Which is MORE rewarding in an SEO strategy: Content refreshing or creating new content?
It depends! That’s the familiar response from SEOs.
At the same time, it’s common for SEOs to recommend refreshing old content at least every 6 months. This shows that there’s a value or hidden gem in this process. A blogging report shows that updating old content could yield strong results in more than double folds. This also agrees with my recent LinkedIn survey, asking SEOs and content writers about the above question. Please see the result below👇
Now, to the big question: When you need to refresh website content, how do you go about it to get the best result?
In this article, we’ll look at important questions during content refreshing, real-life results from SEO experts who considered these questions in their approach, and actionable tips to get you started.
While it’s a good SEO practice to aim to re-optimize/refresh once-performing content, it’s critical to understand and define which SEO outcomes you’re targeting. It could be ranking improvement, engagement, conversion, broken links, loss of backlinks, etc.
A clearly defined goal will shape your optimization strategy with a more nuanced approach - such that you may not have to follow the regular best practices to refresh content. This will also direct you into analyzing the right performance metrics.
Ekokotu Emmanuel, the CMO of Blockchain-Ads, talked about how he doubled the impression and clicks of a money page after content refreshing. According to him, drop in clicks and leads informed his need to investigate the root cause of the issue and refresh the content.
With Emmanuel's example and different business situations, optimization goal can differ and that's why it's important to specify metrics that matter to a business. It could be traffic, clicks, sign-ups, and consultation requests. For example, if a blogger whose income is based on ad placement noticed a drop in page sessions, this may be the time to investigate further and work towards refreshing the page.
Also, a consultancy business that experiences a reduction in conversion, such as sign-ups or booking on their key page.
How Has the Competitive Landscape for This Keyword Changed in the SERP?
The SERP speaks volumes, as many SEOs believe. Reviewing the SERP can unfold competitors' performance, Google’s latest preference concerning keywords, performing featured snippets, and other optimization tips. According to Emmanuel, in one of his posts about content refresh, keyword meanings change, especially during core updates, to the point that what you consider the meaning of a keyword may change.
As you review the SERP, you will see which website is performing well for your aimed keyword - competitor analysis. Checking out competitors is one of the fastest ways to uncover content performance gaps. This way, you’ll be able to understand why Google has decided to show a competitor’s content at the top rather than yours, helping you uncover new ideas to make your content more relevant.
Note any changes in keyword usage, the content messaging, article length, or structure, and modify the content accordingly. Then if there’s a gap that’s worthwhile to be covered in your piece, do it. That’s exactly what Emmanuel did during one of his content refreshing.
He says,
On the live SERP, my article was at Position 2 for a keyword, generating around 500 clicks per month. Then, I noticed that our leads and clicks dropped. Looking at the live SERP, I observed that our competitors recently updated their content, which directly resulted in them pushing us down to 6th position. My main strategy was directly comparing the competitors' content with ours to figure out what we could do to improve a seemingly over-flogged topic.
I noticed from my competitor analysis that everyone listed the top 10, but no one explained HOW they came about the top 10 ranking.
And so, I decided to do the following:
And the result was improved rankings to Position 1, doubled clicks and impressions with featured snippet from the table included in the intro.
If you prefer an automated approach to reviewing the SERPs to update your content accordingly, RivalFlow by SpyFu may be a good option to consider.
RivalFlow content optimization AI can automate the process by crawling the SERP and analyzing your most relevant competitors to identify any gaps in the new SERP landscape. Then, it makes appropriate suggestions, as shown in the screenshot below.
RivalFlow Content Optimization Interface
Visuals are vital in impacting user engagement and rankings in search features. Some topics require visual demonstration to improve users’ experience on the page. I remember visiting a web page for a topic about “teaching your baby sign language,” and I couldn’t find any GIF or image to help me understand what each gesture should look like. While I was interested in the sign language, I was more keen to see images that support or explain the topic further to help me visualize the process.
My response was simple and fast: I left the page and visited another web page and YouTube. Similar experiences like this could frustrate site visitors, leading to low time spent on a page, poor engagement, and high bounce rates.
