This post was most recently updated on June 8th, 2023
[This article was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.]
![](https://i0.wp.com/merryofaugust.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/hanna-balan-GWfJiWroX1o-unsplash.jpg?resize=682%2C1024&ssl=1)
Managing and maintaining your old blog posts is very important for any online business with a blog. You know you need to update your old blog posts, but something is always more urgent. Whether you have to work, take care of your kids, buy some groceries, and so on.
For example, your mailing address, your wardrobe, and your hairstyle, every once in a while need to be updated. Things get outdated and irrelevant – it’s just the way of our constantly changing world.
Unfortunately, your blog posts are no exception. Luckily, just like how it’s easy enough to change your address, go shopping for new clothes, and get a brand new haircut, it’s also pretty easy to update your old blog posts.
In this article, I will talk about proper blog maintenance, which I do every weekend. I always make sure to include blog maintenance, such as checking on-page SEO, improving off-page SEO, perform technical SEO on my blogging schedule.
And doing so can help extend the life of your high-performing content and resources from creating content from scratch.
So, read on and learn all about how you execute the process of updating and republishing your old blog posts. Let’s get started!
Why updating old blog posts is important?
Sometimes it’s easy to forget about a blog post you wrote last month or even last year. For me, my article was a great post at the time but it’s had its day. So why bother updating it again?
The old stuff is buried deep in the depths of your blog and no one is going to see it, right?
You’re wrong.
Here are some important reasons why:
- Liability: your blog is a set of public statements by you or your business. Outdated information could actually expose you to legal or financial liability. For example, even though I published my blogging schedule in 2020, I still update some of the information regularly because some of the strategies need to be updated.
- Brand Image: If your audiences find outdated information on your site, they’re likely to see you as untrustworthy, and it is the worst way to build trust from your audiences.
- Bad for SEO: old blog posts that are irrelevant and outdated are useless and simply poor-quality content. As you know, search engines don’t like poor-quality content, and having it on your site may actually decrease your rankings.
When researching some stuff, I always stumble upon a blog post someone wrote months – even years ago that ranks well in search engines. As you know, one of the main benefits of blogging is the SEO value it provides. This is one of the biggest advantages of blogging – content continues to drive results in terms of traffic and leads over time.
But if the searcher doesn’t bother to check the date on that blog post, they might have no idea they’re reading outdated and perhaps inaccurate information. That’s why I always check the date before reading the post and make sure that the information is accurate.
Another reason is that not everyone who is reading your post now was reading your posts months and years ago. By updating some of your older yet high-performing evergreen posts, you can extend the life of your best blog content and continue to increase your blog traffic.
Evergreen refers to something that has continuous value and doesn’t rely on timeliness. For example, from my blog, almost all my content is evergreen topics, such as epic blogging schedules, how to optimize on-page SEO, etc.
It’s often much easier to update and republish an old post than to write a new post from scratch. I wouldn’t recommend you do this for every single of your publishing posts because you should still be publishing lots of new original content. But, this is a great way to save some valuable time off your content creation efforts while still maintaining a consistent publishing frequency.
How to choose which posts to update?
OK, let’s not be too rushed to delete your old blog posts or your entire blog. You may be concerned about all those old blog posts flying around on your blog and I have read on Facebook that a blogger wants to start fresh by deleting all of the posts.
Even though your old blog posts are outdated, they can be an asset you are failing to exploit. Here are some of the ways your old posts can be an asset to your blog biz:
- Traffic: if you have been blogging for years and promote your blog regularly, some of your old blog posts may have been widely shared, and have a lot of links from other websites. These posts might be key traffic drivers and could be even more so if they were updated.
- Value: updating old blog posts is easier and faster than creating new content. You can save time on your blogging by updating some of the old stuff. This is especially true if your blogging topics tend to be “evergreen” content rather than highly topical.
Okay, so now I’ve convinced you of the value of updating old blog posts. But how should you decide which posts are worth it to resurface? Here are some important variables to consider:
Check Top-Performing Posts
Now it’s time to go to your Google Analytics. Focus on posts that are backed by some good-looking metrics, such as:
- Traffic: which old blog posts are still generating a lot of traffic for you?
- Social shares: since social shares factor into search rankings, the number of shares is also a good indicator of a high-performing post.
