There comes a time when a blog post you’ve written will be out of date. There could be many reasons for this, but the primary one is that technology, times and your blog all change.
How To Update A Blog Post
There are a number of things to ask yourself before you even update the blog post. After all, you don’t want to spend precious time on something that you may not need to do!
Is It Still Relevant?
If the topic needs updating, then the first question that you need to ask is if it is still relevant at all. Software and how-to guides that change with updates are the key culprit here. If the software has changed drastically, then screenshots will need to be updated
Does It Still Align With My Blog?
Our blogs change over time. Maybe you write on topics now that have nothing to do with what you did in the past. It’s up to you to decide if the blog post should still be on your site or not. But before you take it down, consider the traffic that you get from that page. Setting up a redirect to a better page will ensure you don’t lose traffic.
If you have decided to keep the post, here’s 3 easy ways you can update it:
New Graphics
Sometimes just a new image (Canva and PicMonkey are great for this) can really refresh a post.
Tip: It’s also worth doing this if you have changed your branding since you wrote the post.
Current Research
If the topic is one that changes quickly, do some current research on it. Sometimes recent evidence may make part of your old post invalid.
Tip: Put a short explanation and link at the top of the old article, so that readers are directed to the most current information.
Examples
If your post is still current, you can update it by doing a post linking to examples on other websites. You can even ask your readers if they’ve applied the knowledge they learned from you – maybe they’ve blogged about it on their site or want to guest blog on your website about how you helped them.
Have you ever updated an old blog post? Which way has suited you the best?
