Optimize existing content to boost its visibility
You have been the proud owner of a website for several years, but for the past few months, you have noticed that its performance has stagnated. You then immersed yourself body and soul in the sites that promise you the best natural referencing techniques for your old blog pages or your ancestral product sheets. Keyword? H2 tags? Internal link? You now know the main terms for understanding SEO and you can’t wait to put them into practice. Moreover, you realize that your old content does not really respect them. Throw it all away? Certainly not! Take stock of the advantages and methods of optimizing existing content before committing the irreparable!
Why is optimizing existing content essential to increase traffic?
Do you know the expression “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater”? So tell yourself that it’s the same for your internet content. You’ve invested time on best ghostwriting services, energy and maybe even money writing your current content, let’s not waste it. Everything is not to be deleted. What you need today is to perform a triage to be able to make the right decisions and target your actions to obtain the best results.
If you are not yet sure of the benefits of optimizing existing content, here are the good reasons that should convince you that it is good for what you have:
By starting from the content already present on your site, you keep the benefit of the referencing and the notoriety of the old pages. Google’s algorithm, the program that decides whether your page deserves to be in the top results, regularly reviews your site. And what he likes is novelty and consistency. By updating your texts, you will not only tell Google that your pages are updated and remain relevant, but you will also strengthen overall consistency by unifying your content. In addition, some of your writings only require slight adaptations to update them, whether for Google or for the Internet user. V You will thus be able to keep part of the texts of your site and make profitable the time and the money invested previously. This saves you from writing entire articles that only required a few modifications. For pages that require major corrections or a total rewrite, you can then release the necessary budget. Your editor may even offer you a package for several or even all of the pages on your site.
If you do not want to carry out all these analyzes yourself and save time, you can already build your team of web editors directly and without commission.
How to optimize old content? The essential points
Sort pages by traffic
Now that you have decided to highlight your pages already online, you will have to determine which ones really deserve their place on your site. No coincidence there, you have to proceed step by step. Use your favorite analysis tool, such as Google Analytics, to see how your content is performing. Once you are ready, pull out a list of the most viewed pages on your site, the ones that generate the most traffic. These, no way to throw them away. Even if they perform well, don’t forget to give them the test of the essential points to check, which can be found later in the article. You must constantly monitor and update your website to remain Google’s favorite and continue to bring in many customers.
For the pages that are less successful, you have to decide between them according to their current potential. Are there still readers who would like to read its content? If you’ve made the list of ideal supplies for back to school 2012 or an article on “the 12 best techniques to keep your Tamagotchi happy”, you know that they are too old. Few Internet users will need this information today. If no one searches for this information, Google will understand that the page does not contain relevant content. Caution! If too many pages are dated, you risk being penalized in your natural referencing. So, old content that is no longer relevant and no longer receives visits: toss! It is possible that some of your articles, although dated, are still a source of traffic, despite their age. For example, “How to overcome your shyness in 2015?” can still provide valuable advice to help today’s introverts, and therefore receive Internet users in search of solutions. This type of content will then be put in the box: old articles to be optimized using basic SEO techniques and making it timeless!
Improving existing content: what to check
Now that your content is classified according to its potential and that you have eliminated those that penalize you in your SEO, you must tackle the optimization work. Here are the important points that you will need to check for each page that you have decided to keep:
- Is the title optimized?
- Is the title large enough?
- Is the Meta description large enough?
- Are the images correctly named?
- Are the articles long enough for the competition?
- Is each page worked around a specific keyword?
- Is my article structured coherently with the h2 andh3 tags?
- Is my internal linking carried out in a coherent and intuitive way for the Internet user?
- Are the CTAspresent on each page skillfully highlighted?
Be careful not to neglect the different steps, whether in sorting or verifying content. The analysis of your existing pages must be meticulous to allow you not to lose traffic and to consolidate your natural referencing. If you feel a little lost, you can turn to our editors, some of whom specialize in optimizing existing content. Discover the portraits of our freelancers.