- Keywords: are there certain keywords you’re trying to rank better on search engines? Use a keyword like Ubersuggest or Google Analytics to identify keyword ranking opportunities.
Your old blog posts with the highest amount of impressions and CTR are most likely the ones you’ll want to consider updating, while the ones with the lowest impressions and CTR are the ones you’ll want to double-check to make sure they aren’t missing any of the SEO fundamentals.
Check Content That Relevant and Trending Topics
Depending on your content strategy and marketing goals, updating content for the sake of these two variables may actually trump a metrics-driven approach from time to time. For instance, I found that my post about blog traffic received many loves and shares from my audiences.
While I already published a post about this topic, it had become a little outdated. Rather than create a new post from scratch, I decided to update the original post. I also consider creating more new content about it.
So, old blog posts are bad, but they can also be beneficial. How? Here’s what you can do. You want to improve every blog post by updating it. Some of your old blog posts may simply need a quick update to make them fresh and up to date again.
![fresh old blog posts](https://i0.wp.com/merryofaugust.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/fresh-old-blog-posts.png?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1)
Best practices for updating old blog posts
Update To Make It Relevant
- Delete or edit or update references to ‘current’ culture and trends, this includes memes that keep your content from being evergreen.
- Update screenshots if things have changed. This is particularly important for step-by-step guides, how-to guides, etc.
- Clean up time-based references that you write to the post, e.g. ‘it’ been a week since…’ etc.
- Edit the same article rather than publish it. Don’t change the post’s URL.
- If you want to update the post’s title, try to avoid changing it drastically from the original. Do your best to keep your keywords in there.
- Consider adding a note at the top of the post to note the update, here is how to do it:
To display your post’s last modified time at the top of your post, you’ll need to add a short code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file. Remember: you should always use a child theme to make these additions.
Go to Appearance → Editor and select the functions.php file for your child theme. Then, just paste this code snippet:
function display_last_updated_date( $content ) {
$original_time = get_the_time(‘U’);
$modified_time = get_the_modified_time(‘U’);
if ($modified_time >= $original_time + 86400) {
$updated_time = get_the_modified_time(‘h:i a’);
$updated_day = get_the_modified_time(‘F jS, Y’);
$modified_content .= ‘
This post was last updated on ‘. $updated_day . ‘ at ‘. $updated_time .”;
}
$modified_content .= $content;
return $modified_content;
}
add_filter( ‘the_content’, ‘display_last_updated_date’ );
![](https://i0.wp.com/merryofaugust.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/how-to-add-last-updated-on-wordpress.webp?resize=1024%2C393&ssl=1)
If you want to change your last modified message, you can edit the text in the code snippet. Just make sure to only change the text – don’t remove any apostrophes or quotation marks.
Pay Attention to the SEO
- Update on-page optimization where applicable (meta-description, image alt tags, etc.).
- Update or add new relevant keywords. There may be new phrases or terms that are relevant to your content that was not in use when you first posted.
- Long-form blog content always ranks better, but every word you add needs to bring value to your audiences.
- Remove broken links and add new ones to current sources or your own posts. Luckily, fixing links can be easy if you use tools like Broken Link Checker or the Check My Links Chrome extension to locate links on your website that no longer work.
- Consider adding new images to update the visual appeals. The best way is to add quality photos that make your content stand out from your competitor.
Build Your Blog for the Long Term
- Emphasize “evergreen” content: focus on key aspects of your subject matter.
- Emphasize absolute references over relative ones. For example, say “May 2019” instead of “May of last year”, or “back in 2018” instead of “two years ago”.
- Make sure your page speed is fast, which is why you need to check yours with tools like PageSpeed Insights. You increase your posts’ load times by compressing your image files and making sure your website’s theme is optimized for mobile and desktops.
Create a Content Review
- Do regular weekly, monthly, or quarterly reviews to evaluate all old blog posts.
- Check your Google Analytics for high and low page view performers among your blogs. Check old blogs that are being frequently viewed for a possible refresh or repost.
- Identify all links that point to your old posts and evaluate the links for quality and relevance. You’ll want to conserve posts with valuable backlinks. You’ll need to use a good backlink checker to find these, but it’s very important to keep old posts with good links. ALWAYS try to recycle them and don’t delete them!
- Only delete posts that are irretrievably wrong, outdated, and damaging to your brand.
In the blogging world, proper blog maintenance is an important part of having a blog and is something that you must invest your time in. You can do this when you’re not creating new content for your blog!
