How To Refresh Existing Content
As a writer, I spend as much time creating new content as I do reworking someone else's.
Repurposing and refreshing content is often more effective than starting from scratch.
More often than not, existing content is fine. But that's it; it's okay. It's not bad, just a little dull and boring. But that doesn't mean you need to throw everything away and start again from scratch. I usually find that reworking and refreshing existing content is enough to recapture your audience.
Here are my top tips to refresh existing content:
Be specific
Perhaps the most common issue in stale content is that it's very generic. Whatever your content is about, you have something to say. Content that doesn't say much, doesn't take a stance, and doesn't go into detail is easy to skip.
Even if your content is simply about facts and communicating information, you need to be clear and strong. No one wants to read something, get to the end, and learn nothing and feel nothing.
Reread your content, find sentences that don't really say anything, and delete them. Then reread the same section and work out what's missing. Do you need to add an opinion, fact, or statistic? Would it be appropriate to ask a rhetorical question?
Add more images
Content without images, graphics, graphs or any visual element is boring. No matter how many paragraphs, subheadings and breaks you add, you can't hide the fact it's just text.
Adding more visual elements stimulates the brain to be more engaged. Readers can take a note of a photo or study a graph helping keep them focused and tricking them into thinking your content is better.
If you don't want to add images but graphs and charts aren't appropriate, try singling out important phrases and add hero text boxes. Pick an on-brand colour and make key points stand out. Use this as an opportunity to add colour and make a striking visual change. It's an easy way to refresh content without even touching the words.
Refreshing your content with new keywords and updated facts and stats can really drive numbers and boost your ranking.
Recheck the facts
A lot can change in a very short time, so even if you only wrote the content two months ago, recheck every statistic, fact, number date and piece of data. If anything is outdated, no longer applies or has changed, you need to update your content to reflect this.
A reader noticing just one piece of out-of-date info may well skip the rest and assume your entire text is factually inaccurate.
If you find something out of date, read the surrounding text to ensure that any conclusions or statements still hold true now that the data has changed. You might find yourself having to edit an entire section to reflect a new fact.
Do some housekeeping
Refreshing old content can actually be more about hitting the right checkboxes than rewriting large chunks of it. I call this housekeeping.
For SEO purposes, you need to go back through your post and refresh everything in the same way you spring clean your house. Here are the best quick fixes:
Change the date: Republish your content with today's date, so it's current and draws in new eyes
Check links: Everyone is always refreshing content so check that any links you have still work and still go to the page you want them to go to. Old links will drag your content down in Google rankings.
Update Keywords: Keywords are constantly changing slightly or being phrased differently. Go through your content and make sure that keywords are still relevant and ranking highly. You might find that just a few changes or a different word here or there make a big difference.
Improve the descriptions: From captions to meta descriptions to snippets, updating the behind-the-scenes stuff makes a big difference. Again, check what keywords you need to include and give a once over to boost your score.
Consider reformatting
Sometimes, the best way to refresh content and improve its performance is to change the format. For example, a long, boring paragraph describing actions could be turned into a step-by-step list or bullet points.
Break up a long section of text by adding a timeline, an audio file or an image with a caption. Especially if you are hoping to boost your SEO, adding image captions, tables, videos, and other formatted content can really help drive traffic to your page. Not to mention it's great to keep readers interested and make sure all your content is valuable.
Writer’s don’t mind editing other people’s work. We can help give your content a boost without changing everything.
If all else fails….
If you've done all of the steps above and you still aren't happy with your content, just ask me. Aside from being a shameless plug for my services, it's also a genuine piece of advice.
Many people are afraid to hire writers to edit and refresh content. For some reason, they think it's a waster of time or money, but in reality, paying a writer to refresh what you have can save your money and time.
Writers often work with others' content, and we have great respect for what someone else has written. If you need help editing and updating, you can always ask a writer. We don't mind, and it isn't an insult.