The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Blog’s Search Engine Ranking with Regular Updates

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Are you looking for ways to improve your blog ranking? Do you spend hours crafting high-quality content, only to find that it’s not being seen by your target audience? If the answer is yes, then you’re not alone. Many bloggers struggle to improve their website’s visibility in search engines. 

Fortunately, there are some simple strategies you can use to increase your ranking, and one of the most effective is to update your blog regularly. In this article, we’ll provide you with a definitive guide to improving your blog’s search engine ranking with regular updates. Whether you’re new to blogging or a seasoned pro, this guide will help you get found by more readers and see the results you’re looking for. 

I actually spent 10 hours updating 23 old articles and organic Google keywords have gone 20% up since. 

This is approximately 5% of all content and I expect over 150% ranking growth and at least 80% real traffic growth performing updates over the top stalled content.

How? I will show you in a bit.

First, let’s have a quick review. 

What is Search Engine Ranking?

What is search engine ranking, and why does it matter for your blog?

Simply put, search engine ranking is the order in which your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for relevant keywords or phrases. The higher your website ranks, the more visible it is to potential readers and customers.

And the more visibility your blog has, the greater the potential benefits you can reap:

  • Increased Traffic: A higher ranking on search engines means increased visibility for your blog, leading to more organic website traffic, brand awareness, potential customers, and community building. It also enhances credibility, boosts reader trust, and gives a competitive advantage over others in your niche. Therefore, focusing on increasing your blog’s visibility is essential to establish yourself as a leader in your field. This expands your reach and audience, potentially leading to:
    • Brand awareness: Establishing your blog as a credible source is crucial to building your reputation and a dedicated following.
    • Lead generation: Attract potential customers interested in your products, services, or expertise.
    • Community building: Engage with a broader audience and foster a community around your blog’s content and interests.
  • Improved Credibility: Ranking well on search engines can be seen as a mark of credibility and authority in your field. This can:
    • Boost reader trust: Visitors might perceive your content as more valuable and trustworthy if it appears prominently in search results.
    • Enhance brand reputation: A strong search presence can add a positive perception of your brand and its offerings.
  • Competitive Advantage: Ranking higher than competitors for relevant keywords can give your blog a significant advantage in attracting readers and achieving your goals.

Improving your blog’s search engine ranking is important to establishing your online presence and reaching a wider audience. But how can you ensure that your website consistently appears at the top of SERPs? The answer lies in regular updates.

Why Regular Updates are Important for Search Engine Ranking

If you’re looking to improve your blog’s search engine ranking, there’s one crucial factor that you simply can’t ignore: regular updates. In today’s crowded online marketplace, it’s not enough to simply set up a blog and let it sit stagnant.

In order to truly stand out and boost your visibility, you need to focus on creating fresh, dynamic content that search engines will reward.

Regularly updating your blog with fresh, high-quality content is one of the most effective ways to boost your search engine ranking. Why?

For one, search engines like Google prioritize websites that are frequently updated with new content. This shows that your blog is active and engaging for users, which can help improve your website’s credibility and user engagement.

Regular updates also give you the opportunity to target new keywords and phrases, which can help you rank higher in additional SERPs. Plus, updating your blog regularly can help establish you as an authority in your niche or industry, which can further boost your search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your site.

When it comes down to it, search engines prioritize updated content over static pages. This means that if your blog is regularly updated with new posts, it’s far more likely to appear at the top of search engine results pages.

By consistently creating engaging, informative content, you’ll give search engines a reason to keep coming back to your site – and to keep ranking your pages more highly.

But it’s not just about frequency; it’s also about consistency.

By publishing new blog posts every week (or even every day), you’ll help maintain your blog’s visibility and build relevance over time. This can translate into more traffic, more engagement, and ultimately, more conversions.

Let me share with you 10 strategies that help in improving my blog’s search engine ranking through regular updates.

Improving Your Blog's Ranking With Regular Updates

1. Defining a Rule Set for Article Updates

One of the most important aspects of increasing your blog’s search engine ranking is to consistently post fresh and relevant content. In fact, search engines like Google prioritize websites that are routinely updated, as it indicates a website is still active and relevant. So, how do you ensure that you’re consistently posting content that is both fresh and relevant to your audience? By defining some simple rules for updating your blog.

One key rule is to develop a strategy for researching and incorporating keywords into your blog posts. Keywords are the terms that people use when searching for information online, so incorporating them into your content can help your blog appear higher in search results. 

Which articles necessitate updates? Here is a rule set or list of qualifications to identify which posts to update first.

  • Performed well a while ago
  • Relevant to transactional keywords
  • Part of a pillar/content hub
  • Last updated 6-9-12+ months ago
  • Legitimately outdated

It could be a mix – or more to that.

