It may still be winter, but I have already started doing some spring cleaning around my house. I have been cleaning out my closet and have been amazed at what I have found. There were clothes in there I had not seen in a while or had completely forgotten about. A few pieces I knew I would never wear again, but there were some I could not wait to wear again. Many of them needed to be washed and ironed before I could show them off in public though.
If you are a blogger, now is a great time to clean out your blogging closet too. If you have been blogging for a year or longer, there are probably some older posts that could be refreshed, updated or recycled.
This week I started going through my old posts. A few of the first posts I wrote made me cringe. They needed to be refreshed and updated just like my clothes. A few of the posts made me smile as I had forgotten about some very creative and fabulous content (if I do say so myself) that I published back before anyone was really even reading my blog.
I am working on updating those posts, adding new images, updating SEO and no indexing low quality content so that I can start (re)sharing them on my social media networks over the next couple months. Not only will this increase traffic to my site and improve SEO, it also gives me great content to share when I may not have time to post something new for a couple of days.
Do you need to clean out your blogging closet too? Here are a few tips on how to refresh your blog by updating and recycling your older content and what you can do from here on out to help improve your blog’s content, SEO and social media reach:
1. Make sure your posts are all categorized correctly and have relevant tags added. This helps with SEO, helps your readers find related content and if you use a related posts plugin it will help it pull posts that are actually related. Keep your categories simple and limited (depending on your niche you should have around 10-30 categories, the fewer the better though) and then use tags to deeper categorize your posts.
2. Make sure your posts have a quality image attached that is SEO optimized. Make your images more efficient and ready for pinning by adding text with the name of the post & your website / watermark. Pinterest is becoming my #2 traffic source so I am going back through all my old posts and adding Pinnable images. Check out this article from Social Media Examiner about how to create Pinworthy Images.
ALSO – make sure you make your images SEO optimized by filling in the title and alt information in the html description for the image that includes the title of the post and with relevant keywords. When you include the title attribute, Pinterest will show whatever you put as the title when someone goes to pin the image and search engines bots will also index the image based on what you include in the title attribute. The alt attribute tells search engines what the image is as well as they can’t “see” the image, but they can “read” the title & the alt attributes (alt means alternate description). Also if your server isn’t showing the image for whatever reason, the alt description will show up so the reader will know what the image was supposed to be.
3. Check for broken links and fix them. Use this Broken Link Checker site to search your site for broken links. Also look at your crawl errors in Google Webmaster Tools to see what pages or links Google cannot crawl and work on fixing those. It can take a while to fix all the broken links, but this will help your page rank.
4. Make sure your monetized links are all nofollow. Per Google’s Policy, all paid links need to be marked as nofollow. This means any links for affiliate offers, paid posts, sponsored posts, advertisements or anything you made money from or could make $ from if someone clicks it. To do this, just go to the HTML editor and after the link, add rel=”nofollow” For instance- <a href=”http://samplelinkhere.com” rel=”nofollow”> This tells the search engine bots that this link is paid link so they know to index it correctly.
5. Update the SEO for your posts, make sure your title is SEO friendly, you have a good meta description filled in and the appropriate keywords. Remember your posts should have at least 200 words to be considered quality content and indexed by Google. If you have posts that are less than 200 words or low quality (like group giveaway posts), you should noindex them. (On your post editor there should be an option in the SEO settings at the bottom to noindex the post). Only do this for low quality posts that you can’t improve. If you can re-write the post, add more solid content to it and make it quality, then do that instead. Be sure to rebuild your sitemap / resubmit your blog when you finish updating all the SEO in your posts if you don’t have a plugin installed that automatically does that. Check SEOMoz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO and all the SEO Articles on Problogger for SEO tips if you are not really sure what SEO is. I also recommend this SEO Guide for Creative Bloggersm from The Blogging Guide and Brankica Underwood’s (from Online Income Star) SEO Optimization Guides.
6. Also be sure to add links to relevant posts on your blog on the same or similar topics. This will help increase your pageviews and decrease your bounce rate by keeping visitors on your site and clicking to see more of your great content!
