We’ve talked a lot about brainstorming and creating new content here on Blogging For Keeps, but what about our OLD content?
We spend so (SO) much time (blood, sweat, tears–you get it, right?) into coming up with new ideas, and re-inventing the wheel–but we completely forget about our old content as soon as we hit publish. (#PalmToFace.)
Sadly, in doing so, we’re throwing away some pretty incredible traffic-driving opportunities by ignoring our blog posts from 6 months, a year, even three years ago.
So–how do we stop that vicious cycle, and give ourselves a traffic boost without having to create new content?
Um, like this:
1. Popular Posts
If you read this blog post-Blair wrote a while back, you’ll remember us referencing “Popular Posts.
” This is a widget we both absolutely love–essentially, it lists your most popular content within a given timeframe in your sidebar, piquing your reader’s interest and encouraging them to linger on your site longer, and click through to read your most popular articles.
(This is just one more reason we love WordPress–no other platform offers easy, traffic-boosting plugins like this!) If you’re curious about WordPress vs other platforms, we wrote about that over here in our “Do you really need WordPress?” post.
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2. Linking to older content within your body copy
See what I did above? I linked to two different blog posts we had previously written in one small paragraph. This is a win-win for a couple reasons–it boosts your traffic and gives you more page views, and also makes helpful suggestions to your reader, giving her an easy way to discover exactly what she might be looking for.
3. Adding a “you may also like” note at the end of your posts
This may sound redundant to the above point, but often, so many readers (sadly) will scroll through your copy and only look at your photos–that is, until they get to the bottom!
Having one more call-out to some similar articles will encourage your reader to keep clicking and exploring your content, rather than just closing her browser window.
It’s crazy that something as small as, “P.S. If you liked this post, check out 10 ways to style a striped dress and How I packed for Paris in a carry-on” can make such a big difference!
4. Reposting your “evergreen” content to Facebook & Twitter
This is something I hardly ever see bloggers do–which is so sad because it leads to SO much more traffic! Do you know what “evergreen” content is?
The phrase refers to content that is non-seasonal. For example, an outfit post on what you wore to the Kentucky Derby is seasonal, because, obviously–it’s only relevant once per year!
A blog post on “productivity tips” is evergreen–it will be just as useful in July as it is in December.
Make a list of ALL your evergreen content, and keep it in a running google doc. When you sit down to schedule your social posts, pull from that pool of evergreen content! Just because you posted it 6 months, a year, or even 3 years ago doesn’t mean it’s any less relevant, and chances are, most of your audience hasn’t even seen it yet!
5. Drive more traffic from Pinterest by re-pinning old content and adding new graphics to old posts
If you’ve recently just upped your Pinterest game (and honestly, even if you’ve been at it a while!) there are still likely a lot of great blog posts you’ve written that either never made it to Pinterest, or got buried and never re-pinned. So–what can you do about that?
Go through your Pinterest boards and identify which pins of yours lead to great evergreen content, but haven’t been re-pinned. Make note of which posts they are, delete the un-pinned pins, and then go back to the drawing board.
Now, choose the best image from that blog post, and create an eye-catching Pinterest graphic in Photoshop. It doesn’t have to be crazy–the kind of graphic you see in our main photo above works like a charm!
Make a point to do this on a consistent basis, and you should see results really quickly.
6. Use old photos for Instagram content
Quite a few readers have asked if it’s acceptable to re-use old blog post photos on your Instagram? Or can you only post one per outfit post?
OF COURSE, it’s okay to recycle your old outfit photos. We do this almost daily!
In fact, this is a great traffic driver for you, too! For example, say, a month or so back, you posted an outfit photo wearing an adorable dress. Well, pretend that dress is now on sale–that’s a perfect excuse to post a photo of the dress to your Instagram–either linking to the dress via LikeToKnow.
OR you could even reference, “Head to the blog and search “Striped Dress” to get all the details.”
One watch out: Just make sure to not post the same photo over and over. For example, say you posted 7 photos of an outfit on your blog, don’t program the same more than once–pick and choose say, a full body shot, then a detail shot, then a half-up shot, for example–all spaced several days or even weeks apart. This will add some great variety to your feed as well!
7. Make blog posts into a high-value “free download” to increase your email opt-ins.
Do you have a few really popular blog posts with similar topics that you could repurpose into a “guide” or “free download” of some sort? For example, maybe you have a fashion blog and you’ve done 5 different “packing list” posts over the last year or so. Put ’em all together into a free guide!
Or maybe, you have a food blog, and you can package all your “quick and healthy” recipes into a free, downloadable cookbook, completely with a weekly grocery checklist.
All readers need to do is sign up for your email list in order to get it. Your readers will love how value-packed it is, and you’ll love growing your email list!
Will you try out any of these tips this week? How else do you recycle your old content?
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