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Should I SEO and rewrite my 6 year old articles?

by rosterling
9 replies
I have a website that has over 50 original articles on it dating back to 2005. I wrote them not paying any attention to keyword research, keyword density, or any type of SEO. I am wondering if it would be detrimental to rewrite them as well as changing the titles in order to optimize them.
Would Google not like this? Should I just leave the originals and start seo'ing new articles?
#articles #rewrite #seo #year
  • Profile picture of the author NateRivers
    It wouldn't hurt to go in and optimize them. Mainly just put your keyword in each title and then use an h1 tag with the keyword in it. Then spend some time building backlinks to each individual article, as that will get you much better results than your on-page seo, but the on-page seo has to be correct in the first place. Hope that helps
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Lancheres
    Rosterling, I speak from personal experience that the best thing you can do is optimize your posts, not re-write them entirely.

    A) Add content to them (and throw in a keyword or two) and SPRINKLE some keywords here and there.

    B) Do not entirely re-write the content and leave the URL the same

    C) Do not change the URL structure (obviously)

    Instead, the best thing you could do is add one 'opening paragraph' and one 'conclusion' to the posts to refresh them and further optimize them.

    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesGw
    Doing SEO to them might make them jump around a bit. At most, I'd add heading tags and maybe add another 100-200 words of SEOed content to the beginning of the post. I wouldn't change what's already there.
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  • Profile picture of the author rosterling
    Thanks for all the input. I guess it would be a big mistake to change the title. I like the suggestions of adding content to the beginning and end. That is probably what I will do.
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  • Profile picture of the author RefundHost
    What you should do is create A SECOND, NEW website
    to COMPETE WITH the original ( which you leave as-is )
    and implement what you have learned on the 2nd website
    so that you get more leverage and traffic to your offers.

    And see which works better.
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    • Profile picture of the author fluffythewondercat
      I'd be a little concerned about the dates on your posts.

      Let's say a reader finds one of your posts valuable and submits it to StumbleUpon. Well, six years is forever in Internet time. Stumblers often click past if they can tell it's old.

      If yours is a WordPress site, there's a plugin called (I think) Old Post Promoter. What it does is change the dates on your articles so no one can tell when they were originally posted -- they'll seem fresh and new.

      Combine that with the updates others have suggested in this thread and I think you've got a winner.

      fLufF
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      • Profile picture of the author rosterling
        Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post

        I'd be a little concerned about the dates on your posts.

        Let's say a reader finds one of your posts valuable and submits it to StumbleUpon. Well, six years is forever in Internet time. Stumblers often click past if they can tell it's old.

        If yours is a WordPress site, there's a plugin called (I think) Old Post Promoter. What it does is change the dates on your articles so no one can tell when they were originally posted -- they'll seem fresh and new.

        Combine that with the updates others have suggested in this thread and I think you've got a winner.

        fLufF
        --
        It is a wordpress site. I was also thinking of reposting some of the old posts. For example, I have an old post with back to school information.

        Are there any downsides to changing the dates on posts and reposting them? Again, I am thinking about avoiding any Google punishments.
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        • Profile picture of the author fluffythewondercat
          Originally Posted by rosterling View Post

          It is a wordpress site. I was also thinking of reposting some of the old posts. For example, I have an old post with back to school information.

          Are there any downsides to changing the dates on posts and reposting them? Again, I am thinking about avoiding any Google punishments.
          It's not really a repost -- that plug-in literally just changes the date on the post. So there aren't duplicate posts.

          It also doesn't stop you from creating new posts, which will eventually reappear as "new" posts.

          Just something to consider.
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      • Profile picture of the author H.Miller
        Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post

        I'd be a little concerned about the dates on your posts.

        Let's say a reader finds one of your posts valuable and submits it to StumbleUpon. Well, six years is forever in Internet time. Stumblers often click past if they can tell it's old.

        If yours is a WordPress site, there's a plugin called (I think) Old Post Promoter. What it does is change the dates on your articles so no one can tell when they were originally posted -- they'll seem fresh and new.

        Combine that with the updates others have suggested in this thread and I think you've got a winner.

        fLufF
        --
        Never heard of that plugin. I'm going to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
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