Recycling content can be a great way of boosting your blog’s traffic.
Even though your posts have been written years ago, you can still make them interesting and relevant to the times.
While deleting them may seem logical because the content has become obsolete, there’s actually a way to turn them into valuable assets.
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How Old Posts Can Actually Boost Traffic
Some of your old posts may still be generating a lot of site visits until today.
Though the information may be outdated, you can encourage visitors to hang around by updating your content.
This is especially helpful for cyclical topics like economic booms or busts.
Any old post can become relatable once again; it would only take a few edits and some new information to make it reflective of the current times.
Additionally, making updates to old posts is generally more convenient than producing new content.
Providing New Perspectives to Old Posts
Using your blog’s tools or Google Analytics, examine which of your old posts are still garnering website visits until now.
You can revise its contents or write a new, more relevant version of it by providing up-to-date insights (e.g. sharing new things you learned about it over time).
This can be done by updating numbers (e.g. comparing today’s statistics to the old ones), giving new examples for the said topic, or revisiting the topic using new perspectives and formats (e.g. creating infographics, podcasts, videos, interviews etc.).
Building Internal Links
When you create a new post based on an old one, make sure that you provide a link to it on your new post. This will create a pingback that automatically links the updated post to the old post via the comments section.
These internal links can also help reduce bounce rates by engaging your readers through related topics. It’s easier to pique people’s interest for the topic when they see that you have more to say about it.
Taking Advantage of the “Related Posts” Section
Adding the “Related Posts” widget to your blog posts is a great way of showing your readers that you have more content to offer.
It can tell them how passionate you are about the topic at hand. Plus, if you have high quality content, you’d have no trouble converting them into loyal subscribers.
For those who are heading a multi-authored blog, you can make use of the “Related Posts” section by showing an author’s other posts. It will make it easier for your readers to browse through your content.
Updating Your Blog’s SEO
One way of freshening up old posts is by adding new relevant keywords. Because of the changing times, your topic may have new terms that weren’t in use when your post was first published.
You can also update your blog’s on-page optimization where needed. This includes your tags, categories, meta-description, etc.
Newer images may also make your content more enticing, especially to your subscribers. They may readily ignore the new version of your old post if you kept the same image simply because of its association to the old content.
Of course, some of your old posts may really be beyond saving. In this case, you may want to consider writing a new post that is still related to the old one. Before you delete it, however, 301 redirect your old post’s URL to the new post’s URL.
Make sure that you promote the updated version of your posts to your audience like they’re new content. Even if you have long-time subscribers, it will still be new to many of your readers.
Don’t hesitate to sift through your blog archives, even if it might be tedious. Cleaning them up once in a while can help you still benefit from old posts.
Make use of email marketing
In content marketing, you get to have control over your email list regardless of the age of your posts.
It is upon you to control what content you share with your readers, how you share it as well as when you share it.
You can, therefore, generate traffic to old posts by implementing email marketing.
To do this, start by including links in autoresponders. If you have been blogging for a while, you probably have an autoresponder set up for new email subscribers.
While the first email is supposed to welcome new subscribers, the second one informs them about the crucial things about your business and your blog.
Make sure that you include links to your old content in early autoresponder email. Since the first emails to subscribers have a big chance of high open rate, you should make the most out of them.
You can also make use of sales campaigns to link content. Some of the readers may not have gone through one of your old posts out of the lack of time.
They may also be new email subscribers. Before you make a pitch to a certain prospect, give them educational material from one of your old posts.
Share old content through social media regularly
One of the marketing strategies that every blogger should use to generate traffic is sharing their posts on social media platforms regularly.
If you don’t have a lot of new blog posts to share with your followers, you can share old blog posts.
Come up with a spreadsheet schedule to help you plan when it is appropriate for you to share old posts on a monthly or weekly basis.
This manual approach may waste time but gives you control over which old posts you would like to share with the public.
You can also use another approach using a tool such as Buffer.
It simplifies the consistency of content marketing by letting you schedule your social media blog posts in advance.
The tool makes sharing both new and old posts alike a quick process.
It also gives you control of the posts you are willing to share and makes it easy for you to spread the word across multiple networks.
Apart from using this tool, you can use WordPress Plugin such as evergreen Post Tweeter.
When you activate the plugin, it can share your old blog posts on twitter automatically.
You only need to set it up and let it do the sharing. The only problem with this is that you cannot manually select which exact old posts you would like to share.
Regulate your navigation areas
You should always have control of your navigation areas in your blog.
If your blog has sidebars, you can use this space to promote old blog posts and include links on them.
From the sidebar, it is easy for you to showcase most of your old content that captivates more readers and generates traffic.
Make sure you add the right posts that are both valuable and interesting. Some of your old pots could increase search engine optimization and engagement.
