Updating old blog posts for SEO: which ones and how

Once a blog has twenty or thirty posts, the best next piece of work is often not a new post. It is a post that already appears for a search on page two, where a better answer could move it onto page one.

Finding them

1. In Search Console, open Performance, and show impressions, clicks and average position.
2. Open the Pages tab and sort by impressions.
3. Look for pages with high impressions and an average position between about 8 and 20.
4. Open each and check which queries it appears for.

Those queries tell you what Google already thinks the post is about, and often reveal a question the post does not answer.

What to change

• Answer the queries it appears for but does not address.
• Move the answer to the top if it is buried.
• Correct facts, prices and screenshots that have changed.
• Add links from newer posts in the same cluster; see topic clusters.
• Tighten the title to match the main query; see title tag length.

What to leave alone

• The URL.
• Posts that rank well and are still accurate.
• The date, unless the content really changed.

A quick routine

Once a quarter is enough for a small blog. Pick the three posts with the most impressions below position ten, spend an hour on each, and note the date. Check their positions again a month later. The routine is small enough to keep, which matters more than doing it perfectly.

When to merge instead

If two posts share the same queries, updating both keeps them competing. Merge them; see keyword cannibalization.

SEO Blog Writer keeps refresh reminders on its calendar alongside the weekly post, and can read Search Console, if you have it, to see the searches you already appear for.