Creating content can be costly, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. So when it doesn't rank in the search results, it can be particularly frustrating. But my philosophy is this: why invest in expensive new content, when you can improve on what you already have?
Sometimes your existing content will already be ranking, and a few tweaks can move it up in the SERPs. Other times, your content will be solid, but it's just not ranking at all. In both of these cases, I recommend editing, supplementing, or revising the content to get it the traction and rankings it deserves. Especially if you feel the piece is valuable to your readers and you don't want them to miss something really important. This post will look at a 15 strategies that can improve your content and get it ranking (or re-ranking) in the search engines.
A word of warning: If you have a page that's already ranking well, you'll want to be very careful. While it can be tempting to want to move from the 3rd position to the 1st position in the search results, keep in mind that completely rewriting your content can leave you starting from scratch. Focus on supplementing and adding value to these pages, but think twice before removing large chunks of content.
1. Add and update links: When reviewing older content, be sure to check whether both internal and outbound links are still timely and live. Using a tool like Screaming Frog can help you automate this process. Make sure outbound links point to the most current and authoritative sources, and that internal links point to your newest or most valuable content on the topic.
Screaming Frog can help you find and repair broken links
2. Add or optimize images and/or videos: Adding or optimizing your visual content can make a huge difference in terms of views and social shares. In fact, according to this infographic, blog posts with images get 94% more views than those without. Make sure your images are high quality, but that they aren't so big they slow down the load time of your page. It's also important to optimize your images for search. Do this by using relevant keywords in your image file names, alt image text, and image captions.
3. Rewrite your title: If your current title leaves something to be desired, consider rewriting it. If the content is ranking fairly well, don't remove existing keywords from the title. You may, however, want to tweak the title to make it catchier, or to more accurately describe the topic of your content. Keep in mind that changing your title may also change the default URL of your page. Be sure to 301 redirect to the new URL to maintain any search rankings and traffic you had previously.
4. Restructure your URL: If a page uses a dynamic URL (e.g., www.yoursite.com/detail?id=2523), you may want to consider switching to a static URL (e.g., www.yoursite.com/nike-air-max-90). Using static URLs may result in higher click-through rates, as they do a better job of conveying the topic of your page. Use your keywords in your URLs, however, only if they actually make sense; if they don't make sense, you may need to rethink your content!
5. Add rich snippets: Adding rich snippets to your content can have a positive impact on click-through rates, traffic, and conversions. There are many different types of rich snippets you can use, including product, recipe, review, event, and app snippets. These increase the visibility of your page in the SERPs, and can help differentiate you from the competition.
The movie rich snippet schema
6. Add value: This is a pretty general suggestion, but here's what I mean: What value is this piece of content offering that similar pieces don't? Is your analysis more in depth, or does it contain unique insights into the topic? What can you add to give additional value to the piece? Using this simple strategy will often naturally cover a number of strategies I've pointed out. By adding value to a piece of content, you're more likely to rank for long-tail keywords; you're more likely to accumulate inbound links; and you're more likely to get social signals as your content gets shared.
7. Focus on long-tail keywords: If you wrote a piece of content back in the day, you may have chosen to target shorter, more competitive words or phrases. Given that more people are using natural language search queries (e.g., "Where is the nearest Italian restaurant"), adding more relevant and in-depth information is a must.
8. Work at building inbound links: If a piece of content is already ranking fairly well, getting one or two additional inbound links to that page can be just the ticket to really get it ranking well. Some strategies for building links to existing pages include getting it added to niche resource pages, or running product-specific promotions (for ecommerce sites.)
9. Check your readability level: Your readability level won't have a direct impact on search rankings; however, making sure your content matches the reading level of your audience will undoubtedly improve your user experience. Use a tool like Readability Score to make sure your content matches your target demographic.
Match your readability level to your target demographic
10. Re-promote on social media: Even if you change absolutely nothing about your content, re-promoting it on social media can spark new interest and increase rankings. As more people visit or revisit your content, new social signals are formed. Your content gets in front of more people, leading to new links and shares. All these actions increase the 'freshness factor' of your content, which ultimately can lead to increased rankings.
