How to Re-Optimize Your Digital Marketing Content

If you are seasoned digital marketer, you probably have a lot of content all over the web that’s vital to your web presence, advertising, SEO, and continued longevity. Having a vast content library is great, but some of the older content gets stale over time and could probably benefit from a refresh. With an industry that changes so quickly, content swiftly becomes obsolete, but many marketers don’t take the time to go back and review their legacy content. Most prefer to focus on fresh content instead. Others believe that going back and updating old posts is tedious and pointless. However, that’s simply not true — updating old content can help propel your digital marketing efforts even further.

Although producing fresh content is always important, popular search engines like Google also look favorably upon legacy content that is regularly updated. Keep reading to find out how you can take your outdated content and turn it into something fresh and exciting.

Why Refresh Your Online Content?

Aside from improving your ranking on the most popular search engines, updating your content has several benefits:

• Keep your calendar full: Digital marketers often struggle to come up with new ideas, especially when they are busy with other work. Refreshing old blog posts and other online content can help you avoid the proverbial writer’s block when it comes to creating something new.

• Increase SEO relevancy: Analyzing legacy content that initially performed well can be key in spinning new content. Updating keywords and links re-optimizes SEO.

• Raise credibility among existing and potential clients: When a person stumbles upon a website with outdated content, they undoubtedly begin to question the authority behind it — they may not even check to see if you’ve published content elsewhere more recently. Updating your older content regularly shows that you are paying attention and committed to keeping the information evergreen.

• Improve your keyword ranking easily: Keywords that were effective years ago may not be as effective today, so updating content may involve something as simple as swapping out less-effective keywords for more powerful ones to give your site a boost.

Update Old Blog Posts

Possibly the easiest way to refresh your content is to update outdated blog posts. Google, the world’s most popular search engine, views fresh content more favorably than older posts, so updating this content is essential if you want to boost your credibility.

If your website doesn’t have a blog, starting one and regularly updating it is another way to boost your ranking in search engine results. If your site already gets pretty good traffic, including a blog will undoubtedly boost your traffic even more and provide an influx of new visitors.

Aside from improving your search engine rankings, another good reason to update written blog content is the chance to improve. Many solopreneur digital marketers and very small firms write and edit their own content, and it’s not uncommon to run across an older post riddled with typos and other errors. Updating your blog content allows you to catch and correct those errors, which gives you better credibility with visitors. Grammar and spelling aren’t major contributors to SEO, but both can have a profound effect on how people view your brand.

Revamp Your Podcasts and Audio with Transcripts

Providing new forms of content is another way to increase your credibility on the web. Taking content that already exists and transforming it is a particularly easy and effective way to wring more value from something you already have. One of the best examples of this is the podcast. According to a study conducted by the Concordia University of Saint Paul, millions of people worldwide listen to podcasts regularly, and between 2013 and 2017, the number of people who listen to podcasts rose sharply from 12 percent to 24 percent. What do these numbers mean for digital marketers? If you don’t have a podcast, now is a great time to consider starting one. If you already have a podcast, it may be time to transform it.

Transcribing podcasts can greatly increase your brand’s reach. Of course, people love to listen to podcasts while at work, the gym, or in the car, but a lot of people also love the written word. Others are deaf or hard of hearing, or they only have a limited amount of time and would rather scan written content for the main points. Quite simply, transcribing a podcast provides another way for people to enjoy the content. Digital marketers can enlist the help of a professional transcriptionist, or even use digital transcription software to easily transform audio into written text. Once transcribed, your written podcast can be posted to a blog or even a dedicated website. If you want to go beyond a simple transcription, you can transform episode topics into accompanying blog posts with new information that enhances what was covered on the podcast. This text is yet another form of shareable content and another way for people to find your brand online.

Make It Easy on Yourself

Refreshing your content does not have to be that complicated. Start slow — commit to updating one blog post each week, for example. By following the tips outlined here, you can ensure that your legacy content gets the necessary updates and still focus on completely new content to increase your brand awareness.