Podnar Consulting, LLC

How to update your old blog posts with an extreme makeover

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Everybody who works in content marketing talks about how to update your old blog posts. It makes a lot of sense: Creating quality content is time-consuming and expensive, but it’s also necessary for attracting new readers and letting Google know that you’re still around. Sure, you can repurpose old content into a slideshow or video. But I’m talking about giving an old post new life by updating it with new information and — here’s the really important part — applying today’s SEO best practices.

How to update your old blog posts with an extreme makeover

Pick the right content

I don’t know anybody who has time to go through their content archives and how to revitalize your old blog postsupdate every single blog post without knowing if it’s going to be worth it. So start by picking one blog post — a single post that you think will help you decide whether a larger-scale effort is worthwhile.

The criteria, of course, are up to you, but could include things like

  • Your most successful post in terms of likes, shares, comments, etc.
  • Your most successful post in terms of lead generation
  • A post that should be performing better than it is
  • A post that is about a topic that is either always relevant or newly relevant

Those are just a few ideas, but there are dozens of things you could do. If a popular executive is retiring, for example, you could update an old blog post that was written when he first joined the company: a retrospective with a few modern updates.

Identify areas that need work

SEO

SEO is constantly changing, so the size of the job will depend on how old the content is. If it was written back in the days of keyword stuffing, you’ve got some work to do. That was awful even when it was a best practice.

But if you’re going to update your old blog posts, you could also take an “evolution of SEO” approach with a process similar to this:

Keywords

  • What keywords, if any, were the original post built around? Are those keywords still relevant to your current business model and your current customers? If not, what changed, and what does that mean for your keyword strategy? Do the same keyword research you’d do for a new post, and identify more relevant keywords that you could substitute without having to rewrite the entire post.
  • Does the original post contain any longtail keywords? It might, simply because longtail keywords make sense. They’re based on natural language that people use when they’re conducting a search, such as, “How to….”. If you find longtail keywords, try to make them more prominent. This is important to Google’s latest focus on user intent. 
  • Make sure your most important keyword(s) are in the first paragraph of the post.
  • Use your main keyword(s) in at least one of your subheads (preferably H1).
  • Come up with a list of synonyms (or longtail keywords that are phrased slightly differently) and work them in throughout the post, so that the language sounds natural and Google doesn’t ding you for keyword stuffing.

Links

There are two kinds of links: Internal and external links.

  • External links: If your post has external links, check to make sure that they’re still working and that you’re still willing to give the linked content what amounts to an endorsement by linking to it. If the link either doesn’t work or leads to outdated or incorrect information, replace it with a better one.
  • Internal links: Internal links serve a couple of purposes. First, they keep readers on your site by leading them to other relevant content. Second, they help Google index your site. Similar to external links, check your internal links to make sure they still work and lead to good content. But you’ll also want to add links both to and from newer content on your site. So, for the post you’re revamping, add links to some newer posts on your blog. In addition, take a look at newer posts and search for opportunities to link back to the older one.

Metadata

When I first started freelance writing after 10 years of being a stay-at-home mom, I didn’t know the first thing about metadata. (Heck, I didn’t know the first thing about keywords, since all of my experience was in print media.) I bet if I went back to the beginning of this site and worked my way to the present, at least 50% of the content wouldn’t be optimized for metadata.

old blog posts metadataIf your older posts are the same, you’ve got a huge opportunity to fix that without investing months of effort. Modern blogging platforms and themes make it easy for non-techy content creators to take on a major metadata cleanup. If your theme doesn’t do it, there’s probably an SEO plugin that does.

The point is that, while customers might not notice your metadata, Google does, and it can give your SERPs a big boost. Going back to that trial content you picked, here are some quick fixes:

  • Make sure your most important keyword ( or words) are in the title and the URL. (Protip: Remember that, if you change the URL, any existing links to the page will no longer work. If the page is still getting significant traffic, make sure you set up a redirect.)
  • Check the alt-tags of all images used in the article. They should contain your keywords. However, to satisfy accessibility requirements, they also need to be descriptive, so you might need to get a little creative (such as “small brown dog reading an article about improving metadata”).
  • Include your primary keywords in your meta description, which is a snippet, summary, excerpt, etc., of what your post is about. These are the descriptions that show up under your headline and (hopefully!) featured image in search results.The default is to use the first 55 words. But let’s say you’ve written an introduction that’s a great hook that makes people want to keep reading once they’re on the page. The problem is that it might not do a very good job of describing what the post is about, so some people may never click through.You can fix that by creating a great snippet that will show up in search results and tell people exactly what your post is about. And that snippet should contain your primary keyword.