11. Use PPC ads to boost visibility: This is another example of how promoting a piece of content can indirectly influence rankings. While Google doesn't show preference to businesses who purchase ads, getting your content in front of more people can lead to increased links and shares.
12. Add helpful internal links: Proper internal linking is great for a number of reasons. First, it ensures search engine spiders have clear paths through your site. When you add links to your existing content, the search engines can more quickly and efficiently find and index your content. Second, proper internal linking provides your visitors with a clear and relevant path they can navigate through. Finally, internal links are an important part of an SEO-friendly site architecture; they help distribute 'link love' throughout your site.
13. Speed it up: If your content is top-notch but still isn't ranking the way you'd like, it's possible that the page is simply taking too long to load. Try plugging your URL into Google's PageSpeed Insights tool and fix any issues that may be slowing down your page or site.
14. Consolidate to one high-quality page: This is a fantastic tip from the folks over at Moz. Many sites will have a number of pages all covering the same topic. Maybe each page focuses on a slightly different aspect of the topic, but generally speaking, all pages are targeting a particular keyword or phrase. If you find yourself in this situation, consider consolidating all relevant material into one, high-quality piece. Then you can 301 redirect all pages to that one piece, consolidating all the ranking power and offering an overall better piece of content to your visitors.
15. Bulk it up: If you had content that was ranked in the past, but that fell off the radar after Google's Panda update, chances are your content was simply too "thin." Google defines thin content as content with little or no original content. Examples include autogenerated content, doorway pages, scraped content, and low-value affiliate content. You may also have short (<300 word) pages that were created solely to target a particular keyword, but that just don't offer any unique value or insights. In these cases, you have the choice to either trash your thin content or bulk it up with relevant, deep information. If the page is still receiving some search traffic, I recommend keeping it and building on it. Some ways you can do this are by adding valuable insights (see #11), quotes, useful internal and external links, and helpful supplementary content and images.
The Case For Deleting Old Content
While the strategies above work extremely well to get your old content ranking, is there ever a time or place to simply delete old content? Absolutely. Unfortunately, knowing when to do this can be a problem.
Even Google's own John Mueller waffled a bit when asked this question:
"This is, I guess, a tricky topic because to some extent, it makes sense to keep an old archive of things. But on the other hand, if you're looking at these old blog posts and you say these are really low quality posts, then it might be worth cleaning that up. But in general, our quality algorithms do look at a site overall so we try to look at everything across the site. And if there are parts that aren't really relevant, that are kind of older, and kind of there for a reason but not really the primary reason for your site, then that's something we try to take into account as well."
Some questions I ask myself when deciding whether to keep content are:
- Does this content offer anything unique that isn't offered anywhere else on my site?
- Is it receiving decent search rankings, or has it fallen completely out of the SERPs?
- Am I proud of this content, or would I be embarrassed if one of my colleagues or business associates read it?
- When people arrive onto the site from this page, are the bounce rates higher than my sitewide average?
Keep in mind that content isn't bad just because it's old. If an old piece of content is still ranking and is still useful for your visitors, there's absolutely no need to get rid of it. (After all, isn't this what evergreen content is all about?)
Sometimes, you'll have old content that's outdated and now irrelevant or even inaccurate. Moz uses the example of sports-related content: "The sports world changes so fast. There are different scores, different teams, rankings, standings. An old page is nearly useless. Unless you're updating that page every time there's new information, it's not that valuable. So I think those are exactly the kinds of places where you might consider some form of regularly updated series, new posts, new publications, or a single page that you're regularly updating."
In these instances, you still don't need to delete the content, especially if it's still ranking. Instead, consider linking or 301-redirecting to an updated post.
Final Thoughts
There's no question that Google shows a preference for fresh, updated content. But that doesn't mean you need to delete older content that still offers some value to your readers. Whenever possible, update your content in a way that offers value to your visitors and that tells Google exactly what your content is about. The strategies above will ensure you do both!
What would you add to this list? What strategies do you use to refresh your old content and get it ranking?
