Updating my old posts

After a four-post break, it’s time to resume my Blog posts housekeeping series with the sixth item on my to-do list: “Update content (as necessary for accuracy).” Before diving into my plans, it’s crucial to clarify what this post (or updating process) will not cover.

It is important to note that my intention is not driven by SEO considerations, and I will preserve the original essence of these posts, even if I update them.

As I delved into articles on the subject of updating old blog posts, I encountered a recurring theme: finding an easy way to get more traffic. The notion of “easy” in these articles typically revolves around implementing strategies focused solely on top-performing posts. Most of these guides are heavily SEO-oriented, emphasizing cost-effective methods to boost traffic without creating new content from scratch. The common advice includes “sprinkling new keywords,” “setting a meta description ¹,” or simply “updating the publish date.” Seriously!? This approach aims to deceive search engines into thinking the content is fresh, thereby improving rankings. However, this isn’t what I have in mind at all—quite the opposite!

To increase the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and boost your search engine traffic, you can just update your old content and give yourself an improved freshness score. When you tell Google your content is new, you’ll get a spike in traffic that will make the tiny amount of work required well worth it.Neil Patel

First, I won’t selectively choose which blog posts to update; I’ll apply my strategy to all posts in chronological order. Second, my goal is not to deceive search engines for better rankings. I’ve already addressed this practice in my article about replacing “Proudly powered by WordPress” with a copyright notice:

It’s not the first time that I have to complain about the dishonest practice of recycling articles without updating the content. While some limit their deceit to changing automatically the published date (or the modified date), others go as far as updating the title as well; of course without modifying the content (e.g. “Best WordPress theme for 2020” for an article unchanged since 2013 or “How to customize the Twenty Seventeen theme” while the method refers actually to Twenty Thirteen).

Sadly, many deceitful people cheat at this game by changing the post update date only – i.e., without actually updating the content! There are even some plugins to bulk edit the date of your posts in one click. What a shame!

Once more, my aim isn’t to drive more traffic—although that would be a welcome outcome—but rather to improve the reader’s experience.

Common practices I choose not to implement

Republishing blog posts is a smart way to get more traffic to your posts. It’s been part of our blog growth strategy for a while, and we’re not planning to stop anytime soon.Joshua Hardwick

This section will focus solely on legitimate and meaningful updates, rather than on dubious practices. And if you’re wondering why I choose not to implement them (the legitimate updates, of course), it’s because I want to maintain the authenticity and original essence of my content.

Adding content

When adding new content to existing blog posts, the primary focus is indeed on enriching the reader’s experience and enhancing their understanding of the topic. This involves including updated information that reflects the latest developments in the field, adding valuable insights that were not covered in the original post, and providing additional context where necessary.

I don’t know about you, but I have a ton of older posts that are short, out of date, or simply aren’t as good as they could be. My hope is that I can improve and expand each of them over time so that when a reader comes across an old blog post it is still a valuable resource and has been recently updated.Aminta Demadura

Expanding my old posts with new information would certainly freshen them up, but my primary goal is to ensure that the content remains relevant and informative (see below). In line with my initial statement to preserve the original essence, I don’t want to change the core of my original posts. It’s not that I don’t share Aminta’s hope of making them better—in fact, I would love to enhance them significantly. However, this blog narrates the choices, incidents, and achievements of my CogitActive adventure—a long, involved story that I want to present authentically, without altering or embellishing it. I don’t aim to rewrite history, but rather to present it as it happened.

So, I will resist the temptation to make extensive changes or add content, even though some of my posts—especially those written after that fateful summer of 2020—would definitely need and deserve such extra work.

Adding illustrations

Images that illustrate the points you’re making in your blog post can help improve the SEO of a page, and help visually break up the chunks of content. If you didn’t add any images the first time around, here’s your chance to do so!Abby Webb

Adding images to blog posts is a powerful way to enhance the reader’s experience. Visuals can illustrate key points, provide additional context, and break up large blocks of text, making the content more engaging and easier to digest. Not only do images make the post visually appealing, but they also improve the overall readability and accessibility of the content. Furthermore, relevant images can boost the SEO performance of a blog post by attracting more visitors and increasing time spent on the page.

Some of my older posts are indeed a little sparse on images; those published after—you’ve guessed it—that fateful summer of 2020, in particular, could benefit from more visual content. However, to maintain the authenticity and integrity of my original posts, I will refrain from making significant changes to these older entries. Besides, I’d better spend my time adding pictures to current posts—starting with this one!

Improving readability

Building on the importance of adding images to break up large blocks of text and make content more engaging and easier to digest, improving readability is another critical aspect of updating old blog posts. Readability ensures that the content is accessible, enjoyable, and comprehensible for a wide audience. Well-structured posts with clear headings, concise paragraphs, and appropriate formatting can significantly enhance the reader’s experience.

This is a good time to review formatting and make sure your blog post is neat and easy to read.Sam Stemler

… many of my oldest posts were published before the release of the Gutenberg editor. Transitioning these posts to the new editor could improve their look and make future updates easier. However, moving their code to Gutenberg could also alter their original format, which is something I aim to avoid to maintain the authenticity of my blog.

Those who follow this blog have probably guessed the elephant in the room—why this sub-section falls under the “Common practices I choose not to implement” heading. They know all too well that I am not a natural blog writer, nor a native English speaker, and despite my efforts, my posts are were not as polished as I wished. They have also witnessed the enhanced quality of my writing that began a few months ago. The magic behind this improvement is my invaluable editing assistant, Copilot. While it would be satisfying to edit my older posts to match this higher standard, I choose to preserve their original form. I will not ask Copilot to improve my older posts.

