Content decay is a big issue for SEO. It can cause lower rankings, fewer organic traffic, and less conversions.
Often, it’s caused by mismatches between audience intent and your content. Other times, it’s due to a lack of topical depth.
Fortunately, there are many ways to combat content decay. Here are 6 effective strategies to consider:
Update Old Posts
Like our mailing address, wardrobe, hairstyle and media collection, content can easily become outdated, stale, and irrelevant. It’s just a part of life and something we all have to deal with from time to time.
Updating your old posts is one of the best things you can do to combat content decay. By doing so, you’ll bring your old posts back to life and give them the opportunity to rank for their original keywords again.
To do this, simply update the information in your posts to make them more relevant. This could mean updating statistics and data to newer numbers, replacing screenshots with more recent ones or even adding a new, related article. It’s also a good idea to add an editor’s note for transparency.
Another way to refresh your old posts is by repurposing them for different types of media. For example, you could take an old step-by-step tutorial and turn it into a video. This will increase engagement, improve SEO and hook readers into your content.
Lastly, you can consider doing a full-scale rewrite of your old post to make it completely fresh again. This involves rewriting large sections or even the entire post and making sure it’s up to date with the latest trends in your industry. This is a bit more time consuming, but can be extremely effective for your content marketing strategy.
Rewrite Old Content
Creating new content on the spot takes up a lot of your resources, so it makes sense to save some of your time and energy by reviewing and updating older posts. You can do this either by conducting a full content audit or simply using an article rewriter to rework your words.
You can choose to rewrite your old content by replacing the original keywords with fresh ones, or you can do a more extensive overhaul that incorporates new information and shifts in keyword intent. Either way, you will be able to revive your old posts and pages by making them relevant to your current audience and search engines.
The key to rewriting your content is to keep the main ideas the same and use a little bit of your creativity. This will help you to come up with new paragraphs and sentences that make your post more appealing to your readers and easier for them to comprehend.
Aside from updating keywords, you can also improve your old content by adding visual elements like pictures, infographics, or videos. This is especially useful for long-form blog posts or listicles, where you can break up the text with images and graphics to make it more readable and appealing. In addition, you should try to cut any unnecessary fluff in your post so that it is clear and concise without overwhelming your audience.
Optimize Old Posts
There are plenty of reasons why a post might start to decline in traffic. It could be that the information is outdated or no longer relevant, for example. Or it could be that other websites have published fresher content about the same topic and are now outranking you.
Updating old posts can help to prevent or at least slow down the effects of content decay. For one thing, it can give the post a fresher look, which is important for SEO. It also allows you to add more information and examples to the post, which can make it more valuable to readers. And, of course, it can help to improve the keyword density and overall quality of the post.
It’s also worth noting that if a post is no longer relevant to your audience, even a fresher version of the post will likely continue to lose traffic. In these cases, it might be best to simply remove the post and create a new one that is more appropriate for the audience.
Updating old content can be a great way to breathe some new life into stale blog posts and pages, and it’s something that should be done on a regular basis. However, it’s not always possible or practical to do this for every page and blog post on your website, so creating a content audit process can be an effective way to identify these articles and determine what needs to be done to them.
Create New Posts
If your website’s content is no longer attracting the attention of your target audience, it might be time to create new posts that explore the topic in greater depth. Over time, your existing content may begin to feel dated or irrelevant due to changes in industry trends, new research findings, and so on. This can cause your website to slip down the search engine results page (SERP) rankings as other sites produce newer, more relevant content that satisfies the users’ search intent better.
Creating new, high-quality content that covers the same topics can help you recapture lost SERP rankings and establish your brand as an expert in the field. You can also use these new posts to attract links and promote your website, thereby reviving old posts and bringing back organic traffic, often the advice given by analytical AI tools like Rank Revival.
When you’re preparing to revive an outdated piece of content, make sure it’s free from any technical SEO issues. This includes fixing broken links, images, and slow load times. Otherwise, your revival efforts will be for naught.
When you update a post, you can also increase its word count. The ideal blog post length is 2100 – 2400 words, so this will help you improve your search engine optimization (SEO) as well. You can also add supplementary content to your post, such as eye-catching infographics, short video clips, and quick tips that can be shared on social media.
Link to Old Posts
A common sign of content decay is declining website traffic. This could mean that your audience is no longer interested in your content, or that other websites are better ranking for your keywords. In either case, it’s important to monitor your website traffic and engagement metrics using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, so you can identify any problem pages before they become a big issue.
In many cases, your existing content can be revived by adding new information that aligns with current trends, updating outdated statistics and data, or revising the content to improve its readability and appeal. It’s also a good idea to incorporate visual elements into your old posts, such as data visualizations or motion graphics, which can help break up walls of text and make your content more engaging for today’s multimedia-savvy audiences.
Another way to breathe new life into your aging content is by repurposing it into different formats, such as videos, podcasts, or social media content. This will allow you to reach a wider audience and engage with them in new ways that may be more relevant to their learning styles and content preferences.
Content decay is a very real problem that can have a negative impact on your SEO efforts and lead to lower search engine rankings, website traffic, and engagement metrics. Fortunately, there are several effective ways to combat it, including updates, rewrites, and repurposing. By implementing these strategies, you can ensure that your content is fresh and up-to-date, and that it continues to rank well in search engines.
Consolidate Old Posts
A common cause of content decay is when multiple posts on your website cover the same topic. This can make it difficult for search engines to determine which post is the best resource, leading to a decrease in visibility and rankings. To avoid this, consider consolidating your existing content into a single, comprehensive, authoritative resource. This may involve combining two or more existing blog posts on the same topic or merging text and multimedia resources into one page.
Even if your content is still relevant, it can become dated over time. This could be due to changes in your industry, new research findings, or updates to search engine algorithms. In this case, it’s important to update the content so that it remains relevant and useful to your audience.
Content decay can be a frustrating game of whack-a-mole, but staying proactive is the key to catching it before it becomes a serious problem. By monitoring several key metrics, such as decreased page views and reduced search engine rankings, you can identify when your content is decaying and take steps to prevent it. With the right strategy, you can keep your high-performing content performing at its peak.