your site.
How to improve old photos
Using old photos is a really neat way to engage with your audience, and in many cases, it creates content that is entirely unique to your site. Quality issues in old photos is a huge problem for people. Here’s how to improve the photos to make them more usable for your site:
First, scan with a high-resolution device and save as the highest “.JPG” setting available. Then, open Photoshop and select File and Open. Then choose the old photo you want to work on. Check your image size and make sure it’s at least 300 dpi or higher.
Now, click ‘duplicate layer’ under layers. To help you remember which it is, name the layer In Progress or something that helps you keep the two from getting confused. If needed, crop areas of the photo you don’t want or uneven edges. Then go to the layer, and select “new adjustment layer.” Like with the duplicate layer, rename it something you can remember. Then, adjust the brightness and contrast to enhance the image. Once you’ve found the perfect balance, hit the Control + E keys to merge the layers with the image.
Old comments
Another tool you can leverage to update your website is using old comments. This is the thing that so many bloggers and site owners overlook. Basically, you can reply to old comments to increase freshness on the page and keep interest continued.
Boost date
It’s hard to continuously produce fresh content, and SEO rankings are more competitive than ever. So with Google’s new ranking system, why do some articles show up as top results when they were published a long time ago?
It’s a little trick that a lot of companies do to keep their pages topping search result indexes. They ‘boost’ their content by occasionally adding to the page, rewriting it, or leaving small comments. All it really takes is a sentence or two and google automatically sees this content as still being fresh and relevant.
Questions:
How do you pick which posts to update first?
So which posts need to get updated first, and most of all which posts should you update? Not all content is updated worthy, so here’s how to decide: first, look for old posts that generate the most traffic. Then decide what posts you can leverage to direct even more traffic to your site. Is there an underappreciated post that has a heart of gold and plenty of interest for social media? Give that post a polish up and get it back out there.
How do you reblog on WordPress?
Reblogging on WordPress is actually super simple. If you’re logged in, you’ll see a ‘Reblog’ button at the very end of a post. If you’re not logged in, you can click the Share button in the Reader.
Why should you update old posts?
First, new visitors may not have seen them. Old posts can continue to drive a lot of traffic, especially if they contain helpful, timeless content. Sometimes updating old posts is better than less perfect new content.
What are some actions you can take immediately to refresh old posts?
To get your older posts ready for freshness, first read through and correct any errors or awkward sounding phrases. If the information you provided is now outdated or irrelevant, find current sources. Get rid of those to boost search engine optimization.
Which old posts are still generating a lot of traffic for you?
Do your older posts get a lot of your traffic from Pinterest or Facebook? Do you know how to check your traffic by post? First, make sure you’re logged into your Google Analytics dashboard. Then click ‘what pages do your users visit.’ Then click ‘Pages Report.’ From here you see detailed visitor information from the rows.
Which of your posts have a lot of inbound links?
Your backlink profile shows the collection of links to your site and mentions you’ve gotten across the web. But how do you check it and see which posts have the most inbound links? There are backlink checkers that you can use to do the work for you. Many options certainly exist, both free and paid depending on the services and level of detail you need.
Conclusion
It’s important to keep valuable content updated. Not only does it keep your existing audience with fresh content to peruse, but it also drives new traffic to your site. If you keep your content dynamic and follow these tips, updating your website will be a breeze. Read more tips about starting your blog.