How to Update Your Old Blogs to Give Them a New Life (& to Give You More SEO Benefits)

To say I’ve been blogging “for a long time” is an understatement.

I’ve been blogging since I lived in a different country and had a husband and an infant.

(That infant is now 7.)

(And, luckily, that husband has been replaced.)

…which means I have blogs out there, currently live, currently getting traffic, that still say husband (gag me), that reference a waitlist for a course that launched in January 2021, that link to a version of my services that hasn’t existed in years, that have screenshots of student websites that those students have since completely redesigned…

Over 200 blogs!!!

Some of them are doing great, and some of them are an archaeological dig into my past life. Yet, all of them have the potential to be working harder for me than they were.

This is exactlyyyy why I hired Eden from Maven Made Copy to update them.

Not write new ones — update the (very) old ones.

On her episode of the Point of the Story podcast, she walked through exactly why that matters and how she does it, so you can decide if you want to DIY it, delegate it, or somewhere in between.

Listen to our episode and keep reading for all the tea on how to update old blog posts so they work harder for your business.

Is Blogging Still a Thing?

Um, ya girl, why else would I be writing this blog post?!

Blogging is one of the most effective organic marketing tools you have at your disposal, and it’s SO MUCH EASIER than you think.

And what makes it even easier? You don’t have to constantly create new content.

You can take what you already have and simply update it, and it counts as a new blog post in the eyes of Miss Google.

What’s the Point of Updating Old Blogs?

Eden convinced me, now let me convince YOU.

The SEO reason:

When you publish a brand new blog, Google has never seen it before. It has to discover it, crawl it, figure out what it’s about, and decide where to rank it. That takes time.

When you update an old blog, Google already knows that URL exists. It already has authority. It’s already associated with certain search terms. You’re not starting from scratch — you’re improving something Google has already vetted. It’s like getting a warm referral versus a cold lead. Google is way more likely to trust the updated version faster than a brand-new post.

And here’s the kicker: Google treats an updated blog almost the same as brand new content. You’re getting nearly the same SEO benefit of publishing something fresh without having to start with a blank white Google Doc.

The practical reason:

You already have the outline. You already did the research. You already wrote the thing. Updating takes a fraction of the time of writing something new — and you’re still telling Google, “hey, look over here, I have something new for you.”

The money reason:

I have a blog post that has ranked number one for years for the search term “Showit vs Squarespace.” I update it every year. So many people use my Showit affiliate link from that blog that I no longer pay for Showit.

My $450 annual plan? Free. Funded entirely by one blog post that I wrote once and keep updating.

That is about as close to passive income as it gets. And it only works because I keep that blog up to date.

If you have blogs with affiliate links, old offers, broken links, or outdated information, you are actively losing money every single day they remain the way they are.

Even if a blog is ten years old, someone is clicking on it TODAY, which means it needs to be relevant to TODAY.

How to Choose Which Old Blogs to Update

Not all blogs are created equal. Here’s how to prioritize which blogs to update first:

Start with the ones that make you cringe.

If you think about a specific blog and feel your stomach drop, that’s your sign. You shouldn’t be sending people to content you’re embarrassed by — same energy as sending people to a website you hate.

Look at your analytics.

There are two situations worth paying attention to in Google Search Console:

• Blogs that used to get a lot of traffic but have seen a drop recently (a sign they need a refresh)
• Blogs that cover a great topic or keyword but never got much traffic in the first place (a sign that someone else on Google has a better version, and you need to level up yours).

Look for missed opportunities.

If a blog is already getting decent traffic but doesn’t mention your current offer, your freebie, your podcast, or your newer resources — that’s money sitting on the table. A quick update with relevant links could be doing a lot more for you than it currently is.

9 Steps to Update Old-Ass Blog Posts

SO! When you’re updating old blog posts to bring them back to life, follow these steps that Eden uses — and we’ll use my blogs as an example…

1. Read through the blog.

First, read through the whole blog to get a sense of what needs updating. 

Look for:

• Outdated advice / tips / stats / experience to remove or update.
• Opportunities to expand on a topic or add more content (If it’s a list post, can you add one more thing to it? Was a jargon term breezed over that you could explain?)
• Big blocks of text to break up into smaller paragraphs or bullet point lists, or add a subheading.
• Images that aren’t loading or are outdated.
• Old examples (Mentioning a client project that was finished in 2023—there’s probably a more recent example to use.)
• Old dates (Saying stuff like “last year during the pandemic.” Or, in my case, saying “my husband” when you all know I’m divorced and have a new side character.)