I prioritize content that refers to 2020-2022 news and events, “in current Covid times”, or anything that isn’t truly evergreen.

Also top-ranking content that shouldn’t be outcompeted.

And additional articles that strengthen pillar copy.

Content that was doing well has a chance to do even better after a small update. Your audience liked it. Google ranked it. There was synergy in here. I have some great guides but not as tangentially related to the overall blog content. They are HARD to rank well.

2. Building Your Content List

The assembly line process works well. You can pull a list of 50-100 articles and update them over the course of several weeks. For outdated content – look for 2021-2022 content titles. I’m using the “content decay” approach with GA performance.

With Google Analytics, generate a content comparison report.

  • Go to Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages.
  • Use the date range and check the “Compare to” box.
  • Pick two different time ranges – last week/month and 1-2 years ago.
  • Sort by Pageviews.

Content that was doing well has a chance to do even better after a small update. 

Your audience liked it. Google ranked it. There was synergy here. 

I have some great guides but not as tangentially related to the overall blog content. They are HARD to rank well.

3. Performing Individual Article Keyword Research

In the world of blogging, there is no denying the importance of keywords. They are the bread and butter of your content, and having a good grasp of them can greatly improve your search engine rankings. But while most bloggers know the importance of keywords, many don’t quite know how to conduct keyword research effectively.

When it comes to keyword research, it’s important to think about long-tail keywords. These are longer and more specific phrases that people are more likely to use when they’re looking for something particular. For example, if you are writing a blog post about hiking, instead of using a broad keyword like “hiking,” use more specific keywords like “hiking trails near me” or “best hiking gear.” This will drive targeted traffic to your blog, and you’ll have a better chance of converting that traffic into loyal readers.

Here are a few steps I take in this regard:

Go to Google Search Console -> Performance -> Search Results.

Add a filter for Page: – and plug the blog post you’re analyzing.

Here’s what your article ranks for (impressions) and the clicks it gets from SERP.

You can further analyze demographics, devices, and search appearance. Compare that with a previous time interval when the article ranked much better. 

Use Google Trends as a reality check, too. But if the copy is still valid, keep on updating.

Another way to conduct effective keyword research is to be aware of current events and trending topics. Incorporating these topics in your blog content can help increase traffic and keep your readers engaged. For example, if you’re writing about fitness, consider writing a post about the latest fitness trends or events in the fitness industry. This will make your content more relevant and give your readers a reason to come back and read more.

Optimizing your titles and meta descriptions is another crucial factor that can improve your search engine rankings. Use descriptive titles that contain your main keyword, and make sure they are relevant to the content of your blog post. Similarly, meta descriptions should be written to entice readers to click through to your website. This will not only improve your search engine rankings, but also increase the chances of readers clicking through to your blog.

In conclusion, conducting effective keyword research can greatly improve your blog’s search engine rankings. Use long-tail keywords to drive targeted traffic, incorporate trending topics and current events in your blog content, optimize your titles and meta descriptions, and leverage internal linking to boost your search engine rankings. With consistent effort, you’ll see your blog’s search engine rankings improve over time.

4. Conducting Competitor Research

If you’re serious about improving your blog’s search engine ranking, then conducting competitor research is a crucial step in achieving that goal. Not only does it give you a better understanding of your niche and audience, it also allows you to learn from the successes and failures of other bloggers in your field. Here’s everything you need to know about conducting competitive research to boost your search engine ranking.

Firstly, let’s take a closer look at why this process is so important. Understanding what your competitors are doing (and how they’re doing it) can give you a serious advantage in your own approach to blogging. 

By analyzing their strategies, you can identify gaps in the market they haven’t covered, optimize your own content more effectively, and gain insight into what works best in your niche. In short, competitor research can help you stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your blog is always relevant to your target audience.

So, what are the key elements you should be looking for during competitor research? Firstly, identify the top players in your field and analyze their blog structure, topics, and writing style. Who else is ranking for similar keywords?

The sample article gets impressions for:

  • b2b sales process
  • b2b sales cycle
  • b2b selling process
  • b2b sales stages
  • sales process for b2b

Run a Google search and figure out who ranks there. Some juggernauts ranking amid the first results.

But fear not! Powerful sites rank for tons of keywords. 

It’s easier to drive inspiration or get ideas from reputable sites than small blogs that hardly get indexed. 

So let’s review HubSpot‘s piece (repeat for the others.)

Take note of their headline and subheading formulas, how they’re using images and video, and any other unique features they’re incorporating. Pay attention to the type of content they’re creating (such as tutorials, lists, or interviews), as well as the tone and voice they’re using. Essentially, you want to learn as much as possible about what makes their blog compelling and why readers keep coming back for more.

