Nobody wants to work more than necessary, and why should they? Why spend five hours on Plan A when Plan B takes half the time and can be twice as effective?

While this may seem like common sense, many companies spend a lot of time producing new content for the site, when they should redesign their existing posts and landing pages to increase organic traffic.

Because? The answer makes perfect sense when you think about it:

Search engines (especially Google) are unpredictable. No matter how adept you are at using the AdWords keyword planner or how specific your SEO strategy is, you can never be absolutely sure which posts on your blog or even landing pages will perform the best, and what keywords will rank when they do. You have to post and wait to see how the results change over time (and it can take months for a post to gain, or not, the traction you’re looking for).

You could spend a week researching and writing an in-depth 3,000-word guide and discover that in a month, your traffic is being dwarfed by a 300-word blog that takes you one-tenth the time to write. This little gem can start ranking for some very valuable keywords, even if you never planned on it.

Get a makeover and you’ll see your ranking on the SERPs (search engine results pages) and organic traffic values ​​will skyrocket. Here’s an example of what can happen when you strategically redesign a content page to improve your SEO:

This graph shows the results of renewing a blog post for a customer. ONLY THREE WEEKS after posting, these were the results:

• In May, this post ranked for 165 keywords, 51 of which were in the top 10.
• As of June 14, this post ranked 399 keywords, 127 of which are in the top 10.

This reformulation is still very recent and we expect these figures to continue increasing. If you’re looking for ROI, content renewals are where they are!
We have seen this strategy work both with our clients and with our own website. Big advantage: in fact, it is an easy strategy to apply. To see how:

How to Choose the Best Pages to Revise to Increase Organic Traffic

Not all existing blog posts deserve an overhaul. Here’s how to find out what they are:

• Login to Google Analytics.
• In the menu on the left, click Acquisition.
• Click All Traffic, choose the source/medium and select Google (organic).
• Now click on Secondary dimension …

.… and from the drop-down menu, select Behavior and then Landing Page..

After following these steps, you will see your top landing pages for organic Google traffic. In other words, when Google brings users to your site based on whatever they searched for, these are the pages they visit most often.

See the top 100 results. You are now looking at the blog posts that are getting the most organic traffic from Google. Review them and ask yourself:

• What pages on your site have relatively little content, but generate a lot of search engine traffic?
• What recent posts are already generating a lot of traffic?
• Can the posts I identified contain more details, tips, or additional information?

In all of the above cases, you’ve probably found a page on your site that could become a keyword monster with a little extra content and keyword integration. Although we’ve already looked at the blog posts in this guide, don’t completely ignore the other pages on your site; These tips will work to increase organic traffic on all pages, not just individual blog posts.

When looking at the most popular pages on your site, you may find that some are not blog posts, and this is completely normal. If you find that your About Us or Services page has a decent ranking for multiple keywords, you may want to go back and reinforce that page, just like you would a blog post.

Now that you have located your additional content goals in the enhanced SERP placement, what is your next step?

How to Edit Old Blogs to Increase Organic Traffic

Finding the most popular pages on your site for organic search traffic is just the first step; now you need to figure out what you can do to make them even more interesting to search engines so that you can soak up the most of that sweet, best organic traffic possible. Here are three ways to do this:

Bump up the word count.

If the blog post you selected is less than 2000 words long, a simple way to increase organic traffic is to increase the word count, but not just sink. Make sure any content you add adds value too. Rather than dilute paragraphs, add entirely new sections that cover points you haven’t entered yet. Most likely, the added word count will allow you to add other keywords. Speaking of…

Increase keyword density.

Enter your post URL in SEMrush to discover the keywords you’re already ranked for. Are you ranking on the first page of the SERPs for a specific keyword that has high search volume?

Take a look at the keywords that are ranked in positions 2 to 10 and try to optimize them first – going from third to first position for a high search term can dramatically increase organic traffic. Plus, it’s easier to boost a page in the SERPs when it’s already ranked for that keyword.

Once you’ve identified a relevant keyword target, add it, but don’t clutter the page. Use additional keywords only where it makes sense.

Don’t forget to link these keywords to other relevant blog posts you’ve written and incorporate them into your headings and subheadings (use those H2!) To increase your SEO performance.

Target similar keyword strings

If your page is ranked by a keyword like “social media management,” you may want to search for similar long-tail keywords, such as “social media management price” or “social media management tools.” It is probably fairly easy to add sections that address these issues. Plus, by adding some extra long-tail keywords, you’ll have the added benefit of increasing the overall keyword density on the page.

Watch Your Website Rankings Improve

As with any content marketing strategy, revamping your old posts works best if you continue to monitor your results over time. By doing so, you will not only learn how your efforts paid off, but you can also get ideas for future posts or even ways to re-optimize your refreshed pages to increase organic traffic.

In the coming months, keep an eye out for their redesigned posts and use SEMrush and Google Analytics to track:

Changes in organic search traffic
Changes in bounce rates and time spent on the site.
New ranking keywords
Total number of ranking keywords
Position changes in keyword ranking

How Often Should You evaluate Your Business Blog Posts? If you post multiple times a week, checking once every three months is a good rule of thumb. If you post only a few times a month, evaluating twice a year should be sufficient.

Remember that search engine algorithms evolve and change, as does your keyword ranking, so set up a calendar reminder for yourself or your online marketing manager to drill down into search traffic and keywords from ranking to know exactly where you are and where your biggest opportunities lie.

If you’ve done all of this and you’re still not getting the boost you’re looking for … you may need to take a closer look at the other aspects of your digital marketing strategy. Specifically, ask yourself the following:

• Are you using creative content marketing ideas to send positive signals to search engines about your content?
• Are you leveraging your social media accounts to send a steady stream of traffic to specific pages?
• What is your backlinking strategy?
• Are you using tools like HARO to get valuable backlinks to your optimized content?

Each of these questions will provide you with a piece of the strategic puzzle. A fully developed strategy always produces the best results.

Do you need expert advice on how to improve your SEO strategy and increase organic traffic? Get in touch with us and we will help you on the right path.