7. Find your most popular or favorite posts from the past and begin sharing or re-sharing them on your social media channels. You can also recycle posts on relevant topics. For instance, did you post some stellar Valentine’s Day crafts or recipes last year? Now would be a great time to re-share them. Think about this throughout the year and re-share related content from past years for events, holidays or any current hot topics.
8. Begin posting a daily “100 posts ago” or “on this day last year, we posted” or “from the archives”… on your social media channels to drive readers to your older posts. Your followers may enjoy taking a look back at your older posts too and you will build credibility with newer readers too. Obviously this needs to be an evergreen post and you may not be able to do it every single day.
9. Submit your older posts to new link ups on other blogs. If you didn’t share those posts on link ups in the past or have found news link ups to participate in, why not post those awesome, older posts now on those linkies?
10. Use Hootsuite and schedule your old posts to be published to your social media channels over the next few months. Mix in some of your older content with the newer content to keep a consistent flow of traffic to your site. Scheduling them out a few months ahead of time will help you work smarter, not harder. Many professional bloggers automate up to 80% of their social media sharing.
IMPORTANT INFO: I have had several questions and I wanted to clarify. When referring to resharing content, I do not mean actually re-posting the content on your blog as a new post. This would create duplicate content which is not good for SEO or Page Rank. Also, depending on your permalink structure, just changing the date for the post to republish could cause a broken link, which again is not good. If your permalink structure only has the post name in it, then you would be okay to change the date and republish, otherwise you should not do that. I am mainly referring to re-sharing on your social media outlets, link ups and networking groups.
You may be like me and have a lot of new readers who have not ever seen your awesome, older posts. You may also need to wash & iron your old posts to make them presentable to the search engines and your new readers. Just because your content isn’t brand new, doesn’t mean it isn’t still worthy of showing off! Go ahead and clean out your blogging closet, freshen up your blog and strut your stuff!
PS – One more thing you should do for yourself & your blog is to print and fill out this Blog Information Document and keep up with your domain, hosting and email login and renewal information.
Follow my Blogging Resources Board on Pinterest for tons more Blogging Tips!
Also, if you are new to blogging or ready to really blog as a business/for an income, check out these 2 eBooks from Problogger.com. Use the code FWOB33 to get $10 off! I recommend the First Week eBook for brand new bloggers and the 31 Days eBook for novice bloggers. Blogging with Amy also has great FREE tips on how to start a blog. I also just signed up for TipJunkie’s Mom Blog to Money Blog Course and have learned so much in just a couple days already! This course packs in way more than you could ever learn at a blogging conference and is laid out so that you can go at your own pace. It is an amazing class and you will get way more than your $’s worth for it!
Clean out your #Blogging Closet! #SEO #Pinterest #WordPress tips to improve your #blog! #bloggers po.st/Slmlf5 via @ceoofmeinc
— Misty Kearns (@ceoofmeinc) February 8, 2013
Image Courtesy FreeDigitalphotos.net / Customized by me
Great article Misty! I love the idea of bring out old posts via link ups and hootsuite. Posts still have value even if they are not brand new. Thanks for the SEO book recommendations too!
Thanks April!
Misty Kearns recently posted..Redo your ugly, laminate countertops for under $10 with Contact Paper!
Yes, yes and yes! I’m working on the same thing especially for Pinterest and it’s amazing how old posts get pinned 2 years later with a new fresh image. Thanks!
Clair Boone recently posted..THE Coolest Football Appetizer Ever
Thanks Clair! It is amazing the difference it makes now!
Misty Kearns recently posted..Register for (in)RL Conference! Building Community, Encouraging Women, Connecting in Real Life
Thanks for the great tips, I paid $150 for the free advice you just gave out
shannon recently posted..FRN Cards pre-loaded with $1.00 per gallon savings Giveaway Ends 2/1
Wow Shannon, maybe I should start charging, lol!
Misty Kearns recently posted..Redo your ugly, laminate countertops for under $10 with Contact Paper!
Honestly some do
shannon recently posted..FRN Cards pre-loaded with $1.00 per gallon savings Giveaway Ends 2/1
I really enjoyed this article and love you give a place to start
Thank you so much.
