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 I don't feel that the current blog posts are outdated as of yet and in need of a re-written post, they just aren't up to "snuff" for potential readers and visitors.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
-
Advices On Yoast SEO!
Hello Guys, I have a short issue, that i still can't figure it out from my previous Q&A. Why is google doing this ( ranking for a tag and not for title tag ) - do I have some misplaced setting in yoast seo? Please find the attachment. Also there is any way that someone could help me edit something in yoast? Thanks. KDu0Z1Y
Link Building | | DexSmart0 -
Seo Site Structure
I manage a shoe shop, and the site structre for a shoe category is: www.example.com/casual-shoes/ and for a product is: www.example.com/product/320/casual-shoes/ Would be better for SEO and for my casual shoes category, to rewrite the product page to: www.example.com/casual-shoes/product-320/ Thank you! Regards
Link Building | | raul_hutu0 -
Blog links: Going out or staying in?
I am a wedding photographer and have a "Venues" page on my website. Am I better associating the links to the venue's actual website or to a blog post featuring a wedding I did there? (PS: In the blog post there will be a post aiming at the venue's website.) Thanks!
Link Building | | IoanSaid0 -
Fake SEO Site
What do you think of this site? This is the top, number ranking site in Halifax, UK. No authority, no backlinks and high keyword density considering the low amount of content. http://www.maknetic.co.uk/ Search term is SEO Halifax. How is it number 1? There's nothing in it and no user value at all!
Link Building | | littlesthobo0 -
SEO Starter Cruiser Package
Has anyone used this product? I'm very interested in using it to help automate some of my efforts but want ot be sure they won't submit to bad directories, etc... Your advice is appreciated. Best, Mike
Link Building | | Rvinyl0 -
Blog Comments
We all get them ... spam blog comments. People do it to get link value back to their site. Recently, someone approached me to do this for our site but on niche sites that are related to our content and to provide good valueable comments within a blog post of about 100 words each, and genuinely try to engage.They also were talking about finding blogs that have "follow" links in their comments space, since most do not. I still declined it because it is somewhat 'grey-hat' rather than 'white-hat' linking, and we want to be above-board on everything. Although we personally declined this approach, I'm curious your thoughts though on whether gaining links from blog comments from related, niche sites is a good idea. Like this question? Give us a Big Thumbs Up! Thank you!
Link Building | | applesofgold0 -
Linkbuilding TO Your Guest Blog Post?
Hypothetical situation: You write a guest blog post for a popular blog about your niche topic. The post is a hit and sends you visitors, leads, and social media followers. Would you consider running a linkbuilding campaign to the blog post in order to help it rank better for its target keyword(s), given that the post has proven to convert successfully, despite the fact that the post is on a domain other than your own?
Link Building | | AnthonyMangia0 -
Find High Ranking Blogs?
Ok, after the panda change, everyone is telling to me to ask to be a guest blogger on other people's blogs. So, how do I find the highest ranking (most popular) blogs in my industry? I own a real estate brokerage. Thanks for your help!
Link Building | | DanManCastro0