Once you have a thorough understanding of your competitors’ approach to blogging, it’s time to use those insights to inform your own content strategy. This doesn’t mean copying their ideas outright (that would be unethical and unproductive!), but rather using their topics and style as inspiration to create your own unique content. By tailoring your approach to what has worked well for your competitors, you can improve the likelihood of your content being shared and ranked by search engines.

It’s also important to note that ongoing competitor research should be a part of your regular blogging routine. Not only will this help you stay up to date with trends in your industry, it will also allow you to adjust your strategy as needed. For instance, if a competitor starts achieving higher search rankings than you, you can revisit their blog to see what they’re doing differently and adjust your approach accordingly. This means that you can continue to fine-tune your content strategy over time and ensure that your blog is always performing at its best.

If you’re serious about boosting your search engine ranking and driving traffic to your blog, competitor research should be a key part of your strategy. By analyzing your competitors, you can gain valuable insights into your niche and target audience, learn what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your approach accordingly. By incorporating this process into your ongoing blogging routine, you can ensure that your content strategy is on point and that your blog always stands out from the crowd.

5. Reverse-Searching of Competitive Articles

I always recommend Semrush for competitive analysis. 

It’s paid – but here’s a 14-day free trial with my intro link.

Here’s what the root domain HubSpot analysis looks like under the hood.

Use the dropdown on top and switch from Root Domain to Exact URL.

There’s a LOT to unpack but let’s focus on the current keyword profile first.

Scroll to Organic Research – it ranks for 14 keywords.

That’s what the page profile looks like:

Note that HubSpot’s authority score is 89 but the competitive post only has 26.

It also gathers 227 backlinks from 41 referring domains. That’s not impossible to beat at all with some effort.

Here’s the complete list of organic keywords it ranks for.

Pick new ideas!

You can dive deeper into the keyword profile in Semrush by clicking on a keyword.

Gather additional variations, related keywords, and even questions you can use for headlines or FAQ under the post.

Look for keywords with higher volume but lower keyword difficulty.

6. Building the Content Action Plan

Now that we have the keywords, create a consistent and repeatable framework. 

Here are some ideas:

  • Add two new headlines to each list
  • Add two industry stats and 1 quote
  • Update old information
  • Recommend tools
  • Quote Expert sources

To ensure that you are updating your blog regularly, it can be helpful to create a content calendar. This involves mapping out your content in advance, ensuring that you have a steady stream of posts and topics to work on throughout the week or month. 

When creating a content calendar, it’s important to brainstorm a range of topics that appeal to your target audience. Think about common questions or concerns that your readers have, or trending topics in your industry that you can put a unique spin on. You can also collaborate with other writers in your industry to create more diverse and engaging content.

The key is to create a content calendar that allows you to plan ahead and make regular updates without sacrificing quality. Set yourself realistic deadlines and stick to them, but also be flexible enough to adapt and adjust your content as needed.

There are various tools and apps available to help you create a content calendar, including Asana, Trello, Coschedule, and Google Calendar. By staying organized and consistent in your updates, you can increase your chances of success and establish a loyal readership over time.

7. Generating Ideas for New Topics

As a blogger, one of the biggest challenges you may face is coming up with fresh and engaging ideas for your content updates. It can be challenging to strike a balance between evergreen content that stays relevant for a long time and timely updates that keep your readers engaged. However, generating new ideas for content updates is critical if you want to improve your blog’s search engine ranking and attract more visitors to your site.

One of the most effective ways to generate ideas for content updates is through keyword and competitor research as this often leads to headline or cluster ideas. By identifying the keywords that your audience is searching for, you can create content that is more likely to appear in search engine results. 

Using Complementary and tangential topics work great to supplement and provide more information to your audience. Each keyword can be its own title.

Additionally, audience feedback can be a valuable source of ideas for content updates. You can gather insights through comments, social media, or emails, to understand your audience’s pain points, interests, and questions. This information can help you create more targeted and relevant content that resonates with your readers.

Generating ideas for content updates is critical if you want to improve your blog’s search engine ranking and attract more visitors to your site. Use a variety of methods like keyword research, competitor analysis, and audience feedback to create a content calendar that allows for regular updates without sacrificing quality. Diversify your content types to appeal to different audiences and increase your search engine visibility. With these tips, you’ll be on your way to creating fresh, engaging content that keeps your readers coming back for more.

8. Integrating Evergreen Content

If you’re looking to improve your blog’s search engine ranking further, then constantly integrating new evergreen ideas into your content can be a game-changer. 

