A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing a Content Refresh

What’s a content refresh, and why do you need one? The answer’s simple – search engines prefer up-to-date content, and so do people.

Picture this: you’ve put your heart and soul into creating a great piece of content. It’s well-researched, SEO-optimized, and satisfies your audience’s search intent. It’s ranking well on search engine results pages (SERPs) and driving traffic to your website. But, a few months later, your rankings and traffic begin to drop. Time to panic, right?

No need! This is where a content refresh comes in. By reworking and updating your old content, you can attract new readers (and keep your faithful followers coming back for more).

Read on for our step-by-step guide to doing a content refresh as we cover:

• What is a content refresh?
• Why is refreshing content important?
• How to complete a content refresh

What Is a Content Refresh?

Content refreshing is a vital part of any content marketing strategy. It involves taking a piece of existing content and updating it to ensure it remains relevant, accurate, and engaging over time. This might involve things like:

• Updating statistics, examples, and case studies
• Removing outdated information
• Adding high-quality visuals, such as infographics
• Incorporating up-to-date keyword research
• Optimizing titles, headings, and metadata 
• Adding, removing, or updating links
• Revising the structure of the content

Not every piece of content will need to be refreshed. You should focus on content that’s most likely to generate traffic and inspire your readers to take action – like signing up, sharing, or purchasing something.

Why Is Refreshing Content Important?

Publishing new content is a great way to attract more visitors to your website and keep your existing followers engaged. However, Hubspot found that refreshing your existing content is hugely important, too – more than you might think. They found that 76% of their monthly blog views came from older posts, as well as 92% of their leads!

Content refreshing allows you to work smarter, not harder. Instead of spending time writing an entirely new piece of content, you enhance the high-performing content you already have. Refreshing your content can:

• Boost your search ranking. When you update a piece of content, search engine crawlers (also known as robots or spiders) will notice the changes and use them to reassess your SERP position. Often, this is enough to boost your ranking. The converse is true, of course. If you don’t update your content, it will quickly drop down in the list of results.
• Increase traffic and visibility. The higher you rank for your target keywords, the more visibility you’ll have. Put simply, this is how likely users are to see and click on your website. More visibility means more click-throughs and more traffic to your content. 
• Build your authority. The more visibility you have, the easier it is to establish and maintain a reputation as a credible, go-to source for your industry. Trends, processes, knowledge, and products can all change rapidly. By regularly refreshing your content, you show your audience (and Google) that you’re at the cutting edge of these developments. 
• Help you connect with your audience. Building value for your online community is an important part of content creation. Updating your content shows readers that you care about publishing useful, relevant information and gives them a reason to keep coming back. In turn, they are more likely to engage with your content and share it with others. Increasing opportunities for your followers to feel like they’re part of something special is a great way to build your brand.

How to Complete a Content Refresh

We’ve looked at the “what” and the “why” of a content refresh, so now let’s take a look at the “how.”

1. Identify the Right Time to Refresh Your Content

We recommend auditing and refreshing your content regularly. There’s no golden rule as to how often you should do this. As a rough guide, Single Grain suggests:

• At least once a quarter for rapidly changing topics
• At least once a year for topics that evolve but not as quickly
• At least once every 18–24 months for posts where the general topic doesn’t change drastically (but you still want to update links, dates, images/screenshots, and examples)

It’s also a good idea to examine indicators that could be telling you the time is right, such as:

Out-of-Date Information

If something has recently changed in your industry – methods, processes, statistics, trends – it’s time to refresh your content. Outdated information could confuse or mislead your audience, damaging your credibility.

Poor Search Rankings

If your SERP rankings are dropping, it could indicate that your content is no longer seen as high-quality by Google’s E-E-A-T or Freshness algorithms. It’s time to give your content an SEO-friendly update.

Falling Traffic

Falling traffic shows that your content is no longer attracting new visitors. It might be that they aren’t finding your content or they’re choosing not to click-through. Either way, this is a sign that you need to further optimize your content. 

Increasing Bounce Rate

A high bounce rate suggests that your content doesn’t address your audience’s search intent. They’re landing on your website, but they aren’t finding what they need. Or alternatively, it could be that the content is poorly written. Solutions might include adding more relevant, detailed information or taking steps to improve readability.

Lack of Engagement

If your followers have stopped commenting or sharing, it’s probably because your content is outdated or lacks original insights. It’s time for that refresh to get them back on board! 

