As bloggers, we tend to focus on what we’re creating now rather than what we created months or even years ago.
Of course, it’s important to put time and effort into creating new content for our blogs. And that’s what we do here with both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. We want to make those posts useful and practical, and to ensure they’re well edited, attractive to the reader, and optimized for search engines.
Why Your Archives are an Amazing Asset
If you’ve been blogging for a year or more, your archives probably contain loads of great content that can really help your readers.
It may take a while for your regular readers – particularly the newest ones – to get to those archive posts. But readers who come in from search engines are more than likely to land on one. In fact, when I looked at the Google Analytics for Digital Photography School, the 14 most recent posts got only 15% of the overall traffic. The remaining 85% went to older posts.
So don’t assume your archived posts don’t matter or aren’t useful. They’re almost certainly getting a large share of your traffic.
And don’t assume the people who subscribe to your newsletter or keep coming back to your blog each week have read them either.
Here’s how to focus more on your archives, which can provide a number of benefits.
Revisiting Archived Posts
#10: Do any comments need to updated 2024 mobile phone number data be dealt with? This where I delete any spam that has managed to slip through the moderation system. It also gives me the opportunity to reply to comments I haven’t responded to yet.
#11: How is the post performing in Google Analytics? If the post has a lot of comments, or gets new comments regularly, I might look in Google Analytics to see how it’s performing. If it’s doing well, it’s a sign I need to pay attention to that post. For instance, I might be able to get it ranking even better.
As I go through these questions, I usually find the posts only need a few small tweaks. But even if I don’t update it, looking at that post helps me put it to the front of my mind.
Repeating the Process So You Cover All Your Posts Annually
Once I’ve done this for the posts from six months ago, I do it again with the posts from 12 months ago.
I get into a rhythm when I do it, so it only takes me a couple of minutes to look over each post.
I then go back 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, and so on – right back to the start of the blog in 2006.
All up it takes me about an hour. And it’s one of the most valuable things I do each day.
I look at every post in our archive (of more than 6,000) at least twice a year. And many of them get little tweaks along the way.
You might want to try a different system, such as looking only at the posts published one and two years ago. Or you have some other way of looking at posts in your archives – some of which you may have forgotten were even there.
Why This Process is So Effective
When I share older posts on social media other people often share them too, which helps to bring in even more traffic.
And updating old posts can help search engines view them more positively – potentially bringing in a lot more traffic over time.
I also get loads of new ideas when Defnyddio Storïau Cwsmer i Yrru Ymgysylltiad ac Arweinwyr I do this. For instance, if I see that posts on a particular topic are doing really well, I might think about creating additional content. A while ago we realized a lot of our Digital Photography School posts on Adobe Lightroom were doing especially well, which gave us the idea to create a course on Adobe Lightroom.
This process also keeps my archive s agb directory from looking dated and out of touch. I don’t want 85% of people coming to my blog thinking “Meh, this is no good. It’s out of date”.
You may not have an hour a day to devote to this. That’s fine. Make a start anyway. Even spending ten minutes on one post in your archives each day can make a huge difference over time.
I’d love to hear how you maintain your archives and keep older posts up to date (and visible to your current audience). Feel free to share your tips in the comments.