2. Begin updating the content.

Address anything you found from step 1! But honestly, you can add content throughout the entire blog update process as you come up with ideas and things that need refreshing.

3. Update links.

Click on every link in the blog to make sure it’s not broken. If it is, remove or update it.

Then, look through the blog to find areas you could add links to:

• Blogs
• Free resources
• Service pages
• Portfolio pieces
• Email list
• Substack
• Social media posts or accounts
• Podcast episodes
• Courses
• Smaller paid offers, such as workshops, audits, templates, strategy calls, Swipe File, etc.

I have a lot of stuff, guys. Eden’s putting in the work over here.

Sometimes she even embeds my Instagram posts, Reels, or podcast episodes in my blogs if they’re relevant! Because Miss Google looooves a multi-media moment.

4. Update the CTA.

Sometimes the CTA at the end needs to be updated, because the old one could be going to a waitlist page for a service that’s launched (ahem, not Site Series being launched for 5 whole years and blogs still linking to the waitlist page ?) or maybe a general service page that now has a more specific sales page.

Orrrrr maybe you used to end every blog with a CTA to join your email list, and now you want to drive more traffic to your contact page.

Giving the CTA a little refresh is never a bad idea.

5. Run it through Grammarly.

Eden uses Grammarly to help her catch small spelling or grammatical errors I might have missed, then updates the blog. Even copywriters make mistakes sometimes!

6. Update the SEO metadata.

Double-check that the target keyword is still the best choice for the blog. If the old keyword got really competitive or you find one with better volume, swap it out in the SEO title, meta description, and blog title.

Read through the existing SEO title and meta description to ensure the character count isn’t too long or too short, and that it accurately reflects the post’s topic.

Take another look through the blog to see where you’ve already naturally used the keyword and where else you can strategically place it.

No clue what a keyword is? Check out this workshop I did with SEO expert Mariah Magazine.

7. Double-check alt text.

Look to see if all the images in the post have alt text, and if not, write new ones for them.

Use Mariah Magazine’s alt text generator to help write them!

8. Update the publish date.

I didn’t know this, but Eden told me during our episode that some people think updating the publish date is deceptive to readers? Like, they might think it’s a brand-new blog post? But who will actually notice if you update an old blog post and republish it? The blog IS updated, so neither of us sees a problem with updating the publish date.

A new publish date signals to Google that there’s something new to review on your website. It also pushes it to the top of your blog home page, getting more eyes on the new content!

9. Request indexing.

Just to be extra sure Google sees the new content, go to Google Search Console and ask it to reindex the page.

The best part of updating old blogs?

This doesn’t have to take for-fucking-ever to do. Five minutes of fixing broken links and updating one call to action still counts. It still signals to Google. It still serves your reader better than leaving it alone. Done is better than perfect, especially when “done” takes five minutes.

And blogs don’t have to be ancient like mine to make this worth it. Even a blog from a few months ago might have a new offer to link to, a podcast episode to embed, or a freebie that didn’t exist when you wrote it.

What will you update first?

Obviously, some blogs need more work than others, but if you have blogs that you haven’t touched in over a year, they probably deserve a quick read to see if anything can be improved.

Not sure where to even start with blogging or other marketing content? Book a 1:1 strategy call with me to untangle your brain and navigate any problems you have or brainstorm how you can make the most of your time creating content.

Working With Eden

Eden writes and updates blogs for business owners who know they should be doing something with their content but don’t have the time, the energy, or the desire to do it themselves. She also writes long-form podcast show notes — basically turning your podcast episodes into full blog posts that live on your site and boost your SEO while you sleep.

You can see her work in real time on my blog, where she has been lovingly removing the remnants of my past life, one post at a time. We’re making our way downtown. There are 200 blogs and 97 drafts in WordPress purgatory. We’ll get there.

​Find her at mavenmadecopy.com and on Instagram and Threads at @mavenmadecopy. Her blog is there too, and she updates it weekly, because she’s a blog writer and she has to practice what she preaches, duh.