How to Repurpose Old Blog Content (or Not)
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If you’ve had a blog for a long time, you most likely have published numerous articles. You get an idea, start writing, and add a new post. Rinse and repeat.
Over time, however, it is common to find repetitive, similar articles that are no longer applicable. But then, there are those articles that are evergreen. Evergreen means they are timeless and still on point.
Time for a Content Audit
When I write a good post, it tends to be around 800-1,000 words, quite often 1500-2000. My other blogs, which are more resource-tip-oriented, are 500-800 words. Add it all up, and that’s a lot of words—and effort.
The longer posts take a couple of days to a week to complete. Then, after all that hard work and time has passed, you are expected to go back and re-review, update, or remove? Yep.
Have you ever landed at a website or blog only to discover a shallow article of no value or that is outdated? What about articles with no personality, as if they were generated by software?
Writing and Repurposing Articles is Time Consuming Hard Work
To do well, that is. (That’s why I use Grammarly on all my websites.*)
I bet you don’t bookmark or return to the sites that disappoint you. Google recently announced a new “helpful content” update this month that hopes to let the truly helpful content rise to the top.
In my experience, many site owners struggle with writing quality posts. They resort to writing for search engines to get rankings—not people. If creating posts crafted to engage site visitors and offer value were so easy, everyone would do it.
Then, add the thought of repurposing or rewriting articles, which is right up there with cleaning the gutters. But everyone wants a blog. And if you don’t want one you should really rethink why you should have a blog.
Content is The Heart of Every Website
Want a successful blog? Then, you have to offer compelling content. Not just any content — great content! And keep that content coming and up to snuff.
Some outsource to ghostwriters. However, that rarely reflects the personality, passion, and actual knowledge the site owner wants to portray or offer.
The good news is that you already know how to write. You just have to be committed to honing your skills. If I add up all the hours I write for my various blogs, I can’t help but wonder how I get anything else done. That’s why having a scheduling app, and the discipline to stick to it make all the difference.
Then, add more time to update and repurpose. With all that time and effort spent on writing, you want maximum ROI. But only great content will accomplish that.
That’s why it is sometimes challenging to ditch what may have been good content at one time. Or content that your stats show still surprisingly receives little traffic. This is where content updating and repurposing come in.
Keep in mind that not all content is worth recycling. Content that is outdated but still getting a little traffic most likely is not converting anyway and does not bode well for the overall impression of your website.
When to Repurpose or Ditch Your Blog Content
If the content is not worth keeping or reviving or gets little to no traffic, it is best to delete it. When a post serves no value for you or your site visitors, there is no harm in deleting it.
But…
Before you delete…
Before deleting willy-nilly, ask yourself a couple of questions first.
If you answered yes to either question, you want to implement a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect tells your server to permanently redirect one URL (the old, outdated article) to a similar or new article on that topic.
When you have a similar article that is more current or that falls in line with the article being retired, here is where a 301 redirect can do its thing. And, yes, there’s a plugin for that. I use the free Redirection plugin.
If you plan to create a fresh article to replace that outdated one, keep the old URL in place until you make the new article live. Then, create a 301 redirect. This effort tells search engines where the new version is located and keeps any links to the old articles that are “out there,” redirecting to the new helpful information visitors seek.
When you redirect, you don’t want to redirect folks to an article that doesn’t strongly correlate with the deleted article topic just for the sake of redirecting. Think about what the old article’s original purpose served. We don’t want to create a frustrating user experience.
When you have nothing worth redirecting to after you delete that article, your site visitors will receive a 404 — Page Not Found error — or page. So, having a custom 404 page to capture and guide your site visitors when what they seek is no longer available helps to create a better user experience.
Giving Content a New Life
Let’s say you have a bunch of older content on your site, and your statistical data reflects that a decent level of interest is still being generated. There are many ways to recycle your older content to keep it producing for you.
Can you see the potential and possibilities? Great content can continue to be produced for you in other formats. You might even find that going in the direction of courses, memberships, downloads, and eBooks will create an entirely new revenue stream.
You’ll never know if you don’t try. Now get rewriting, repurposing, and redirecting!
At your service,
*Some of the links on this page are to companies with which I have a professional affiliation.
Read my complete affiliate statement here.