So, during the content refresh process, understand how visuals have been correctly used on the page. If the page has done this well, how are they optimized?
Another common issue with effectively using visuals and media on a page is optimization. During content refreshes, it’s important to review the page’s visuals for optimization practices such as
On-page visual optimization boosts your chance of ranking in visual searches on Google, such as Images and Videos. These are worthy places to get website traffic from. This optimization may strengthen the media/image’s visibility among the 12 billion visual searches people use Lens for a month.
Caption: Possible traffic-worthy places to optimize the topic, “Teaching your baby sign language.”
Finally, you may consider adding new visual elements like infographics or videos to boost engagement if your best judgment agrees that including a video or image can add more context to the image.
Accurate, relevant, and updated information is important in attracting site visitors as it increases a page's authority on a topic and improves site visitor’s trust in a page/brand. For example, a page on software reviews needs continuous updates to maintain relevance. A good example is reading about a product review published two to three years ago. Readers won’t spend more than 1-2 seconds on the page because they already perceive the content is outdated and won’t satisfy their query intent.
Verify data sources and replace outdated statistics or references with the most recent ones. Use reliable sources that reflect the latest industry trends. While gathering relevant updated data to boost the credibility of an old piece may not always be feasible, consider Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. You could link to an authoritative source or an expert experience of the topic.
Internal links and external links are evergreen SEO fundamentals that can move needles. Internal linking, particularly, helps strengthen how Google perceives the relationship between different pages on your site and improves crawlability. (Yes, technical SEO: that’s the power of a holistic SEO process)
Sodiq Ajala, Technical SEO Analyst at QSACC, says
Linking helps a Lot. When pages aren't doing well. One of our approaches is to do an internal linking audit. It's very arduous, but there hasn't been any time we have done it, and we don't see an uptick in the rankings of those pages.
For this content refreshing exercise, we’ll consider linking from all angles, both internal and external. Internal linking improves topical authority, and external links build trust and credibility.
Audit your internal links to ensure they direct users to relevant, updated content. Confirm all internal links on the page are not broken, and if so, make relevant recommendations to ensure user experience isn’t jeopardized. Check out new internal link opportunities (both within the page and other pages on your website from which you can link this page, especially those within its content strategy effort.)
One of the manual approaches I leverage to link within and out of a page semantically is using the search operator to find opportunities. It’s important to understand the keywords the page ranks for, and you can vary them as well. Then, use the search operator. For example, site:https://www.rivalflow.com/blog/ "content optimization tools"
Caption: Using the search operator for RivalFlow’s blog shows me blog pages where “content optimization tool” is mentioned. Then, I can review them to see which ones to link to the SEO content optimization tool page.
Finally, look for high-authority external sites to link to for added credibility.
Expert Tips: Try to make internal links the first link on your page, and avoid a high ratio of external links to internal links. Also, avoid misleading anchor text and too short/not descriptive. - Sodiq Ajala
Search engine optimization is for users. A good user experience (fast loading, clear navigation) improves engagement and rankings. Therefore, your content refreshing process needs to uncover the existing user experience to understand how to improve it to the most outstanding level. Content refreshing is a means to an end, and it’s important to think from the end user's perspective. Today, with the help of SEO tools like PageSpeed Insights, Microsoft Clarity, and others, you don’t need to go through the thinking process alone.
When investigating, check for content readability, engagement with the audience's pain point, use of short sentences, paragraphs, table of contents, and quick access to the right information.
Also, check the page speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights, ensure mobile responsiveness, and simplify navigation where needed. Improving readability by breaking up text with headers and visuals can also help.
Jessica Martinez, an Associate Director of SEO at Mad Fish Digital, shared her experience aligning user experience with SEO best practices and outcomes.
For one of my clients in the electronics recycling industry, with a focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR), most of his site's pages had long-form content with call-to-action buttons placed far down the page. On mobile, this made it difficult for users to quickly reach the desired action. As part of a broader strategy, we restructured the content by adding bolded text, shortening paragraphs, incorporating visually appealing elements, and, most importantly, moving the call-to-action buttons higher up on the page. Within just a month, we saw significant improvements in keyword rankings, overall impressions, and triple-digit growth in conversion metrics. - Jessica Martinez
Here’s another awesome read about how understanding user experience can spur quick wins and save time.