High-Performing Content

It’s not just about identifying the negative here – even your highest-performing content will benefit from being refreshed. Maximize the positive by making sure your top content is up-to-date, well-structured, and adheres to the latest SEO best practices. There are always opportunities to improve, too. New sections (like FAQs or case studies), visual elements, and additional CTAs can push your engagement levels even higher.

2. Carry Out a Content Audit

Decide on your priorities first. The content refresh process can be time-consuming, so if time’s limited, decide where to focus first for the biggest gains. The indicators we looked at in the previous section are a helpful place to start.

If you have a large amount of pages to review, you might want to invest in a content audit tool (there are lots available online). But, if your blog hasn’t reached those dizzy heights yet, you can follow our simpler manual version. We’d suggest looking out for:

• Content with outdated statistics, references, and other information
• Content with broken or outdated links
• Content that’s poorly structured or difficult to navigate
• Content with poor SEO performance; look at key metrics such as keyword ranking, organic traffic, average click-through rate, and bounce rate
• Content that isn’t optimized for mobile device access
  

3. Review Outdated Information

Before you can make any updates, you’ll need to identify which information is most likely to become outdated. We recommend borrowing from the fact-checking process and keeping a list of things that need to be checked frequently. For example:

• Statistics and data
• Studies or reports cited
• Case studies and examples
• Product features and service offerings
• Thought leadership 
• Industry trends and best practices
• Laws and regulations
• Internal and external links
• Relevance of CTAs

Once you’ve got a list, you can cross-reference with your content and work through updating it methodically. And if something has become completely irrelevant, don’t be afraid to remove it altogether.

4. Improve Page Layout and Navigation

When it comes to content writing, having a clear structure is just as important as a great copy. Lots of people skim read content and find large blocks of text to be off-putting. Features like bullet points, short lists, and subheadings help break your content down into manageable chunks, guiding your readers through and making it easier for them to find what they need. Other things to consider include: 

• Make sure your headings are clear, relevant, and follow a hierarchy.
• Add images and videos. As well as breaking up text, visuals can help keep readers engaged and make complex information easier to understand. 
• Place buttons and CTAs where they’re easy to see. Focus on one primary action you want readers to take, and use concise, action-oriented language. You could even let your CTA float so it’s always where the reader is looking.

If you add images to your content, we recommend adding alt text to aid accessibility. Alt text is a short description added to an image to add context and meaning.

5. Think SEO, SEO, SEO

Once you’ve analyzed your SEO metrics, it’s time to improve them. Here are our quick wins for doing just that:

• Fix any broken links, both internal and external. Broken links tell Google that your website is poorly maintained. Plus, they’re frustrating for readers. So, it’s best to get rid of them.
• Add or update internal links. Internal links help users navigate your site and find related content, keeping them around for longer. They also help search engine crawlers understand the structure of your website. 
• Add or update external links. Make sure any links you include are to relevant, credible, up-to-date sources. 
• Make sure you use your target keyword(s) in the right places. A good rule of thumb is to include your main keyword in your title, meta description, one of your subheadings, and the first paragraph of the body content. Just don’t overdo it and stray into keyword stuffing!

6. Add or Remove Information

As we mentioned above, it’s fine to remove information from your content if it’s irrelevant, feels repetitive, or no longer serves the intended purpose.

It’s also fine – and encouraged – to add new information if it will increase the value of your content. This might involve adding more detail to thin content, covering new ideas or industry developments, or weaving in more examples to illustrate your points.

Carry out your own keyword research to find out what people are asking about the topics you cover. Take a look at Google’s “People Also Ask,” or use SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to automate the process. Add answers to the new questions your search throws up – an FAQ section, a short paragraph, a video how-to, or an infographic could all refresh your content.

7. Optimization for Mobile

Over 90% of users now access the internet via a mobile device, so it’s important that your content works well on tablets and cellphones. Top tips here are to:

• Use responsive images (so users are shown the right image size and resolution for their device)
• Stick to a simple layout with clear headings
• Remove any unnecessary elements that clutter the space, like pop-ups or ads
• Add white space around visual elements
• Make sure any links and buttons are easy to see and click

Becoming A Freelance Writer

There’s a lot to stay on top of as a content writer. We hope this post has helped you understand the importance of doing a content refresh. If you want to take your content creation further and launch yourself as a freelance writer, take a look at our course, Becoming A Freelance Writer. It will teach you all you need to know!