While creating new, relevant content for your blog is always good, sometimes bloggers get stuck in a rut or they don’t have the time to dedicate that they want.
Sometimes what we need is staring us right in the face – in the form of our old blog posts. By looking back we can get ideas for new posts, get our archived content up-to-snuff, and create more traffic.
Whether you have an hour or a weekend, take some time to work through your old posts – and keep a journal handy while you do!
Expand the Idea
Take a post that mentions a topic or product in passing and write another post that builds on it. This could lead to a whole series of posts. Some ideas are:
- How-to posts
- Reviews -Make contact with the company! It never hurts to try!
- Answering questions/deeper explanation
- List posts
- Updates –If you started using a curriculum ages ago, give an update on how things are going.
Add Social Media Images
If you were blogging before Pinterest came around, you definitely need to go back and start adding eye-catching “Pinnable” images to your older posts.
An image is pinnable when it easily describes the topic of the post through text and graphic. It needs to be large too – at least 400 pixels wide (but I prefer 500-600 pixels) or else it will look small when pinned to a board. It also needs to be vertical! Square or horizontal images don’t do well on Pinterest.
So, while a simple photograph will do in the post, a photograph with added text, border, etc. is what is needed for social media promotion. A great place to edit your photos, add text, make collages, and more for free is PicMonkey.
I also highly suggest adding a catchy horizontal image with the title of your post on it to use for promotion on Facebook!
If you plan to promote your post on Instagram, you’ll also need a square image!
Jazz Up Your Links and Affiliate Banners
It’s always beneficial to go through and do a little maintenance on old posts by making sure your links and affiliate information are up to date.
- Use a broken link checker to find all the old links that you need to work on.
- Remove old affiliate ads and banners – either the sales are out of date or you have new graphics.
- Add in any affiliate links to related content.
Refine Your Focus
When I first started blogging, I just wrote whatever was on my mind without caring much if it was related or people would want to read all of it.
As I’ve grown as a blogger, it was helpful to go back through some of my earlier content and refocus some posts.
Sometimes it wasn’t worth it to hack apart an entire post. But other times I could take out parts and refine the main points.
This process also helped me nail down search engine keywords and phrases to highlight in titles and headings, making those older posts work harder for me to bring in traffic.
Link to Newer Content
It is great to link your previous posts to your newly published material. But what if someone is directed to that old post first through a search engine? It’s a good idea to go through and link your older posts to your new related content as well.
A great way to do this is through sneeze pages. Create a page based around a topic, a series of posts, anything really, and then link to that page to direct people to all the information about your chosen subject in one fell swoop!
This is what I’m working on as we speak – creating landing pages for all my major post series and blog topics.
Looking backwards in blogging can be a very good thing. It keeps your content working for you, makes it timeless information, and it can be the kick your creative block needs to pump out new ideas!
This post was originally written by Aadel Bussinger for HomeschoolBlogging.com in 2013. It was updated, edited, and republished in 2018 by Heather Bowen, HomeschoolBlogging.com owner.
This Post Has 2 Comments
Aadel, these are AWESOME ideas. Thanks for sharing them – I’m going to make sure to pass this around to a bunch of bloggy friends!
Thank you!