How to Keep Your Evergreen Content Fresh: 5 Content Refreshing Tips

Evergreen content does not stay evergreen forever. To keep your content relevant to your audience and the current trends, it’s important to refresh them regularly, even those that are considered evergreen.

It’s important to note, however, that content refreshing is different from content repurposing. Refreshing means updating old content, while repurposing is transforming old content into a new format.

The Value of Refreshing Old Content

While creating new content is a key part of content marketing, refreshing old content can bring as many benefits as well:

• It drives organic traffic: In a study by HubSpot, it has been found that content refreshing can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%. Content “freshness” is also one of the many factors that Google takes into account when ranking content on search results.
• It increases lead generation: In the same study, old posts that have been recently optimized doubled their monthly leads. It stands to reason as old content has already gained traction for a time already, and updating it with new information helps you reel in more customers that are more ready to convert.
• It saves you time: Leveraging your old content is time-efficient and especially helpful for startups with limited resources to consistently create new content.

4 Content Refreshing Tips to Keep Old Content Relevant

1. Audit your content

The first and crucial step before refreshing content is to conduct an audit of all your content. From your audit, you can set benchmarks in deciding which content to refresh and which of those you should prioritize first.

The benchmarks will depend on your content marketing goals and the type of content (i.e., at which part of the sales funnel you are targeting). A few things to take into account:

• Conversion content (bottom of the funnel) – Look for content with declining conversions—for example, fewer purchases and signups.
• Nurturing content (middle of the funnel) – Look for content with declining engagement—for example, lower landing page click-throughs and conversions
• Awareness content (top of the funnel) – Look for content with declining traffic—for example, lower search click-throughs and SEO rankings.

2. Identify content gaps

The second step is to identify what gaps you can fill. Consider both informational (e.g., updated data and links, both internal and external) and strategic gaps (e.g., a new angle to the topic or naturally referencing a new product/service).

Ask yourself: how can you make your old content more informational and relevant?

Content gap analysis can also come hand in hand with competitor analysis when refreshing your content. A competitor may have recently written a piece that you’ve written before, but their content may lack some information or may have not explained the topic clearly.

3. Regularly update your references and links

If you’ve referenced external links in your content, it’s crucial to regularly update it with the latest data. One of the most obvious signs that old content is truly “old” is that the references you used are outdated—a reference that’s less than 5 years old, however, is generally accepted.

You may also have to check for any broken links (404 pages). Bounce rates could have a negative effect on your rankings and the user experience as a whole.

4. Re-promote your refreshed content

A common mistake that marketers make is that once they refresh a particular piece of content, they forget to promote it. Treat refreshed content as you would new content; this will help you expand your reach further, both to new and old audiences.

A good trick to help you stay on track is to include your content refresh strategy in your editorial calendar. This way, you would know what content to promote and when. It’s also a nice touch to take note of what changes were made and include this information when you share them on different marketing channels (e.g., social media, email newsletters, etc.).

Optimize Your Content with a Solid Marketing Strategy

Content marketing encompasses myriads of strategies, and regular content refreshing is one of the best ways to leverage your current strategy and add new interest to your old content. If you need help with any of your content marketing needs—whether it’s curating and strategizing content, optimizing for search engine marketing, or creating rich media (images, videos, etc.)—Ilfusion is here for you.

Call us at 888-420-5115 or send us an email at [email protected] to get started!

Categorized in: Articles