To do this, you first need to identify relevant keywords and phrases that match your blog’s content. Using keyword research tools can help you find the most effective words and phrases that will help your blog get noticed on the web.

Once you have identified the right keywords, it’s time to create engaging content that will attract readers. Your content should be high-quality, interesting, educational, and informative—these are what make content evergreen. Content that adds value to your readers is crucial because Google’s algorithm prioritizes valuable content over anything else.

To keep your readers engaged and improve your search engine ranking, it’s essential to balance evergreen content with timely and relevant updates. 

Diversifying your content types can also help increase your search engine visibility and appeal to different audiences. By creating blog posts, videos, infographics, or podcasts, you can create more diverse and engaging content that resonates with a broader audience. Use analytics to track which types of content are most popular and create more of what resonates with your readers.

If you blog consistently, you have likely produced relevant articles to the old post you update at the time. Cross-link them! 

Internal links are a massive signal for both Google and your readers that topics are relevant. Tools like Yoast can recommend internal links for you straight from the dashboard.

And yes, one of the millions of reasons why WordPress is a powerhouse for digital content.

There are automated ways to do that, but context may be lost in-between and relevance is impaired.

Now, if you’ve been in the world of blogging for a while, you’ve probably heard of backlinks. Backlinks are links that point back to your website from other websites, and they are one of the most important ranking factors in search engine algorithms. In fact, according to a study by Moz, backlinks are the most important factor in determining search engine rankings, accounting for up to 40% of a website’s ranking.

But not all backlinks are created equal. The quality of the backlinks matters just as much as the quantity. High-quality backlinks from reputable websites can boost your search engine ranking, while low-quality or spammy links can harm it. So, in this section, we’ll discuss how to acquire high-quality backlinks and avoid getting penalized for black hat techniques.

High-quality backlinks are signals to search engines that reputable websites recognize the value of your content. The more high-quality backlinks pointing to your website, the more likely search engines are to consider your website as a valuable and trustworthy source of information. 

Some examples of reputable websites that can be used as sources of backlinks include:

  • Industry blogs or news websites
  • Government or educational websites
  • Websites of respected organizations or companies in your industry

There are several strategies you can use to create effective backlinks. Here are a few:

  • Guest blogging: Writing blog posts for other websites in your niche is a great way to get backlinks. The key is to make sure the website is reputable and relevant to your niche.
  • Participating in forums and online communities: Engaging in discussions on forums and social media groups related to your niche can lead to backlinks if you include links to your website in your comments or forum signature.
  • Leveraging social media platforms: Sharing your blog posts on social media platforms can help them gain visibility and potentially lead to backlinks if other websites or individuals share your posts.

It’s important to measure the success of your backlinking efforts. This can be done by using online tools to track your website’s traffic or analyzing your search engine rankings. By monitoring these metrics, you can determine what’s working and adjust your strategy accordingly.

10. Reviewing and Updating Your Content Pillars

Ideally, your content is structured semantically. Relevant content ranks extremely well once organized properly. Think of a book with chapters. Each article is a chapter… Connected to a headline, the book itself.

Over time, expanding pillars only makes them more powerful.

Your content doesn’t get lost but instead, amplified and visited more frequently.

I keep a Guides dropdown on my blog with the core topics I cover and add new articles there as needed.

Pillars are also effective reminders of additional topics you can supplement and provide for your audience and a reminder to avoid random articles (at least most of the time).

Whenever you lack content ideas, revisit your pillars and keep nurturing them.

It’s like live book authoring!

Finally, it’s important to remember that social media can be a powerful tool for boosting your blog’s reach and engagement. By sharing your blog posts on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can broaden your audience and attract new readers who might not have found your content otherwise. And by engaging with your followers and responding to comments, you can build a loyal community of readers who are eager to share your content with their own networks.

When it comes down to it, regular updates are crucial for improving your blog’s search engine ranking. By focusing on fresh content, consistent publishing, SEO optimization, and social media promotion, you can create a blog that stands out from the crowd and attracts plenty of engaged readers. So if you haven’t already, start prioritizing regular updates today – and watch as your blog’s visibility and success begin to soar!

To sum it up, this is how we do content updates:

  • 1. Defining a Rule Set for Article Updates
  • 2. Building the content list
  • 3. Performing Individual Article Keyword Research
  • 4. Conducting Competitor Research
  • 5. Reverse-searching of Competitive Articles
  • 6. Building the Content Action Plan
  • 7. Generating Ideas for New Topics
  • 8. Integrating Evergreen Content
  • 9. Adding Internal Links (And Backlinks) Before Updating
  • 10. Reviewing and Updating Your Pillars

Got any techniques I’ve missed in the thread? 

Hit “Reply” and share your nuggets here.

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