Updating Content
Keeping content up to date
Tamara Hellgren
July 31, 2024
Web content isn’t finished after publishing. You should revisit and update all your content periodically. Precisely how often depends on the topic, how quickly it’s evolving, and how competitive its keywords are.
Yes, it's important to keep all content up to date
- All website content should be reviewed and updated periodically, about 3-4 times a year
- When updating, review keyword and competitor research, interlinking and citations
- Make meaningful updates that improve the quality, accuracy and helpfulness of your content
- Use an “Updated on” date and resubmit the URL for indexing
How often should you update website content?
As a rule of thumb, plan on updating informational pages quarterly. You can schedule tasks in Google Calendar or project management software to remind you.
SEO Content Update Checklist
Revisit keyword and topic research for your target search query.
- Search intent can change over time.
- New keyword variations and related topics can emerge.
- There may be new developments or insights to include.
Review the current top-ranked pages for your target keyword and look for ways to give your article an edge in terms of:
- Comprehensiveness
- Helpfulness
- UX (including mobile)
- Recency
- E-E-A-T
Review your page title and meta description against the current SERPs and revise as needed to stay competitive.
- See if there are any new internal interlinking opportunities.
- Check external links and fix any broken links.
- Review your citations and references. Update them if newer/better sources are available.
- Add or replace images and video.
- Update the “updated on” date.
- Submit the URL for reindexing in GSC & Bing Webmaster Tools.
To make it worth the effort, make substantial, helpful updates to your content. You can’t just reword headings, shuffle some text around, and expect rankings to improve.
We apply these principles to other disciplines and incorporate them into creating content, building websites, and completing custom digital products.