How to Fix Outdated Content to Boost Your SEO Results

Updating your old content to Improve Your SEO Strategy needs a checklist you can follow while going through your old articles. This article offers a brief guide that will facilitate your to fix your content for better user engagement, improved traffic, and higher ranking. Google considers fresh content the utmost ranking factor, followed by link building. 

So, if your content is not up to the mark and targets outdated keywords, you will be ranked on SERP results. Make sure to fix your structure that might help you get featured in the featured snippet. Improve your content accuracy while updating the keywords. 

Until now, Google considers unique content the most prominent ranking factor in SEO terms. However, webmasters mainly observe a decline in page traffic, although the content is unique and user-oriented. If you have been following the Google Updates for the last couple of years, you might already know the reason for this decline. 

The first reason is that Google value fresh content much more than the older one. Because the keyword for which your article was top-ranked in SERP might not be a trending keyword and has low search volume. So, if you want to boost your site’s SEO, then updating and fixing outdated content should be your top priority. 

As we have been following this topic for some time and observed the analytics of those websites that have fixed their content, we have collected and mentioned the best practices for updating your older content and gaining more traffic.

1. Improve your Keywords Research

Your article won’t be ranked on those keywords that are outdated. So, it is high time to improve your keyword research and add new, trending and unique keywords to your old article. 

To do so, analyze your exact pages on various SEO tools like Moz, SEMrush, and Ahrefs. You can know the content gap on these sites to obtain high-volume keywords that your competitor uses in their article.

2. Reformat your headers

Google is now a user-oriented platform and pays more attention to the structure of your content. Make sure that the HTML headings like H1, H2, and H3, along with tags, make the correct structure that is easy to crawl for Google.

3. Simplify the content

Many SEO bloggers believe that adding fluffy and new words to their content will help them get a better ranking, but the reality is quite the opposite. Your content should be written to fulfill the needs of users. 

Your content should give them the information they might not find on your competitors’ pages. Articles with complex words, structure, and phrases will only increase your bounce rate, negatively affecting your ranking.

Google loves fresh content which will be highly beneficial for its users. At the end, Google will promote your content even its structure is incorrect if it is fulfilling the needs of its users. So, make sure that your content is accurate and aims to satisfy the needs of readers.  

4. Consider URL Cycling

URL cycling is a technique in which you update the quality of your content by adding fresh new content to it by 20-30 percent. In it, you add content in your previous old live article that was getting good traffic but now it is slipping the advantage it once had. 

You update the article under the old URL with the same Slug or Bread Crumbs. Make sure to add new keywords and infographics ranked high on the Google image console. This technique is highly beneficial for those articles backlinking to multiple unique sites.

5. Try updating your Call to Action (CTA)

If you are running an affiliate website and your conversion rate is declining with time, you should update your call for action as users are not precisely following the links you want them to follow.

You can hire a copywriter to provide content with better brand representation and an instant call to action. If you do not have a budget, try adding more action-driven words with an emotional connection. For instance, instead of writing ‘my’ or ‘I,’ you should use ‘your’ and ‘ours.’

6. Rewriting your Meta description

Google does not consider it as a prominent ranking factor but quality Meta descriptions do help in Click-through-rate (CTR). Meta description will help your readers understand the content of your website in 2 to 3 lines. 

Meta descriptions gives you a slight edge over your competitors as you are marketing your content is a way that it can be seen without reading it completely. 

Read More: Most Important Tips for Always Keeping Your Content Fresh

Summary

Many website owners and bloggers observe a decline in traffic to their top-tier articles, and the primary reason is outdated content. We all know that Google loves fresh content and will rank an article higher than the other based on the new information it is providing to its users. To revive those articles that were getting higher traffic, you must fix them to improve your SEO. 

This article has mentioned six tips that will instantly help you get traffic or have a better conversation rate. The first thing to do is to improve your keyword research by adding the high volume, low traffic keywords that your competitors miss. Second, you can reformat your header so that google can understand your content better. 

You can also simplify your content by removing additional information that is not directly related to your audience and decreasing its spam score. Likewise, it would be best to recycle your old URLs by adding 20-30 percent fresh content into them with new keywords. 

You can also hire a copywriter to write action-driven content for a better conversion rate on your affiliate sites. Then can also write precise meta-descriptions for you to improve your click-through rate. If you follow these steps, your website will significantly boost its SEO.