#ContentWritingChat Recap: Spring Cleaning for Your Content
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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Spring Cleaning for Your Content: Boost Your Reach & Profitability with Julia McCoy

by | May 4, 2018 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Spring Cleaning for Your Content: Boost Your Reach & Profitability with Julia McCoy

Are you updating your blog’s archives?
Or are you letting that older content collect virtual dust?
If it’s the latter, it’s time to make a change and luckily, this week’s #ContentWritingChat has all the tips you need! We talked all about spring cleaning your content to keep everything fresh.
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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Spring Cleaning for Your Content: Boost Your Reach & Profitability with Julia McCoy


Our guest host this week was our own CEO, Julia McCoy. Updating older content is something she’s spoken about before, so she had a ton of great tips to share with everyone! If you want to polish your archives, this is one recap you’ll need to read. Let’s dive in!

Q1: What’s the purpose of updating and “spring cleaning” our online content?

So, what’s the big deal with spring cleaning your content? Is it really necessary? Will it really bring in some big-time results? Here’s what a few people from our chat had to say:


Julia knows that giving your older posts a refresh can give you a boost in ROI. You don’t want to miss out on that, so make updating your archives a priority.


As Sarah said, you want to keep everything updated for your readers. No one wants to stumble upon a post that’s terribly outdated with old information.


Lexie said you want to make changes to your content that will help get it in front of more readers. You also want to make sure it’s accurate for when they do visit your site to check it out. After all, you wouldn’t want to risk hurting your authority.


As Gene said, it’s possible you’ve learned something since you originally published the post. This is a great opportunity to update it with the new information you’ve picked up.

Q2: For someone who wants to get started with spring cleaning their blog, what are the first steps they should take?

Now that you’re ready to get started with your spring cleaning adventure, you might be wondering where to begin. After all, a big archive of content can certainly feel overwhelming! Here’s some advice to help you out:


These steps from Julia will help you identify where to begin when it comes to spring cleaning your content. Consider if you’ve had any branding updated, what could be better optimized, etc.


Sarah and her fellow team members take a look at their analytics. You can see what’s bringing in the most traffic and update those posts to ensure they’re accurate and continue to perform well.


Lexie said you can also see which blog posts have a high bounce rate and work to reduce that.


Maria’s priority includes making sure every post is full optimized. She also looks out for any broken links that need to be updated.


Think about which of your blog posts are doing well and which ones aren’t. Determine what improvements you can make to boost the results of the posts that are slacking.


If your content isn’t getting the reach you hoped for, you can always make improvements to generate more views.

Q3: How can you determine if a post from your archives is worth updating?

With so many posts that you’ve published, which ones do you start with? It depends what your goals are! Check out these suggestions:


Julia encourages people to track and update the blog posts that rank highly. If you have something that’s ranking on Google, but it’s outdated, make that a priority. She relies on SEMrush to help out with this.


Determine if the post is still relevant to your audience and whether you have anything new you can add.


Make sure you’re updating those posts that continue to attract readers.


After all, it’s important those posts keep performing well!

Q4: Once you’ve found a piece to update, what changes can you make to improve it and boost its success?

There are all kinds of improvements you can make to your blog posts to keep them fresh. But here are a few suggestions to help you get started:


Some things you’ll want to update include: new meta title and description, updated copy, refreshed stats, improved voice, and new CTAs.


Gene suggests adding new ideas or going deeper into the topic you originally wrote about. He also suggests cleaning up the formatting, as this will enhance readability.


As Lexie said, you’ll want to update your meta description to take advantage of those extra characters Google gave us a while back!


Don’t forget to update images, statistics, and any design elements you’ve incorporated.


You can also add recent news and more visuals. Make sure you also test all links so you know they’re still working.


You can even get creative and add more content variety. If you’ve recently gotten into video, consider creating a video for some of your older posts.

Q5: From an SEO standpoint, how can updating your older content be beneficial for your blog?

So, what is all of this going to do for your blog’s SEO? Here’s what you need to know:


If you’re not updating content, you could be missing out on more rankings. Don’t let that happen!


As Sarah said, search engines want to see that you’re offering the best to readers, plus they love fresh and relevant content.


Search engines will notice those updates and that can improve the credibility of your site in the long run.


Maria knows making updates will keep your content relevant. Very crucial!


And by making these updates, you increase your chances of attracting more readers.

Q6: What can you do to ensure you get the most reach once you’ve updated an older blog post?

Your post is all updated, now what? You need to make sure plenty of people are checking it out, so you’ll want to try out these tips:


Julia suggests sharing your updated post on social media and sending it to your email list.


Gene agrees! It’s important to spread the word wherever you can.


Let everyone on your go-to social media platforms know you’ve freshened it up with new information.


You can even tag people who might be interested in seeing the updated version of your post.


Share it with social media followers, online communities, and your newsletter. Don’t forget to consider ways to repurpose the post to generate more traction.

Q7: Which tools can help you effectively spring clean your blog?

To help you clean up those archives, check out these tool suggestions:


SEMrush and Google Analytics are just a couple of tools Julia turns to.


Lexie relies on SEMrush as well, plus a few others.


For writing, the Hemingway App certainly comes in handy. But if you’re updating graphics, Canva or Buffer’s Pablo tool can really help.


Gene also suggests Hemingway, as well as Grammarly.


Canva, Google Analytics, and BuzzSumo are just a few must-haves!


A lot of love for Google Analytics and SEMrush!

Q8: Are there any brands that are doing a great job at updating their archives and keeping content fresh?

Take a cue from these brands because they know how to give their archives a major refresh!


As Julia said, Content Marketing Institute and SmartBlogger have done a great job at updating their archives.


Carla said ProBlogger has done a great job at this as wlel.


Another one in favor of Content Marketing Institute!
Come join us for the next #ContentWritingChat! Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat, then be on Twitter every Tuesday at 10 AM Central.
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Tags: updating blog content