Regular content maintenance is the be-all and end-all of everyday editorial work – and an important part of the marketing strategy. For most companies, the primary goal is to constantly come up with new ideas for content or blog posts.
However, it is just as important to continuously update existing posts. That can be even more of a challenge at the end of the day! In the following we will explain why it is still worth investing in the existing content of your website.
What is content optimization about?
With content optimization, existing content, i.e. content, is revised. This allows you to pursue several goals at the same time: On the one hand, to improve your Google ranking or your placement in the Google search result pages (SERPs for short) for important keywords.
On the other hand, to increase the satisfaction of your website visitors. After all, your users should be better addressed in the long term and led to their desired goal faster. Therefore, content optimization as an on-page measure is an important part of search engine optimization.
Why is content optimization important?
Google loves up-to-date content on your website! For this you will be rewarded with a better result in the search engine: As soon as you work regularly on your content, Google registers that your website is alive and ideally visits you more often. Apart from that, your users should of course only receive valid information on your website. Otherwise it would result in a quick jump!
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Content Optimization: Why you need regularly update in your content
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First overview in the content audit
So that you don’t lose track of things right from the start, you should proceed strategically with content optimization. This is particularly important for a relaunch! Therefore, decide early on whether a content audit makes sense for you at all.
Because the content audit is an inventory of all the content on your website, apart from the quality of the content. As part of a systematic review and analysis, all content is documented and checked for performance during the content audit. Every page that generates a lot of traffic should be in focus. In addition, these sites have the highest priority when it comes to presenting new content. You can use this to derive further topics for your target group.
First overview in the content audit
Once you’re sure what content to revamp, you’re good to go! The following questions will help you to define the most important criteria for good content and to tailor it to the individual needs of your customers:
- Correct information: Is the content correct?
- Right amount/text length: Does the length do justice to the content?
- Right Place: Where will the content be placed on the website?
- Right time: Is the content currently appropriate or do you have to plan it?
- Right quality: Does the content meet the requirements of your company?
- Correct target group-oriented language: Is your target group addressed?
- Correct keyword usage: Do you know your search terms?
SEO content optimization vs. SEO texts
Pure SEO texts, which only serve to rank as high as possible in the search engine, are no longer up to date and are exposed by Google & Co. as less meaningful. Nevertheless, search engine optimization (SEO for short) is still important for your content optimization.
After all, the search intention of your target group can change, which is why you should check this in the course of your content updates. Because the search intent of the search query that should lead to your page or your post must always be clear: Does a user want to be informed (informational search query) or buy something (transactional search query)?
Users can make the same search query in different ways. Therefore, you should regularly check which search query has the highest search volume. This is usually the main keyword of your post.
However, you should heed the following rule of thumb: Write keyword-aware, but primarily for the user. Above all, your text must offer your reader added value! If your content is unique and relevant to your users, it will also generate positive user signals in the long term. If, on the other hand, you have pure SEO texts on your site, you can enhance this content with SEO text optimization.
Content Recycling: Combine content that is similar
Once you publish many articles or pages, you may find that some of your posts will be similar. Therefore, check your text to be updated for content-related correspondence with existing content.
Because these could reduce the chance of a good ranking for your current post – keyword cannibalization. Don’t panic, this problem can be easily solved! To do this, you control which of these posts on the same topic performs best in the search engines.
Then update the one that ranks highest – and merge the others into this one, high quality and complete post. This is how content recycling works!
Delete outdated posts
As your site grows and you write one piece of content after another, some content will gradually become old. Let’s be honest, nobody reads an article with the latest technical achievements from 2017 anymore!
Some posts are real evergreens, some just slow sellers after a while. Content maintenance no longer helps with these. If no one reads such articles, you can consider deleting them.
This also makes your website clearer. Note that URLs that can no longer be reached generate 404 errors. Here you have to pay attention to a clean redirection structure that suits the content.
Content Update: Don't forget any pages
In addition to blog posts or product pages, it is also important to regularly update other pages of your website with fresh content. Were there any legal developments that made it necessary to revise the relevant information? Or did your target group have new questions that are often raised in customer service?
Therefore, when “Content Refresh” also remember to update the FAQs sensibly. Also: Who are your customers dealing with and how do they reach the right contact person? To do this, you should prioritize the “About” and “Contact Us” pages.
These are quickly neglected in everyday life, but must always be kept up to date. Incorrect or outdated contacts are often the reason that customers or inquiries are lost.
Content maintenance: Check link structure
New posts are often not linked in old articles. Therefore, check your linking structure when optimizing the content! For example, you can link related posts to each other via internal links and appropriate anchor text.
On the other hand, there is no point in deleting posts that have many backlinks. You are giving up valuable link juice that you have laboriously built up! After all, your content should be of such high quality that it will be quoted on its own. Another off-page measure is link building.
This allows you to build external links (backlinks) that point to your own site. Because a link or recommendation from another website to your content is a clear signal for the search engines to rate the relevance of your website to certain topics higher.
Content Optimization: A MUST!
Subheadings loosen up
Paragraphs are good for flow and structure
Bullet points make everything clearer
Meaningful images and graphics are mandatory, videos are optional
Meta data (title tags and meta description) are displayed on the search result pages as a short preview of your content and encourage the user to click
Avoid complicated, industry-specific terms or jargon
Crisp CTAs and eye-catching contact buttons help your users reach you or get more information
Monitor your users’ click and scroll behavior to strategically optimize your call-to-actions