Laura Hinckley recently posted..Cross Country Cafe-Wacky Wednesday Coffee Sale! K-cups and more
Great tips! I plan to implement some of these other the next few weeks.
Cecile recently posted..Wordless Wednesdays – Endangered Gibbons Monkey
We practice many of these over at DenSchool and found it really helps. Additionally, anytime we post a Funny/Cute Status Picture on our social media it always has a link to a relevant old post. We have really found this great to help recycle.
Oh, and another one. Each of our posts links back to a relevant/related old post.
Great tips, thank you for the links on SEO. Love those articles
Victoria recently posted..National Popcorn Day ~ January 19th
Thanks Victoria! Great tip about including a relevant link with the funny fb pics too!
those are great tips
These are some important points that bloggers must apply. Recycling your post will help a lot to your page. This will reminisce all the important things that you had shared on the past.
Thank you so much for this!
I have alot to work on but so worth it!
(I to paid $$$ for this info and think it’s wonderful that you are so willing to help people!)
Thank you so much for sharing these tips, Misty! I will definitely get a lot of good use out of this!
Without exaggerating, this is the most useful blogpost I have ever read! I am so glad I clicked through SITS today! Over winter break I did #1 and cleaned up my tags and my categories. They were a MESS. I am going to work on everything else this weekend! And I’m using that brokenlink page right now! Thanks so much for all of this great info! Love, your newest follower!
http://likeordinarylife.com
Tina recently posted..Recently….
Hi Tina, thank you so much for the kind words! I am so glad it was a big help to you! I love helping others be successful by sharing what I have learned. I look forward to connecting with you!
Could you go over that a bit more slowly, please? How to you share an old post with out repeating what you have said in the past? I post links to my blog on Facebook and Twitter so wouldn’t I be repeating my self? I don’t get it. Does that tell you I’m a new blogger?
” I am referring to re-sharing on your social media outlets or networking groups.” I don’t get it.
Hi Sandra! Sure! When you share things on your social media networks, if you have say 1000 facebook fans, probably only 200 of them see the post when you post it. Same goes for Twitter, only a small % of your fans will see what you post.
You are also going to be growing your blog, your readers and social media followers each month and those new followers probably won’t go digging through your archives to find your awesome past posts, so you should be sharing your best posts throughout the year again.
I typically share my posts at least 3-4 different days & times the week I post them on Facebook and Twitter (spread out of course between other tweets, other shares, other comments on FB and Twitter). This helps more people see the post as not everyone is online at the same time, people don’t typically go to your page, they just see what shows up in their feed when they are online, so that’s why you should share your content several times.
I don’t mean to share the same post 5 times a day or 5 days in a row even. For instance, I’m going back and sharing some of my posts I wrote a year ago again mixed in between new content and other blog’s content that I share and I getting a lot of traffic on those older posts.
You can use hootsuite to schedule posts for months on out so you don’t even have to think about it too.
Another example, with the Superbowl coming up, I have been re-sharing some of my great appetizer recipes and mentioning Superbowl parties tips and recipes when I share.
Hope that helps & makes more sense!
Thank you for the informative tip on recycling older posts. I am just starting to put a lot of time into my website and posts.
Many blessings to you,
Mindi
Mindi recently posted..45 Life Lessons
Also you don’t want to post just links. You want to post conversations, ask questions, be real, engage your readers then link to your related post. This is one big thing I have learned that makes a huge difference.
Misty Kearns recently posted..Aloha Friday – Snow Days
Very helpful. So you would share old posts and new posts and you do it on a regular basis.
Don’t people get sick of you?
Could you give me an example of “You want to post conversations, ask questions, be real, engage your readers then link to your related post. This is one big thing I have learned that makes a huge difference. ”
Sorry to be so dense. I’ve just found you so I can see there’s lot’s to learn. Where can I find the recipes? We’re talking important stuff here!
Sandra recently posted..How to Succeed in Showbiz without Really Trying – Part Two
Yes that’s correct, it’s all about being consistent and providing quality, content worth reading for new and not so new readers and marketing your blog on social media and other networking sites.
