avatarChristopher Kokoski

Summary

Updating three specific types of content—articles with the most impressions, backlinks, and traffic—can lead to a significant boost in website traffic and revenue.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the importance of strategically updating existing content on a website to increase search traffic, ad earnings, and affiliate commissions. It suggests focusing on blog posts with high impressions but lower rankings, those with numerous backlinks to enhance authority and rankings, and articles already receiving substantial traffic to maintain their performance. Additionally, the author advises refreshing high conversion content, which may have low search volume but results in high sales or commissions. By prioritizing these updates, website owners can potentially see a 75% increase in traffic, as demonstrated by a case study from searchbox.com.

Opinions

  • The author believes that not all content should be updated, and it's crucial to select articles with the highest potential return on investment (ROI).
  • Regularly updating high-traffic and high-authority content is seen as essential for maintaining search rankings and user experience.
  • Updating content is not just about improving traffic but also about preserving and increasing revenue from high conversion articles.
  • The article suggests that updating content can be more effective than creating new content, as it can yield quicker and more significant results.
  • There is a warning against updating content without a clear strategy, as this could waste time or negatively impact existing rankings.
  • The author recommends using tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and SEO tools to identify which articles to update.

Update These 3 Types of Content for a 75% Boost in Traffic

Three content categories to prioritize for updating your website

Image by Author via Canva

You’ve probably heard that you should update your old content.

That’s true.

But what and how you update can either sluggishly slow down or crazily speed up the growth of your website. And the difference in growth acceleration means a massive difference in search traffic, display ad earnings, and affiliate commissions.

In this article, I’ll share with you:

  • The three types of content you should refresh for an up to 75% increase in traffic.
  • Why you should update those three types of content.
  • A bonus type of content to update that can easily double your monthly revenue.
  • When you shouldn’t update old content (a super important caveat)

The 3 Types of Content You Need to Update (Like, Pronto)

When searchbox.com updated 24 old blog posts, they received a 75% boost in monthly search traffic within six months.

To put that into perspective, a 75% increase for a website that gets 1,000 monthly searches is a whopping 1,750 searches. That’s not too bad. But let’s take it a step further to show how this process scales.

A website that gets 10,000 monthly searches would skyrocket to 17,500.

From only 24 blog posts.

The secret sauce to their results is that they strategically chose which articles to update. Just as importantly, they resisted the urge to refresh other articles with a less potential return on investment (ROI).

Here are the three types of blog posts to update:

  1. Blog posts with the most impressions
  2. Blog posts with the most backlinks
  3. Blog posts with the most traffic

Now, let’s go through each type of content so that you know exactly how to identify it and why it can dramatically boost your traffic.

Update Blog Posts with the Most Impressions

When you’re updating old content, you want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

One way to do that is to focus on blog posts with high impressions but relatively low search rankings. By improving these articles, you can potentially get a lot more traffic with only a small amount of additional effort.

To analyze your impressions, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure your website is connected to Google Search Console.
  2. Open Google Search Console.
  3. Click on “Performance” in the navigation column on the left-hand side of the page.

You’ll now see a list of your articles by the number of impressions and volume of clicks.

Identify your articles with the most impressions. Then check how well they rank in Google search. Look for articles with high impressions that rank on the second page of Google for the target search term/topic.

Prioritize updating these articles at least once per year.

You can also use search engine optimization (SEO) tools like Ahrefs or other Shine Ranker alternatives (not an affiliate link) to get all of this information much easier.

Update Blog Posts with the Most Backlinks

If you’re looking to improve your website’s ranking on Google, one of the best things you can do is to update old content with a higher number of backlinks.

These articles have the most authority in Google, so they will likely rank better and faster than lower authority content. Not only that, but by updating your old content, you’ll be able to rank for new keywords, attract more backlinks, and maintain your site’s overall authority.

All of this will, of course, increase your traffic.

The best way I know to track your articles with the most backlinks is with an SEO tool.

Update Content with the Most Traffic

Some of the articles on my websites get up to 10,000 searches each month. A small drop in the ranking of one of these articles can send my traffic numbers plummeting.

No blogger wants that kind of trouble.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to refresh old content with already high traffic. Just like with high-backlink content, you want to keep these articles updated to keep your rank.

Consequently, this is a really good user experience.

Since these articles attract the most eyeballs, you’ll instantly improve the experience of a large percentage of your users.

Again, you can use the following tools to find high-traffic articles:

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Search Console
  • SEO tools

Bonus Content to Update: HC Content

Another type of content I recommend that you consider refreshing is high conversion content.

Some of your articles might get low impressions and low monthly search volume but high conversions. For example, highly targeted articles about specific exercise equipment might get only a few hundred searches per month.

However, commissions from a handful of sales per month might be in the hundreds or thousands.

This can also be true of:

  • Lead generation articles/pages
  • High commission affiliate link posts
  • Buyer intent keywords/topics (Best Nike Sneakers, Best Kyaks for Teenagers, Best Coffins for Rude Exes)

Just making sure you were still paying attention. :)

Only a small number of people might search for these topics each month but the articles can still bring in a boatload of money. Updating those articles can maintain and even increase your revenue.

As an example, a handful of articles on one of my websites make me between $1,000 and $1,500 per month in residual affiliate commissions.

Rest assured, I’m keeping my eyes on these articles for any needed updates.

Summary of Takeaways

Here is a summary of quick takeaways to boost your traffic by up to 75%:

  • Update old content strategically
  • Update low-hanging fruit content that will rank easy and fast
  • Update content to maintain authority, rankings, and revenue
  • Update high impression, high traffic, and high authority content
  • Update high conversion content

Of course, not all old content needs updating. Updating content that doesn’t need updating is mostly a waste of time. If it improves the content for the user, fine.

But if there is no noticeable impact on traffic, authority, or earnings, you might better serve yourself, your site, and your users by focusing on higher-value content.

Plus, if you make sweeping updates to high-ranking, high-traffic content, it could impact your rankings — at least, temporarily. It may not be worth the risk.

Final Thoughts

The most important point of this entire article is to develop a smart plan for updating your old content on your personal websites. It’s too important to leave to happenstance.

In other words, update old content by design not by default.

Related posts:

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