When 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Over time, however, it is common to find repetitive, outdated articles. 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, often 1,500-2,000. My other blogs, which are more resource- and 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 have passed, are you expected to go back and re-review, update, or remove it? Yep.
Have you ever landed on a website or blog only to discover a shallow article of no value or one that is outdated? What about articles with no personality, as if they were generated by AI?
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. Plus, Google has a “helpful content” update that hopes to let the truly helpful content rise to the top. That’s what sort of happened, until AI. Now folks rarely click through to your website.
In my experience, many site owners struggle to write high-quality posts. They resort to writing for search engines, not for people.
Well, time to totally abandon that and write to help your target market — and let the chips fall where they may. If creating posts crafted to engage site visitors and offer value were so easy, everyone would do it.
Content is The Heart of Every Website
Want a successful website and blog? Then, you have to offer compelling content. Not just any content — great content! Not AI-created blah-blah-blah for the sake of blah-blah-blah. That won’t fool anyone — most importantly, site visitors who are looking to you to be the helpful expert.
Then, keep that content coming and up to snuff.
That’s why it is sometimes challenging to ditch content that may have been good at one time. Or content that your stats still surprisingly show receives 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 Content that is outdated but still getting a little traffic is most likely not converting anyway, and does not bode well for your website’s overall impression.
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, more current article that aligns with the one being retired, a 301 redirect can do its job. And, yes, there’s a plugin for that. I use the free Redirection plugin.
If you plan to create a new article to replace the outdated one, keep the old URL in place until you publish the new article. 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 send folks to an article that doesn’t closely match the deleted article’s 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 that captures and guides your site visitors when what they seek is no longer available helps 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 analytics show that it’s still generating a decent level of interest. There are many ways to recycle your older content so it keeps 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 moving toward courses, memberships, downloads, and eBooks can 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.
