Businesses looking to create a potent online presence need to have a wealth of content at their disposal, and more often than not, that takes the form of blogs. Indeed, just about every established business has a blog of some form these days, and many companies have been blogging consistently for years now. However, as any experienced copywriter can tell you, writing for an already developed blog presents as many challenges as forming a brand new blog from scratch. The good news is, you can also use your wealth of pre-existing blogs to enhance your current marketing efforts. To that end, here are four tips for optimizing old blog posts –– as well as the benefits they provide your company:
Update and Revise
The simplest way to breathe new life into an old blog is to go back and rework it. Adding more content onto an existing blog is a great way to demonstrate how something within your industry –– or company –– has changed over the years. Additionally, updating an old blog post enables you to correct any embarrassing writing mistakes you may have made. Remember: just because a blog post has aged, doesn’t necessarily mean it has aged well.
Write a Sequel
Just like Hollywood movie producers, small businesses should look to expand on their most compelling ideas. So don’t hesitate to add another chapter or segment to an already successful blog post. (This is especially true if you’ve explored broad topics, but want to zero in on highly-targeted traffic.) There’s nothing wrong with giving the people what they want –– after all, that’s what you’re in business for!
Consolidate with a Pillar Page
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as any surprise, but bringing multiple blogs together to form a larger “pillar page,” can often prove more effective than simply leaving them to exist on their own. There is strength in unity, and that logic applies to blog-writing as well. When you decide to create a pillar page, make sure to select a topic that’s specific –– yet has enough content to support it. You want an information-dense page that will provide you with opportunities to rank for multiple keywords, but you don’t want such a broad subject matter that it doesn’t offer a valuable resource to your customers.
Link and Backlink
Ideally, your blog should be an interconnected web of pages across the internet that direct your leads and visitors to other areas on your site (like landing pages!). Thus, by going back to old blogs and adding links and backlinks, you can work to create a closed-loop style blog network. Remember, the more your readers engage with your work, the likelier they are to do business with you.
The Bottom Line
Always keep in mind that specificity is the greatest friend of the small-business blogger. Modern shoppers are sophisticated and tend to look for refined results from their search queries. So whether your blog addresses where to get a doctor mortgage loan, or how to learn business phrases in Spanish in less than a week –– don’t be afraid to highlight what makes your product or service special. Keep that in mind the next time you start writing a new blog –– or the next time you optimize an old one!