To reiterate, I will not change the nature of these old posts.

Enhancements I’ll make instead

What I have already in the pipe

In previous posts of this “Blog posts housekeeping” series, I’ve outlined several key actions aimed at enhancing the overall quality of my already published articles:

Checking for broken links: I have decided to check all the links manually to identify and fix any broken links to ensure that all content is accessible and provides a seamless user experience.

If your blog post has not been reviewed in a couple of years, it’s worth checking that all the links you have on the page still work. Manually try them all out, and if you find one that no longer works, either replace it with an updated link or just amend that section so it makes sense without a link.Abby Webb

Implementing external links best practices: As explained in a three-part article, I will ensure that my external links are both secure and aligned with modern web standards, including web accessibility standards. If you want to learn the best practices for handling external links, you may start your path with the first article:

External links best practices

Improving my internal linking strategy: Originally, I intended just to add links to ‘future’ posts, but my journey revealed the depth and complexity of good internal linking practices. If you want to discover the profound impact that internal links can have on both user experience and SEO and find out my comprehensive new to-do list, check the first installment of my three-part article:

Mastering internal linking

Optimizing my links’ text anchor: Enhancing the clarity and relevance of link text anchors to improve SEO and reader understanding because anchor text matters. Therefore, I have started to implement best practices, avoid common mistakes, and use advanced strategies to ensure my links are valuable and relevant and contribute to a seamless browsing experience.

Generating anchors for headings: Creating anchors for headings to make navigating through long posts easier and more intuitive. While adding anchor links might seem straightforward, there are always a few twists and turns along the way. Foremost, anchor links work by linking to a specific HTML element that has an id attribute assigned to it. For more on this, see Turning headings into link targets.

These actions lay a strong foundation for maintaining and improving my blog’s user experience. Equally important, they will ensure my content is accessible to all readers, including those with disabilities.

Correcting outdated or no longer accurate content

Over time, the numbers, links, studies, or other information you’ve referenced in the blog post gets old. A content refresh will give you some time to make sure everything is accurate.Sam Stemler

Keeping your blog content accurate and up-to-date is crucial for maintaining credibility and providing value to your readers. As time passes, certain information may become outdated or incorrect due to new developments, changes in the industry, or advancements in technology. It’s essential to periodically review and update your content to ensure it remains relevant and factual. This is actually what I had in mind when I put “Update content (as necessary for accuracy)” on my Blog post housekeeping to-do list.

To maintain the integrity of my blog, I will make sure to add relevant updates without altering the core message or narrative of the posts thanks to my “emendation” block. I have already used this approach in the past; here is an excerpt of my SiteGround post as an example:

While it might be tempting to overhaul entire posts (for SEO benefits), my goal is to preserve the original essence and context of my blog.

Double-checking spelling and grammar

Maintaining high standards of spelling and grammar is essential for the professionalism and credibility of any blog. Errors in spelling and grammar can distract readers, detract from the message, and give an impression of carelessness. To ensure that my posts are polished and error-free, I normally commit to double-checking spelling and grammar before publication. However, as a non-native English speaker, I sometimes struggle with nuances and idiomatic expressions. Despite my best efforts, occasional errors may slip through.

Poor grammar and spelling negatively impact the user experience.

In American English, punctuation marks such as periods and commas are placed inside the quotation marks. This is different from British English, where punctuation is often placed outside the quotation marks unless it is part of the quoted material. Despite my blog being written in American English, I was using the British English rule because it felt more intuitive to me. Who am I to decide what looks better?

In English writing, it is standard to place a space before the superscript number for footnotes. This space ensures that the footnote marker is distinct from the word it follows, making the text easier to read. I am now applying this rule, but I was not doing this in my old posts. I have to make this right.

I aim to improve my writing skills continuously, which is why I appreciate any feedback from my readers to help me improve.

Wrapping Up

Spending time working on improving [old blog posts] is a worthwhile activity, and could be more beneficial than just writing new content on the same topic.Abby Webb

I am aware that keeping content updated, accurate, and accessible is not just a one-time effort but an ongoing commitment. That is why I am not only updating all my old posts accordingly, but I am also applying all these actions moving forward.

As you may have understood by now, I strive to preserve the original essence and context of each post. To maintain the integrity of my work—no matter how unsatisfied I can be with it sometimes—I will resist the temptation to make substantial changes to the original content. There is a slight nuance to this statement though. Whenever there is a better version available (e.g., a future post addressing the same topic more in-depth), I will add a follow-up note ³ to ensure that readers always have access to the most informative, accurate, and up-to-date content.

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¹ Meta descriptions are a crucial component of SEO. They serve as a brief advertisement for content in search results, informing and engaging users with a short, relevant summary of what the page is about. Crafting clear, compelling, and keyword-rich meta descriptions can enhance online visibility and attract targeted traffic to your website. ^
² I had an accessibility concern with the use of the <del> element. According to the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) documentation, The presence of the del element is not announced by most screen reading technology in its default configuration. There is a CSS trick to circumvent this issue as provided in their The Deleted Text element (external link) article: using the CSS content property to announce it. However, in keeping with the same source, people who use screen readers deliberately disable announcing content that creates extra verbosity. It is thus recommended not to abuse this technique and only apply it in situations where not knowing content has been deleted would adversely affect understanding. ^
³ I have already used this approach once: in my “How to set up OneNote for GTD?” article. As explained in the post describing my discovery of Copilot, I noticed that readers were arriving at my post entitled “How to set up OneNote for GTD?” with high hopes, only to leave disheartened because the title was misleading. To address this, I appended an amendment redirecting visitors to the actual answer: “GTD using OneNote my way,” using my emendation block, obviously! ^