As for conversations… Here’s an example: “Are you planning to host or attend a Superbowl party? Any great recipe ideas you could share? I will be making this Sloppy Joe Dip: http://ceoofmeinc.com/easy-cheesy-sloppy-joe-dip-recipe-low-fat-turkey-version/”
So that gives people something to reply to and I am genuinely interested in hearing their recipes too.
If I just post the link to the recipe, I’m just spitting out my content and being like “read me, read me, go visit my blog!” What I want / hope to do is build a community and engage with my readers so I try connect with them too instead of just post links.
You can find my recipes in my menu bar category- Eat Well
And also, I’m not an expert. I am still learning as I go, that is how we all learn. I just wanted to share tips and things I had learned so far to help others out too. I’m still a small fish in a big pond and still learning something new every day.
That’s how we all find our own path to success in blogging, business and life too. 
Well, you’ve got excellent ideas and it’s fun to learn from you.
Sandra recently posted..How to Succeed in Showbiz without Really Trying – Part Two
Thank you, I appreciate that more than you know!
Saying hi from SITS! What a great post – there are so many tips in there that I already know I need to do but haven’t made time – like updating categories and tags. Thanks for the much-needed reminder!
Hi Beth, thanks so much!
Misty Kearns recently posted..Small Business Saturday Jan 19-2013
What is SITS?
Sandra recently posted..How to Succeed in Showbiz without Really Trying – Part Two
SITS – is a Blogging Network for Women with resources, opportunities, networking and training here is the link: http://www.thesitsgirls.com/
thanks – I am having to move my blogs from multiply to blogger (multiply are going to shut down)
I find myself rebuilding the old blogs are adding them to a weekly online magazine
GOODSTUFF recently posted..Janis Joplin Reflections
So glad I found you from SITS, this post is an amazing resource and I am going to share it now…many thanks, Lisa
Grown and Flown recently posted..11 Ways Social Media is Turning Us into Teens
Great ideas for re-sharing previous blog content. It’s one of those things I know I should do and have not been doing. Thanks for nudge Misty!
Kim Hawkins recently posted..My ONE Word For 2013: Resolve
This post is so helpful! Thanks for sharing your great tips, I’m inspired to spruce up my posts now.
Great information and ideas (I’ve got the broken link checker running in another window and it’s not looking good lol) I’ve been thinking about how to get more eyes on my old posts. Woof!
Doggy Dessert Chef recently posted..bacon breath
This is a very useful post that I can actually understand what I need to do. Thank you!
StephanieR recently posted..Need Coffee?
I have a question. I started my blog as a personal blog and it sort of just merged into a craft blog. What do you think about re-writing a few of those early craft posts and taking new pictures? I know it would be duplicate content but the early content isn’t awesome and the pictures are awful. Or would you just recommend re-working the original post with new pictures? I know this is sort of a unique situation, but my beginning blogging days were pretty sad.
Laura recently posted..Dear Olivia . . .
Hi Laura! Since you are on blogger and your permalinks have the date in them, what I would just do is update those older posts and then share them on social media, new link ups and feature them in your sidebar and maybe do a round up post of crafts to highlight them on a current post? Also link to them in relevant posts. I would not delete the post and post a new one since the older ones are already indexed and that would cause broken links or duplicate content. Hope that helps & I am checking out your blog now too!
Thanks Misty! I might just try to edit the pictures a little and re-write the content some. I need to go back and set my pictures to be bigger as well! Thanks for the info! I appreciate it.
Laura recently posted..Ninjago Lollipops and Printable Ninjago Eyes
You are most welcome!
Misty, Thank you so much for sharing these great tips!
Megan recently posted..Brand New! -BOGO (up to $3.00) Skintimate Shave Gel or Cream
This is a really helpful list. I’m hoping to get some time this weekend to sit down and go through it in detail.
I signed up for your mailing list, can’t wait to learn more from you! (I’m a fellow iBloom Ambassador, I saw your post there yesterday.)
Beth Cranford recently posted..Let’s Make it a Great Year
Thanks Beth! Glad I could help.
