How To Increase Blog Traffic By Updating Old Blog Posts – part 2

Increasing blog traffic is almost always first and foremost in the mind of bloggers. Which is why last week I shared three strategies on how to increase blog traffic by updating old blog posts… and why today I’m going to share three more!

Want to increase your blog traffic? Try these three strategies:

1. Add Pinterest-friendly images. Remember when you were just getting started with your blog and the pictures weren’t quite up to your style (or brand) like they are today? I know you know what I’m talking about! Or perhaps you were doing a bunch of horizontal pictures and have since learned that VERTICAL images get more visual space (and repins) on Pinterest.

So here’s what I want you to do…

1. Look at your Google Analytics to find out which old blog posts bring you the most traffic.
2. Go into each of these top 15-20 blog posts and add some Pinterest-friendly images that are consistent with your brand/style today.
3. Next, pin these new images to your Pinterest boards.

This is not only updating old blog posts, but driving traffic to this old blog post = driving additional traffic to your site.

Psst… If you want to create a long pin image and ‘hide’ it within an old blog post, you can do that too!

2. Update + Reuse. You probably had an audience of 3 (mom, dad, friend – we’ve all been there) when you first started writing blog posts. It’s a lot easier and less time consuming to update old blog posts than it is to write new ones.

Look again to your Google Analytics and decide which ones are really good, but didn’t get a lot of attention, then update and republish them.

And/or… Look at those top 15-20 blog posts that are older but get a lot of traffic still today. You know, those posts that you just want to crawl under a rock because the pictures are simply not very good (“Yes, those blurry, dark, grainy ones with zero styling to them!”) and don’t represent your brand/style/imagery today.

Update and reuse a portion of the old blog post with a slightly different title and some additional information – because Google doesn’t like repeat, word-for-word content – and of course your new imagery.

Here’s a perfect example of an old post, with lots of traffic, that was updated + reused to reflect today’s Toot Sweet 4 Two brand.

Original image + Post “Peach Pineapple Dump Cake”

Updated Image + Reused Post “Peach Pineapple Dump Cake with Walnuts”

3. Clean up errors and links. Search engines like Google want to match their ‘searchers’ with THE BEST content available online. So if you have blog posts with typos or links that don’t work, Google won’t want to send people to your site!

It’s always good to proofread and use a spell checker on old posts to find errors you can clean up.

To find broken links that you can fix, use a free plugin like ‘Broken Link Checker’. This plugin will provide you with a list of broken links on your site, so you can easily pinpoint and fix them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s 3 strategies on how to increase blog traffic by updating old blog posts.

If you missed last week’s post, go read it here and you’ll learn 3 more strategies that can help you increase your blog traffic!

Enjoy.

P.S. Just for fun, would you like to see one of my very first blog posts? Here it is “Staging – Image is Everything”.

 

*Main image via Laura Trevey