Other considerations

While SEO is always a primary focus, there are other things to look for, too. These include things like:

  • Facts: Check to see if you need to update quotes or statistics.
  • Branding: If branding policies — color scheme, use of logos, use of official company name, etc. — have changed, apply those changes to the old post.
  • Cultural references: Just a few years ago, nobody could get enough of 50 Shades of Grey. If it came out today, bloggers and talking heads everywhere would be vilifying the trilogy as glorifying rape culture. Remember that popular opinion on controversial topics can flip overnight — and previously ignored issues can become controversial overnight. Keep your eyes open for those issues in your website content.
  • Laws and regulations: These, too, change quickly, especially as our update old blog postseconomy becomes more globalized. Currently, it seems as if everyone is focused on online privacy. If you operate multinationally, you’re not only bound by U.S. laws; you’re also bound by the laws and regulations of every country where you do business. And sometimes it doesn’t even require a physical presence, such as when the determining factor is a user’s citizenship or place of residence. If you have a customer from the EU, for instance, you’re bound by those regulations even if you don’t have a physical presence there.

What should you do with your revitalized blog post?

It depends on your reasons for doing an extreme makeover to start with. Here are a few options:

  • If it was already performing well, leave it alone except for adding a “last updated” date (well, make it part of your social media marketing, but you were doing that anyway, right?) and watch the metrics. You already know readers were finding value in the post, so if you did a good job with your SEO tweaks, you should see a spike in traffic.
  • If you think it should have been performing better than it was, repost it and see if the improved SEO makes a difference. Do, however, indicate that it’s a repost and include the date of the original post.
  • If you really did an extreme makeover — reworking content as well as SEO — go ahead and publish it as a new post, although you might want to link to the original as your source of inspiration.

A word about dates

Even some of the top experts in the industry disagree on whether or not you should include a publication date on content. Some don’t in the interest of making it seem evergreen. Personally, I rarely link to a post without a date, because I don’t want to be offering my readers advice that’s 10 years old. Even if it seems like good information, I just don’t take the chance. I guess it depends on your industry and strategy, but I have a tough time finding a good reason to not include the publication date.

Conclusion

So should you update your old blog posts? I think that’s a very personal question with lots of different answers. Here’s mine: I know that when I first started, I didn’t know much about SEO. So I’m going to go back and update SEO (especially metadata) on my older content that is still evergreen or otherwise still relevant. I probably won’t do an extreme makeover unless a topic is currently trending or I think that it would be a valuable piece with a fresh face.

And, with the post-holiday slump looming, updating SEO is a good task for those dreary winter afternoons when starting a new piece of content from scratch feels overwhelming. You can just turn to your list updates and make the rest of the day useful instead of spending it staring out the window!

revive old blog posts

Content marketing best practices: The things you think are true

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I love reading about content marketing best practices. I devote a good chunk of time each morning to keeping up with what’s going on in the industry.

But I don’t let best practices give me my marching orders. And neither should you.

Content marketing best practices were designed for big companies with big resources

content marketing best practices for big companiesHere’s the thing: Content marketing best practices were designed for big companies with big resources — not for small- and mid-sized businesses, solopreneurs, consultants, etc. I don’t dispute their effectiveness, but I do insist on giving a nod to reality.

Best practices come with a price tag. And, sometimes, the ROI just isn’t there for smaller businesses.

The real trouble comes when best practices are presented as the only option — go big or go home. All that accomplishes is to intimidate businesses into sitting on the sidelines or spending resources they don’t have.

Which is a shame. Most of the time, doing the best content marketing you can with what you’ve got is better than doing nothing. Because, goodness gracious, y’all — they’re not written on stone tablets. If they don’t fit, ignore content marketing stonehengethem. Or adapt them so that they make sense for you and your business.

I’m just going to come out and say it: The emperor is running around naked again. And we all know you can’t take naked emperors seriously. So let’s take a look at some (supposedly) universal truths that fall apart when you take a closer look.

The things you think are true

There’s one metric to rule them all: Traffic

Anybody else tired of the unending chorus of voices insisting that you should focus on content marketing generate traffictraffic above all else?

Seriously, y’all.

The only time traffic should be your main concern is if your income depends on ad revenue. It may also be true if traffic is your main source of lead generation. In both cases, eyeballs matter.