Lots of great ideas and info. I do need to clean out my blog closet. Time to take down or freshen up posts that weren’t great and I do share my old posts but not very often. Off to do just that
Mel recently posted..Day 9 Combat The Enemy One Verse Per Day
Thank you so much for putting so much time and thought into this article – it is a HUGE help!
Y’know, it would be useful if WordPress would add a checkbox for the nofollow option in the link dialog. It’s rather a pain to have to go in and manually edit the HTML for a jillion individual links.
May I ask if you went through all of your old posts and, if so, how long did it take you? I printed out a list of my old posts, and had started doing some of this stuff…but I have literally thousands of posts, and I have kids to raise! This takes a lot of time. Do you have any suggestions for making the most of the time available to make the most difference if you can’t hit EVERY old post?
Rachel R. recently posted..Soylicious Candle of the Month
Hi Rachel! I totally agree on the nofollow checkbox. There are plugins you can install that add that, but sometimes if you remove the plugin or it acts up it will remove the nofollow code, so I’ve found it’s best to just manually code it.
I only had about 550 posts to go through. I would spend like 1-2 hours a night for maybe 2-3 weeks going back through them? I still have some recipe posts I need to re-do and re-make and take better pictures of.
I would say start with low quality posts & updating them – this would be posts under 200 words. If you can add more to the post to make it over 200 words and relevant, quality content then do that. If not, no index it. I no indexed all my giveaway posts and affiliate posts (I tried to do deals/affiliates for about a month back in 2011, was not for me, lol!) There are plugins you can install that will show you posts under 200 words so it can make it easier to find those posts to work on.
Also be sure links that should be nofollow are nofollow.
Then move on to your top posts or posts you feel are great content. Make sure they have a pin worthy photo and update the SEO in them. Then start re-sharing them on social media.
I just pretty much went back to my first month of posts and did a month at a time, doing 1-2 months each night a couple nights a week.
What I can tell you is that what I have shared does work. I have tripled my pageviews since October and Pinterest is my #1 traffic source going on 3 months now bringing in 30%+ of my traffic and have doubled my income just since Oct too.
Misty Kearns recently posted..Small Business Saturday – Share your Small Biz Feb 9 2013
Good advice! I’ve been thinking about at “this day in history” link to archive posts … I love the idea about sharing them in social media! Thanks!!
Thank so much Noel!
Misty Kearns recently posted..Dealing with Procrastination #ibloom
Excellent information! Thank-you for sharing the helpful information amd great ideas too. Now, for me to gain followers to read those post, Lol!
shanna recently posted..Take Five Oddities
Thanks Shanna! The readers will come, just write great content, connect with your readers, network with other bloggers & your blog will grow steadily!
Misty Kearns recently posted..What Valentine’s Day is really about (Loving One Another)
Thank-you for the encouragement and advice Misty!
shanna recently posted..Take Five Oddities
Misty,
Thank you so much for these great tips! I just ran the broken link checker (WOW – almost 600 broken links) and a lot of them are broken links from comments. What I mean is, when someone has commented on my posts, they have put their blog link, and since it’s no longer valid, it’s showing up as a broken link. Is there a way to get rid of it?
Thank you!
Courtney Pies recently posted..Top 3 Tips For Better Baby Pictures with SanDisk!
You’re welcome Courtney! Yes you can go through your comments and unlink or correct the link. It is a PAIN… The broken link checker should show you the post the broken link is on and then you can search for the comment and WP allows you to edit your comments. It took me a pretty good while to unlink or fix them all… :/
Misty Kearns recently posted..Tips to Prevent Spreading Germs During Cold & Flu Season including using Kleenex Hand Towels
Thanks I definitely need to do this
Katrina recently posted..25 FREE Mobile Coupons – Week 2
You’re welcome!
Misty Kearns recently posted..Changing your life by changing your habits…
Great Tips! Thanks so much for confirming what I have been thinking I should do, now I need to do it!
Regina recently posted..Recipe: Salted Caramel Pots de Crème with Whipped Cream and Sea Salt