Everybody in the SEO community is raving about content these days. Fresh, helpful content is what will get your page to the top of the SERPs. But we all know what a challenge it can be to develop new content week after week. What to do? The answer is republishing content. While it cannot completely replace publishing new content (obviously), it can be a nice supplement.
So what do I mean by republishing content? The idea is to take old content and update, improve, and expand upon it. Maybe there are new statistics out there that can better prove your point or new research has made your content inaccurate. Perhaps you are just better at producing content and are more familiar with your target audience than you were when you first published. In any case, republishing works for several reasons:
1. Everybody loves freshness
We all prefer a hot-out-of-the-oven dinner as opposed to last week’s leftovers. Google and your audience are no different. People consciously decide whether or not to click on a page based on when it was published. Republishing your old content will allow you to slap a fresh date on it.
2. Retain authority
Sure, you are an expert internet marketer but what if someone tasked you with performing brain surgery? You’d have to go back to school and learn a whole new skill set because you are no authority on the subject. That’s what happens when you publish new content. It starts off with no authority. When you update an old page, it doesn’t start on ground zero. It keeps all its old search authority.
3. Second Wind
You’ve been running for a long time, you get tired, and then all of sudden you’re hit with a burst of energy. That’s your second wind. Old content has been running for a while, and it’s getting tired. Nobody is sharing, liking, or converting from that old content anymore. When you republish, you give your content a second wind of sorts. You can promote it again. People can share it again. This often leads to new links.
Track down some of that old content that you think can perform well with a good republishing. Two cautions. Make sure that you update your content enough that it actually is deserving of being published as new. Secondly, make sure that the publish date is updated so that it shows up on your site as new. Other than that, SiteJab wishes you happy republishing!