On the other hand, focusing too much on traffic can blind you to some other important truths:

  • Not all traffic converts. And traffic that is never, ever going to convert just clogs up your server and slows down your site. So, when you do generate traffic, you want it to be for the right reasons.
  • Content is great for self-service lead nurturing. This is especially true for B2C businesses selling products for niche markets. If you sell clothing, you probably don’t need blog content to educate potential customers on how to choose a good pair of shoes, or how to wear the shoes once they have them. If you’re selling a high-end camera, on the other hand, well-developed content can walk leads all the way through the sales funnel.
  • Sometimes you may want to establish thought leadership before you’re ready for traffic. Startups, for example, can use content to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise before they even have a product ready.

You can’t invest too much in SEO

content marketing investmentSure you can. If there’s no ROI, you’re spending too much. Here are some common sinkholes:

Keyword research

Keyword research is important. But, when done according to best practices, it takes a huge investment of resources:

  • Check Wikipedia to find entries on your content, then steal the subheads to use as your keywords.
  • Peek in on Reddit conversations to see what people are talking about.
  • Find the keywords with the highest search volume and lowest competition; then write articles using those keywords.
  • Find out which keywords bring the highest bids for ads.
  • Figure out which of your favorites have the highest possibility of commercial intent.
  • Find out which keywords your competitors are ranking for.
  • Discover trending topics and searches, and build your content around those keywords.

And that list barely scratches the surface.

Backlinks

Yes, Google puts a lot of weight on quality backlinks. But the recommended tactics for building those backlinks never mention how much time it takes:

  • Research the content that ranks for your keywords, read that content to identify the places where it would be logical to link to your content (and identify which piece of content would be the best fit), email the webmaster to ask for said link, monitor the results, etc.
  • Find related content that contains broken links and write an email asking the webmaster to link to your content instead.
  • Find content that mentions you or your business but doesn’t contain a link, and ask the author or webmaster to add one.
  • Set up some scholarships to generate backlinks from Google’s favorite child — .edu domains.

Again, I’m not saying that these tactics don’t work; they often do. But, even if you use free tools, it would take hours, if not days, to do keyword research or backlink outreach at this level. There may not be any ROI for smaller businesses.

Plus, some ideas just aren’t a good fit for every business. Take trending topics. Writing about trending topics can certainly be valuable for B2C businesses. Things like retail, fashion, entertainment, etc., are highly dependent on trends, and any marketer would be wise to jump on board (or, even better, get ahead of the trend). But that doesn’t work so well for B2Bs unless they’re in quickly-evolving markets.

And setting up scholarships to get backlinks? I can see offering scholarships for PR purposes or just to give back to the community. But suggesting that small businesses do it just to build high-authority backlinks is like telling somebody researching the best “couch to 5K” program that they should be doing high-altitude training with Olympic athletes. It’s fine if you have the resources, but it’s far from an entry-level tactic.

You’ve got to have an editorial calendar

content marketing editorial calendarThis one makes sense for big organizations that have their marketing campaigns planned out a year in advance and want to make sure their content matches up. Or those that have seasonal topics that they address at the same time every year.

But smaller businesses don’t always plan things that far out. I know I don’t. The content marketing world changes too fast. How would I know what’s going to be top-of-mind six months from now?

I write about what’s happening now in content marketing so, until someone issues me my crystal ball, an editorial calendar won’t be helpful for me.

If an editorial calendar helps you create content that matters, then, by all means, use one. But don’t tie yourself in knots trying to force your content creation into a framework that just doesn’t fit.

Conclusion

You’ve got to take this whole best practices thing in context: They’re primarily intended for huge organizations with plenty of resources.

In addition, when content marketing thought leaders spend hours on one aspect of content marketing, they’re doing the work of their core business. For everybody else, content marketing is an investment in the business, but it’s not a core business function. No matter how valuable it may be, it’s still time spent on something other than the reason for your business’s existence (manufacturing, product development, SaaS, etc.).

This is the bottom line on content marketing best practices: They work. They’re effective. They can deliver a huge return.

But…

  • If you can’t afford them, that doesn’t mean you should give up on content marketing altogether.
  • Even if you can afford them, they may not be the right fit for your business.

 

While putting random, poorly written posts on your blog just to fill up space probably won’t be of much use, you can accomplish a lot by applying the tactics that deliver the most benefit while fitting within your constraints on money, time, and talent. While the specific options will vary a lot by company, prioritize the things that are low-cost, low-effort, and high-impact.

Most of all, don’t ever let anybody discourage you from doing the best you can with what you have.

content marketing best practice

 

Beginners’ Guide to SEO and SERP: Things You Can Do Today

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When I first launched this website, I didn’t even want to think about SEO and SERP. It seemed like this big, scary, two-headed monstrosity — one I would never understand — lurking in the corner, just waiting to pull me into a virtual abyss.

