How To Increase Blog Traffic By Updating Old Blog Posts – part 1

how to increase blog traffic by updating old blog posts

Would you like to increase your blog’s traffic? If you’ve been blogging for a while, an easy way to increase blog traffic is to update old blog posts!

If you want to get more people to see a number of your older blog posts, I’ve got a few strategies to help you increase the growth (and traffic) of your blog.

How To Increase Blog Traffic By Updating Old Blog Posts

  1. Add Keywords. Keywords are oh-so-important for SEO (search engine optimization). Keywords should be the topic of your post AND what someone would type into a Google search in order to find you/your blog. Your keywords should also be sprinkled throughout your blog post.

A good rule of thumb: Your keywords should be in your blog post title, written in your introductory paragraph, found somewhere in the middle copy (at least once) and again at the end of the blog post. Basically, placing your keywords in several places within the one blog post.

For example, if you wrote a blog post called, “Chic Black and White Halloween Mantel,” your keywords and/or phrase might be “black and white Halloween mantel,” because this is something people would search for on Google.

Note: If you only used the word “Halloween”, this wouldn’t be a good keyword because it’s a broad keyword and you’d be competing against too many other websites. Since your keywords are “black and white Halloween mantel”, you’d want to incorporate this phrase into your blog post several times: title, intro paragraph, middle copy and final summation paragraph.

Here’s the real life “Chic Black and White Halloween Mantel” blog post by our lovely client Beth of 1111 Light Lane.

increase blog traffic by updating old blog posts with keywords

  1. Rewrite old blog post titles to be more SEO-friendly. You might want to be cute and fun by naming your blog post “Moving To The White Side Bathroom Reno” or “Friday Fashion Tips” but these won’t help drive SEO traffic to your blog. The title of our post is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your SEO readability and search engine ranking.

Thus, if you want to rank higher in search engines, it’s important to use titles that include your keywords, would be something someone would search for, and be interesting enough for someone to want to click on it!

[IMPORTANT] It is absolutely critical you don’t modify the URL of your old blog post in any way. It should be exactly as it was previously to retain all the link equity and to further build upon on it. By changing/updating the title of the old blog post, you will not be changing the original url.

The best way to come up with a new, better blog post title? Try to think of the exact keywords or phrase someone would search in Google… and see how much competition there is. Then try adding another word in order to get your competition numbers down.

For example: “Rollin in the dough” has 11,100,000 websites that match these keywords and your blog post title is pretty vague, whereas “The Easiest Way To Roll Out Cookie Dough” has fewer competition at 1,240,000 results and is a title someone would search for.

Rewrite old blog post titles to be more SEO friendly

  1. Add related posts. I like to use a free plugin called Linkwithin. LinkWithin is a blog widget that appears under each blog post, linking to related stories from your blog archive (aka old blog posts). Basically, the widget links to old blog posts that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post, keeping them engaged with your blog, and increasing your traffic.

Go to linkwithin.com, fill out the form with your email, website url, choose your platform (self-hosted wordpress, Blogger, etc.) and follow the set up instructions.

Here’s what related posts look like at the bottom of a real life blog post “Fall & Halloween Décor Updates” by our client Bethany of The Posh Home:

increase blog traffic by updating old blog posts with related posts

These are just 3 strategies on how to increase blog traffic by updating old blog posts, next week I’ll teach you a few more! So stay tuned…

 

Main image via The Posh Home.

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15 Comments

    1. You will LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this plugin. It keeps people ‘fishing’ through various blog posts – it’s brilliant in an unobtrusive, simple way!

  1. I’ve already got this plugin thank goodness but thank you for the reminders and tips about keywords in the title and sprinkled throughout!! And thanks for another great post…I look forward to your email every week!!! Xoxo

  2. Tana – you have made my day! I’m just reading this now because of my crazy work week! Thank you for including my picture and blog post in your latest post! I absolutely love reading your posts – they are always super helpful & so informative – I always learn so much!! You’re the BEST! xo, Beth

    1. Oh – I’m so glad! You have a great blog and I love sharing our clients with our readers… It’s a win/win! xo

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