Remember that the best blog will always have a balance between good SEO and solid content. The success of your blog also depends on the balance between creating new posts and updating old ones.
Have you updated your old blog posts? What’s the hardest obstacle when updating or republishing your old stuff? Please share your thoughts below!
![fresh old blog posts 2023](https://i0.wp.com/merryofaugust.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/fresh-old-blog-posts-2023.png?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1)
Nice post. I just saved it so I can go back to it later. I’d definitely try refreshing old posts.
Thank you, lovely❤
I’m currently going through all my old blogging tips posts and updating them for SEO and keywords etc. It’s so boring but got to be done! Great tips 🙂
I have a decent amount of outdated posts, so your post will definitely come in handy when I’m updating them!
This has been very informative! I will try to update some of my old posts when I got a lot of free time. One step at a time. Thank you for sharing this guide.
You’re right! You can do it step by step, it works really well for me 🙂 Good luck! Thank you for reading xxx
Totally loved this post! I make it a habit to do monthly editing for my older posts, and even if sometimes it’s exhausting, I still try to accomplish it so that my website’s SEO will get better. Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you for reading, Elle! I always try to edit and update 2-3 posts every weekend and I love it so much! Good luck for you xxx
Great advice! I’m definitely going to do this with my blog, even though it’s just a year old.
All the best from South Africa, Michelle (michellesclutterbox.com)
Thank you for stopping by, Michelle! xxx
I use Neil Patel a lot and he swears by this too. Your article is up there with his. I will be purposely carving out some time in my planning so I can go back over my stories and update them. I actually enjoy the keyword research anyway. Thanks for the push.
Wow! Thanks a lot! Because of you I just knew that this article is ranked on the 1st page of google search <3 You can add this 'update old blog posts' on your planner, I pick 2-3 posts to update when I'm not creating one 🙂
These are some really helpful tips. I need to go back through and start updating my old posts.
This is such a helpful post! Going through my old blogs is something I’ve been meaning to do for ages xx
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk
You can do it, girl! Thank you for reading x
A really useful post and one which I will keep in mind when I’m transferring my posts from Blogger to Wix! Some of my older posts are ones which people have been searching for so may well be worth bringing over.
I may not know much about SEO but I’m learning! Xo
That’s awesome, Sarah! I’m learning as well 😀 Thank you x
Such an important post! I’ve slowly been going through and updating old blog posts or deleting and redirecting as there are so many – great tips x
These are all great tips and will come really handy, currently looking through old posts and updating them, so there couldn’t be better timing! Thanks for sharing x
I find old post improvements a bit boring, but I know that it can be great for SEO and I want to make my blog as stream-lined as possible! Thank you for sharing this guide, I will bookmark this for later x
I appreciate people who care enough about their writing to go back and update screenshots! It is tiresome to find a good guide, only to discover the visual step-by-steps are from two years ago.
Thanks for sharing some great ways to keep old content fresh and useful!
I’m in the process of going through all my old blog posts and updating them to be in line with my current layout and with all the SEO stuff I’ve learnt! But thanks for a few extra gems of tips here!
Katie | katieemmabeauty.com
Love this guide, Merry! Now that it has been a year since I launched my current blog, I need to start updating old blog posts more often and seriously. I’m definitely going to come back to this when I sit down to update.
It is an informative piece. I wonder how I can maintain my poetry Blog. The content cannot be changed. Unless there is something to add on a poem. Broken links is an issue I noticed. Google didn’t index quite a few posts recently. I am reviving the blog.
Great post! I’m coming back from a 9-month hiatus so I definitely need to do some updating!
I have updated some of my old blog posts. For a fitness and health blog, its even more important to check and post updated medical research links. I find updating photos very refreshing for a blog. Thanks for sharing a helpful post, Merry.
Its amazing post. I was not concerned about it but from now I will definitely update my old posts regularly. Thanks for sharing.
This is a really interesting post, I will save it and use it when I’m looking through old posts of mine.
Such a useful post, packed full of information. I’ve updated a few posts on my blogs, but still have lots more work to do on it. Feel motivated now!
Thanks for sharing, I am currently updating my blog posts adding alt text to images, getting rid of broken links making new Pinterest images for posts that don’t have them, and updating posts with the new designs. Hopefully it will make my blog better 🙂