But…reality. If you ignore SEO and SERP, the world will ignore your website. Because it’s Google’s game — and it’s by invitation only.

So I decided to conquer my SEO and SERP phobia. What I’ve learned is that, yes, this whole process is a bit overwhelming. And always changing. (And, honestly, kind of boring.)

I’ve also realized that I’m never going to have enough time to spend hours reaching out to influencers, commenting on random blog posts, or experimenting with any of the other “advanced” SEO tactics.

Fortunately, you don’t have to go all-out to make an impact. Employing even the most basic SEO tactics is better than using none at all. And that’s what this post is all about.

So I’m going to define a few terms and teach you some common-sense strategies you can implement right now, so that, even if you never get to the “SEO PhD” level, you’ll already be way ahead of just about everybody else.

What are SEO and SERP?

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.”

SERP stands for “Search Engine Results Page.”

The magic happens when you combine the two, using SEO  techniques to increase the chances of your site showing up near the top of the results page when somebody conducts a search.

Why are SEO and SERP so important?

Because we’re lazy: We go for the low-handing fruit almost every single time.

About 30% of the people who conduct a search will click on the first result. By the third listing, the click-through rate drops off to 12%. And if you’re not even on the first page, you might as well not exist, because most people don’t make it that far. And the more paid ads Google puts at the top of the page, the more likely you are to get bumped off.

How can you convince Google to list you higher in SERP rankings?

To say that it’s complicated would be a huge understatement. Google uses extremely complex algorithms, and they’re always tweaking them.

It’s more practical to think in terms of what Google is trying to accomplish, which is to remain the world’s favorite search engine by delivering quality results. So Google’s algorithms analyze every aspect of your site, looking for clues that it’s of high enough quality to deserve Google’s seal of approval.

There are whole books on how to nab one of those top SERP spots. But we’re going to stay away from the expert-level stuff and focus on some simple things you can do right now.

Easy fixes

URL

When you publish a blog post, your URL should include your most important keyword, preferably right after the .com/ part. On most platforms, the URL is generated automatically from the headline, but you can go in and change it.

But don’t get carried away — Google prefers short URLs to long ones.

One more hint: Customize the URL before you send the link out to everyone, or you’ll wind up with broken links.

Title tag

The title tag is the HTML code that explicitly proclaims to Google (and anyone else who happens to be looking) that “Hey! Over here! This is what this page is about!” Because Google assumes that surely you’re smart enough to include your keyword(s) in your title tag, not doing so can push you farther down the results page.

Let’s say you write a blog post on Thanksgiving recipes. You can have “Thanksgiving recipes” prominently featured in your headline and sprinkled throughout your content — but if “Thanksgiving recipes” isn’t in your title tag (or URL), Google is going to conclude that it doesn’t have very much to do with Thanksgiving recipes.

Meta descriptions

Like title tags, meta descriptions are road signs that offer a concise summary of what the page is about. They’re the little “snippets” that show up in the search results.

While Google has said that meta descriptions don’t affect SERP rankings, they do affect click-through rates — and click-through rates affect search engine rankings. Your meta description should include your keyword(s) and be engaging enough to get the reader to take the next step of clicking through to your content.

Outbound links

As the name suggests, outbound links are links from your site to other sites. Google takes them as a sign of authority — which basically means they think you take your work seriously enough to do outside research and aren’t just making up a bunch of keyword-stuffed garbage. And it’s somewhat of a popularity contest: The higher the authority of the sites you link to, the more credit you get for linking to them.

If you’re writing about workplace safety, for example, it would be better to link to OSHA than to a tiny little construction company that just got hit with some big fines and wants to give everybody else a heads-up.

Length

Once upon a time, urban legend insisted that the ideal blog post length was 500 words. And you’ll still run into that misconception.

But the actual numbers tell a different story. Longer content performs better when it comes to SERP. In fact, the average length for results that make it to the first page is 1,890 words.

Again, it’s about authority. Google gives you more credit for covering a topic in-depth than just skimming over it the same way 1,000 other people have already done.

Images

Everyone knows that images are critical for reader engagement. However, a lot of people don’t realize that images are also important for SEO.

The file name of the image should contain your primary keyword(s). So should the alt-text, the text that appears if your image doesn’t load properly. Including the keyword(s) in your images is another sign to Google that your content really is about what you say it’s about.

Keyword placement

Did you ever have someone launch into a big, convoluted story without providing any context? So that, even if they included lots of details, you were still lost as to why they were telling you the story in the first place?

Google is no different. They think that, if you don’t lead with it, it’s not important — so put your primary keyword(s) early in your post, preferably within the first 100 words.