Expert Tips:
It’s very common to overlook a page’s metadata during refreshes. This is mostly because we may assume the page would have been updated since it was first published. Therefore, undermining such golden details as on-page elements could be costly. Review on-page elements such as the heading hierarchy, meta descriptions, alt text, title tag, and subheadings to ensure they align with the keyword.
Nafisah Mayun, an SEO specialist and co-founder at Shamahnet, shared a success story of when she did what everyone would consider basic steps moved the needle.
There’s a time a client's pages were ranking on page 2 and some on page 1 but well below the page. So I looked at the competitors' pages ranking 1-5 and realized there wasn’t much I could do. So I edited meta descriptions for our client to include the target KW, added media element (video to be specific) and added alt text on the existing images, did internal linking, etc. I also arranged the order of content like moving some h2s from below the page to the top, those I felt the audience would want to see first, and took out some h2s altogether. After 2-3 weeks, I found out the page ranking improved and moved to the first 2 positions on page 1.
Search intent may change as human behavior isn’t static, and content must adapt to these shifts for the best results. Therefore, content refreshing processes need to align with the evolving search intent. Although determining why can be arduous, it is worth it in the long run. Re-evaluate the target keyword’s current search intent using tools like Google Trends or Ahrefs. Then, update the content to match user needs (e.g., information-driven, transactional).
While there is no one way to achieve this process, it’s important not to neglect it. Katie McDonald. Senior SEO Specialist at Sherbet Donkey Media shared her experience refreshing a page to align with search intent.
I researched pages for garden gyms and garden offices and originally I was sure people wanted to see inside the end product (because that’s what ranked) so I made sure the new pages included images where you could see it was a gym inside. We started slowly ranking, but it slowed down, so I watched Clarity videos of people landing on these pages to see what they want to do next and what problems they faced to see how I could resolve them.
After 5 videos, most people clicked onto the main buildings page or to view the products and looked at those. It was also very clear that there were page loading issues with content jumping around, sometimes product images taking too long, or the entire page is too slow and people leave. So I’m now 1, adapting that page to focus on product intent, and 2, I’m speaking to our developer to make the page less clunky for people on load, and ensure the products load quickly enough. No extra content. No links. No keyword tweaks. The strategy is crystal clear. - Katie McDonald
Expert Tips:
This is where you ask if you’ve wholesomely covered the topic comprehensively. Do you think the target audience for the topic will feel fully satisfied after leaving the page? Once you find a gap, integrate latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords and ensure the content addresses users' most current questions. You may consider using tools like AlsoAsked, AnswerThePublic, or even exploring Google’s “People Also Ask.” Incorporate them naturally into headings, subheadings, and body text.
One thing to always remember during content refreshing is that content refresh is a prime opportunity to target new keywords, especially long-tail ones, to capture more traffic.
Irene Cecotti, an SEO Senior Specialist at Seocom Agency, shared her process for targeting new keywords without going out of context:
Expert Tip:
Think of the newly refreshed content as a renovated house. When you renovate, you upgrade the essentials, repaint the walls, and maybe add a new room or two. Once it’s refreshed, you don’t just admire it quietly; you show it off! You may likely invite friends over, take pictures, and share them online to let everyone see the transformation.
Similarly, when you refresh your content, it’s not just about updating it—it’s about repurposing and promoting it so your audience can see its renewed value. A fresh coat of paint (your content) deserves to be showcased.
This approach will help you continuously engage your audience as you show up for them wherever they hang out.
According to Chima Mmeje,
Multi-formatted content allows us to show up everywhere with the same content but in different formats so we provide content the way different folks like to consume. It's a great way to repurpose and get as much traffic as possible from content.
Content refreshing is a goldmine and will always be an effective SEO tactic. As you develop new content in your SEO process, don’t leave out updating old/existing content, starting with a thorough content audit to help you identify places for quick wins.
Why not question your way to refresh old website content today? Or would you prefer an automated workflow for your content refresh? Try out RivalFlow AI today.
