Is it worth editing older blog posts for SEO purposes?
-
The title of the question asks it all.
One site I currently work on has a handful of blog posts that rank really well in the SERPS for certain "long-tail" searches. Would it be worth the time to, when I have it, to go back and edit the blogs little by little to help with SEO and building some links throughout the site to get people where we need them to go?
Basically "sprucing" up the blog posts to make them more readable, more engaging and help some link building efforts within the domain.
Thoughts?
-
If its the improvement of user experience - then the addition of relevant links is worth doing definitely, with respect to changing the content itself, I would be inclined to only make very minor edits and not disturb any of the long tail phrases you are ranking for.
-
Love this idea!
Thank you for sharing Geoff.
-
You could update the older posts (making sure the new internal links are not overly SEO'd) and then ask your programmer to turn off date display on all posts more than 3 months old. Users then arriving on the posts will not be bouncing because they see it as an "old" post and will benefit from your updated content.
-
"time and progression are always excellent reasons for new posts and new content"
Great point. I don't feel that the current blog posts are outdated as of yet and in need of a re-written post, they just aren't up to "snuff" for potential readers and visitors.
The main goal I have for editing these older posts is strictly for current user-experience. That is why I am battling the idea of going back to them, re-reading and making the minor edits needed to help or just leave it and write a new article, as you have mentioned.
-
Blog posts tend to be timely and topical and can date with time, (whereas articles (IMO) should be as timeless as possible and state fact). With blogging, situations change over time and so something written 6 months ago could be seen and viewed in a very different light - if that's the case, time for a new post, citing the changes and differences - resulting in both new (more well written) post, and a shiny new piece of content with links to the old post.
I find I might cover the exact same subject 3 or 4 times a year, writing a new post and citing the older ones shows consistency and awareness on your part for users, increases internal linking and subsequently increases the stickiness of your site.
Obviously if you have any glaring SEO errors or holes in your older posts it wouldn't hurt to patch them up - but time and progression are always excellent reasons for new posts and new content.
-
Thanks for the reply.
Our blog is only about 6 months old. The first 3 months or so of posts were really poorly written and I did not have the time to really "fine-tune" like I normally would. That job was left to someone doing the initial editing... Needless to say, looking back at them, they are really, really bad.
I'm not really interested in stuffing these older blogs with additional keywords or adding keyword rich anchor text in the posts.
The content was poorly written. We are getting a lot of traffic to our blog through some of these posts, but the bounce rate remains extremely high. The entry keyphrases seem to be "dead-on" for the content itself, at least for the most part. I won't lie, I would like to put a few links within some edited posts that would take someone to another page on the site that would be helpful or another blog.
Still not really sure what to...
-
I guess it really depends how old the "old posts" are.
If the posts are relatively recent, "sprucing" up the blog posts to make them more readable and more engaging is a possibility (and maybe a good idea if the original was not well written).
It might be better and more natural to write new posts on the topic which add value to the original butink back to the older posts as a point of reference. This should improve the positioning for the long tail on the old posts and is
I would not recommend transparent activity like going back to the old posts stuffing them full of keywords and a couple of keyword rich links to other parts of the site - Google will see you are trying to game the system and most likely discount any potential benefit.
-
Would it be worth the time to go back and edit the blogs little by little to help with SEO...
Sure, some people pay SEOs to do this very thing!
...and building some links throughout the site to get people where we need them to go? Basically "sprucing" up the blog posts to make them more readable, more engaging...
This is a great idea... that's the sign of a good webmaster.
....and help some link building efforts within the domain.
Yes, it will help. Great ideas. Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Backlink Building - is it worth it?
I've got a UK-based site with about 10,000 backlinks, according to majestic, and just 4 according to Open Site Explorer? Confusing! Rivals tend to have more - 28,000 in the case of our nearest competitors. So I'm not sure the best way to go about building backlinks? Or if it's worth actively seeking to build them? The index page of the site has a Moz PA of 45 (DA = 35) and I'm looking for any ways to increase these - need to get the DA up to 73 to compete with largest rivals. One of our main rivals has about 60 .edu links - would be great to emulate that, but I'm also not sure how you go about this? i.e. when you spot a good backlink someone else has, how would you begin the process of also getting that link?
Link Building | | abisti20 -
Best Blog Post Length to get Links
Okay, kind of silly question but i am looking for some help interpreting an analysis done by John Doherty almost a year ago: http://moz.com/blog/what-kind-of-content-gets-links-in-2012 In the document he mentions the correlation that longer posts on average receive more links but the graphs were really hard to interpret (for me). Based on the data what is the correct size we should shoot for (most graphs were missing labels). Any one have any insight? Should i shoot for 300 words per post, higher, etc? Thanks! Kyle
Link Building | | kchandler0 -
Finding a good guest posting service
I'm looking for any recommendations for a high-quality guest posting service that isn't posting to placing articles on their own network of websites, but instead has relationships with blog owners who will take good quality guest posts. And I'm willing to pay up for high-quality sites. Thanks for any suggestions, including suggestions on how to find these services if you don't want to say any names.
Link Building | | bizzer0 -
Worth paying for directory listings?
I'm going through the recommended SEO directory list but I notice that most of them are paid listings. I have been told that it is not worth spending any money on this, so why are there so many recommended in this list?
Link Building | | BridalHotspot0 -
Guest Blogging
I am looking to get into guest blogging for our retail brick-and-mortar store to increase more local search traffic. 1. Any local SEO recommendations/tips you have? 2. Can you post the same article in multiple places? Or is this a huge no-no? 3. For local search, should we focus on article directories or guest blogs? Thanks in advance for your feedback, and sorry that it's a three-parter! 🙂
Link Building | | jpretz0 -
Are Dealer Reciprocal Links Hurting My SEO?
We are a manufacturer of fireplaces that sells our product through a series of nationwide distributors. We have a link to each of our distributors, who also have links to us, on our website under a "Where to Buy" tab. If we were to remove these links and instead provide contact information, would this significantly help our SEO?
Link Building | | JBell0 -
Re april 5th post on over optimization - need clarification blogging
I mainly do content creation for clients .e.g. site and blog on word press - then link the blogs to the related static page. I have been just linking to the static page using keywords that match the title tag keywords. Is that correct?
Link Building | | Doug_Hay0 -
Which is better for SEO Facebook or Twitter?
If you could choose between a tweet from an influencer or a post from a Facebook fan "influencer"? Which would you choose?
Link Building | | nicole.healthline0