Internal links

Internal links are those that take readers from one page of your website to another page on the same site. One of the most common uses for internal links is to link one blog post to other posts on related topics.

There are a couple of ways internal links can improve your SERP. For one thing, they keep readers on your site longer, and Google takes that as an important sign of quality: The more time people spend on your site, in Google’s mind, the better your site must be. Internal links also make it easier for Google’s spiders to find your important content. (Think of it as traveling a paved road rather than hacking your way through the underbrush.)

Internal links are also important for social proof. If you want the reader to stop what they’re currently doing to go to another page on your site, that page must be pretty dang good, right?

If you haven’t been doing this, you can do it right now. Just go back through all of your blog posts and, where it makes sense (because of relevance), add a link. You may even want to do it in both directions, which is something a lot of people overlook when they publish a new blog post: Are there any older posts that should link to the new one?

“Next step” fixes

That’s it for the quick hits. These take a little more time and are outside the scope of this post, but they do pack a strong punch and are therefore worth a mention. I’ve included links to resources where you can learn more.

Backlinks

A backlink is when someone else links to your site from their own. And Google takes them very seriously — in fact, some experts consider backlinks to be the single most important factor in SERP rankings. After all, if other sites trust you enough to link to you, then Google might as well trust you, too. There are things you can do to encourage other sites to link to yours, but, for now, let’s focus on quality. The better your content is, the more likely it is that someone will link to it.

What are backlinks, and why are they so important for SEO?

4 effective ways to build backlinks for a brand new site

17 untapped backlink resources

Link-building tactics

Responsive design

We’ve already passed the tipping point where more people are connecting to the internet via their mobile devices than from laptops or desktops. Since that trend isn’t expected to reverse any time soon, Google is engaging in a bit of behavior modification: They’re trying to persuade websites to design for mobile by using that as a factor in SERP rankings.

If your website isn’t responsive — meaning that it doesn’t adapt itself to whatever device the reader is using — you won’t get those coveted SERP top spots. There are tons of easy-to-use, mobile-responsive themes (templates) out there, so, if you haven’t revamped your site in the last few years, move this one up to the top of your list. If you’re not sure whether your site is responsive, Google’s got a handy little tool you can use to analyze it.

The web in 2016: Long live responsive design

Responsive design and its impact on SEO

Why responsive design is more important than ever

Site load speed

Google doesn’t want to refer people to your site only to have them sit there watching the little beach ball spin around while your site tries to load. Because of their focus on quality, Google ranks pages that load quickly higher than slower pages.

Again, Google’s got a tool for that. If your site is slow, that same tool will guide you through speeding things up.

Page speed and SEO

Using a CDN to improve your load speed

Page speed: How it affects your SEO and how to improve it

Bounce rate/time on site

Have you ever conducted a search, clicked on one of the results, realized that it wasn’t at all what you were looking for, and quickly hit the “back” button? That’s a bounce, and it sends Google a pretty strong message that your site doesn’t deserve to be at the top of that particular keyword’s SERP rankings.

9 reasons your website can have a high bounce rate

14 ways to reduce your site’s bounce rates

How to reduce your site’s bounce rate (infographic)

LSI keywords

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing, and it started as Google’s response to keyword stuffing (which was great for SERP rankings but highly annoying to readers). In a nutshell, it’s about context and synonyms.

Including words that are synonyms for your primary keyword or that are otherwise related to it reassures Google that the page really is about what you say it’s about. Let’s say your keyword is “apple.” If you also include words like, “banana,” “cinnamon,” and “recipes,” Google will conclude that you’re talking about the fruit rather than the technology behemoth.

And the more confident Google feels about your site, the higher it will rank you.

LSI keyword generator

LSI keywords

 

Every now and then you hear rumors that SEO is dead. Personally, I have trouble imagining a time when SEO and SERP are no longer important. But I’m equally as sure that Google will keep tweaking the algorithms that hold the SEO universe together. People figure out how to game the system, so Google changes the rules. Or a new trend or technology emerges, and Google seizes the opportunity to nudge people in the direction they want them to go.

But even if you can’t keep track of all of the particulars, there’s a lot of benefit in simply remembering what Google focuses on: quality and user experience. Google wants high-quality content that’s easy to navigate and really is about what it claims to be about. The more clues you can give Google that you fit the bill, the better off you — and your business — will be.

Still feel like the proverbial babe in the woods when it comes to content marketing? That’s OK — everybody did at some point. Check out the “For content beginners” section of my blog for more Content 101 pointers, or sign up below to get updates sent straight to your inbox.

 

 

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