An SEO Tactic No One Teaches: Optimising Existing Content

When we think about optimising our content’s SEO marketing value, the first thing we would think about is generating new content. While it is technically not wrong to think of it this way, you would want the overall website’s quality to be high, and not just the newly crafted pages and contents now and in the future.

Hence, time and resources should be dedicated to looking through current content and updating them accordingly. All this should be done concurrently with the generating of new SEO-optimised content.

Without further ado, here is why optimising existing content should be an SEO tactic you should adopt as soon as possible.

Websites do not build value instantly

Your website’s contents do not lose their effectiveness gradually – it can stay relevant for a long time. Content that has been on the internet for a while has garnered sufficient visibility and built-up quality backlinks that provide high SEO value, resulting in the content still showing up in related search results. This means that older contents are still relevant and can be considered high-quality SEO factors.

Freshness is not the critical factor when it comes to page quality. “Stale” or old content can still provide high page quality. With a bit of updating of information and optimising of current keywords, the content can be brought back to “page 1” of the search results.

Google’s opinion

Google’s search quality rating guideline indicates that the common reason for low search quality rating is due to the lack of maintenance of existing content or old content that has been “abandoned” or “forgotten”.

Firstly, unmaintained or old content may be considered by Google as low quality. This statement is especially true for money-making pages. Secondly, old content that lacks updated information might be regarded as inaccurate. As such, it is considered low quality. Hence, depending on the subject matter, you might want to update them to ensure up-to-date information constantly. Google generally finds a good balance between existing and fresh content, making it vital for businesses to value both areas of content to ensure optimal SEO results.

So, what can you do now?

On top of generating fresh content for your website, a content audit is key to helping you prioritise refreshing existing pages and content. A content audit allows you to identify “underperforming” or “weak” content so that you can optimise it accordingly. Using tools such as Google Analytics, you are able to generate all relevant data to help you understand your website. Once you have gotten the necessary information, break down the pages of your website into three categories:

• Has the highest rankings and most traffic (Page 1 of Google’s search results)
• Has the potential to grow in terms of ranking and traffic (Page 2 of Google’s search results)
• Lacks in performance and does not appear in the first two pages of Google’s search results

With this essential step, you can then focus on optimising the content in the initial two categories. For the last category, you might need to conduct a total revamp of content that includes optimising, a 301 redirection of a link to a more current page, as well as re-generation of content.

Final Thoughts

Growing in SEO value takes time through links and visibility. And as you put adequate and consistent resources and time into the work you do, you can be sure to see your effort pay off in terms of lead generation and revenue. However, rather than focusing on just fresh and new content solely, it is equally as essential to maintaining another aspect of your webpage throughout its entire lifecycle. Hence to ensure the strengthening of your SEO programme, it is recommended to spend half the content-driven time generating fresh content and the other half refreshing and optimising the old. For as much new content you are generating, always find a way to relate and link it back to your existing content.

Whether you are planning to create new content or beef up old content – Impossible Marketing can easily help with both. Get in touch with us today to boost both your content and SEO with award-winning SEO packages. Our services are also not limited to SEO –  discover other digital marketing solutions to help your business soar into the sky like never before. So, if you’re keen on doing digital marketing – simply contact us and we’ll work out the ideal strategy for your business!