Updating your website content (periodically, if possible) can really improve rankings and organic traffic. However, compared to other SEO best practices (e.g. optimizing title tags, improving internal linking, fixing technical issues), doing it at scale can take a lot of time. That's why you need to be strategic about it. In this presentation, Raffa will explain how he designed and coordinated content refresh initiatives at Fodors.com, a large travel website, which resulted in organic traffic increases ranging from 25% to 60% and how you can do the same.

1. SEARCHLOVE - SAN DIEGO 2019
WHY, WHEN, AND HOW
YOU SHOULD UPDATE YOUR CONTENT
Raffaele Asquer,
Golden Hippo Media
linkedin.com/in/raffasquer
twitter.com/raffasquer
https://www.slideshare.net/RaffaeleAsquer

2. Eternal life, anyone?

3. Eternal life *
* "eternal" search traffic to your blog posts, that is.

4. Andrew Tate, "The Science Behind 100,000-View Blog Posts"

5. Andrew Tate, "The Science Behind 100,000-View Blog Posts"
- 60%

6. Andrew Tate, "The Science Behind 100,000-View Blog Posts"
Can you avoid this?

7. WORDS OF INSPIRATION

8. THE PROBLEM
LARGE TRAVEL SITE
D E C L I N I N G S E A R C H T R A F F I C

9. didn't move the needle
S I T E S P E E D
O P T I M I Z A T I O N
I N T E R N A L
L I N K I N G
( V I A F O O T E R )

10. ...why are we like this?
But wait...
2015
2016
2014

11. ...when everybody else is like...

13. CONTENT UPDATE PROJECT
30 articles,
including top articles by organic traffic
THE SOLUTION

14. 3 CHALLENGES -> 3 STEPS
when to update
Part II
how to updatewhen to update
Part I

15. Challenge
" T H E P A T H O F G O D "
(although in the movie this was actually challenge #3)

16. These articles are doing OK...
Why are we risking it?
T H E U P P E R M A N A G E M E N T

17. Missed
opportunities

18. When to update - Part I
First, identify high-potential articles
with declining organic traffic

19. A) DECLINING TRAFFIC
compare past 12/24 months with previous 12/24 months
totalorganicentrances

20. B) POTENTIAL TRAFFIC
estimate traffic from keywords ranking on page 1-2

21. B) POTENTIAL TRAFFIC
keep an eye on organic CTR!

22. No conversion Conversion
C) POTENTIAL REVENUE
Bonus points for high-converting articles

23. When to update - Part I

24. Challenge
" T H E B R E A T H O F G O D "

25. Why don't we just change
the timestamps?
T H E T E C H T E A M

26. What about adding "in 2019"
to the title tags?
T H E T E C H T E A M

27. Cyrus Shepard, "10 Illustrations of How Fresh Content May Influence Google Rankings"
https://moz.com/blog/google-fresh-factor-new

28. When to update - Part II
Analyze SERPs - present and past - to
identify articles worth updating...

29. When to update - Part II
...and discover how competitors
have updated theirs

30. When to update - Part II
~200
high-potential articles,
declining traffic
may benefit from content update
30

31. A) DO MOST
COMPETITORS HAVE
FRESH CONTENT?
look at current SERPs
competitor
you

32. CONTENT FRESHNESS
SEEMS TO MATTER...
SOMETIMES
NOT REALLY
[best los angeles clubs]

33. CONTENT FRESHNESS
MATTERS
ONLY SOMETIMES
[how to change
twitter handle]

34. Method #1 : download HTML files of
your SERPs with STAT APICredit: Dominic Woodman
HOW TO CHECK
DATES ON
SERP QUICKLY

35. HOW TO CHECK
DATES ON
SERP QUICKLY
Method #1 : scrape HTML with Python

36. Method #2 : crawl a list of URLs such as
e.g. with Screaming Frog
https://www.google.com/search?q=bars+in+berlin
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+change+tire
https://www.google.com/search?q=movies+near+me
HOW TO CHECK
DATES ON
SERP QUICKLY

37. Method #2 : then pull the dates with custom extraction
https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/web-scraping/
HOW TO CHECK
DATES ON
SERP QUICKLY

38. HOW TO CHECK
DATES ON
SERP QUICKLY
Method #3
GLEN ALLSOPP, "SEO SECRET #4: ADVANCED
KEYWORD RESEARCH CASE STUDY"
https://detailed.com/secret-keyword-research/

39. When to update - Part II

40. When to update - Part II

41. B) HAVE COMPETITORS
UPDATED THEIR CONTENT?
become a SERP archeologist
today's SERP
6 months ago
2 years ago
1 year ago

42. the SERP archeologist's tool kit
A h r e f s

43. the SERP archeologist's tool kit
S T A T
who's always been on top ?

44. the SERP archeologist's tool kit
W a y b a c k M a c h i n e
have they updated it?

45. When to update - Part II

46. When to update - Part II

47. When to update - Part II

48. DO YOUR COMPETITORS
UPDATE THEIR CONTENT?
UPDATE THAT ARTICLE!

49. When to update - Part II
~200 30

50. Challenge
" T H E W O R D O F G O D "

51. We are busy writing new articles...
But we'll get to it
T H E E D I T O R I A L T E A M

52. Getting writers on board
PICK YOUR
BATTLES
few, high-potential articles

53. Getting writers on board
PICK YOUR
BATTLES
few, high-potential articles
MAKE THEIR
LIFE EASY
clear guidelines

54. How to update
25% - 33% NEW CONTENT
0 10 20 30 40
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Item 4

55. How to update
NEW, SEO-REVIEWED INTRO

56. How to update
INTERNAL LINKS TO RECENT, RELATED CONTENT

57. AND THEN WHAT?

58. 25-60%
RESULTS
+1% +86% +45%

60. Andrew Tate, "The Science Behind 100,000-View Blog Posts"
Remember this?

61. Jimmy Daly, "How to Win Traffic by Refreshing Old Content"

62. Don't let your content die too quickly!

63. linkedin.com/in/raffasquertwitter.com/raffasquer
Thank you!
available at
https://www.slideshare.net/RaffaeleAsquer