HOW TO BOOST THE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION OF MY OLD BLOG POSTS?

If you have been interested in the performance of your blog posts, you may have been surprised by the lack of visibility of some of them. You have spent time on it, you think you have optimized it for SEO, your content is interesting, it has a real added value…

But why it doesn’t work?

Today, I’m giving you several ways to boost the SEO of your published blog post.

1- Update your articles

Your article is more than 6 months old, a year old? Perhaps some of the elements mentioned inside are no longer relevant. I advise you to reread your article and make any necessary changes.

Also, if you have done a “Top Trends 2019” type article in your industry, it would be advisable to change for the current year… and update the trends mentioned!

Why do this?

Your blog post has a certain history : it is therefore (normally) already indexed by Google and already benefits from some organic referencing, however weak it may be.

Instead of letting your article die and replacing it with others, it may be a good idea, depending on the situation, to update it.

First of all, because the user likes to arrive on “new” content: he will have much more confidence in the veracity of your words. Dated texts do not necessarily give a good image.

Then, like the user, Google likes fresh content and will have more confidence in it. The search engine will then be more inclined to push it in its SERP.

2- Add text to your articles

The richness of your article is a criterion that should normally be taken into account when writing it, but I prefer to mention it again here. Indeed, a lot of contents have been written instinctively -which is good-, and seem long enough in the eyes of its author… When they are not so much.

However, it can make all the difference for the SEO of your article.

Generally speaking, an article is too short if it is less than 400/500 words.

Except that (here lies the subtlety), your competitors may have done better. Look at the existing articles treated by other sites on the same theme and if they are on average longer, richer in information.

Some tools such as the Keyword Surfer extension or the Semrush platform can give you the number of words of content positioned on the first page. Ideally, it is this volume that you should aim for!

Why do this?

The longer your text, the more information you give to your readers as well as to search engines.

If this information is relevant (adding text to add more text does not help), your content will be better considered by Google. Because, quite simply, you answer more precisely and more completely to the search of the Internet user.

3- Optimize your content semantically

Is your text long enough? Yes, it is. But is its semantics rich enough? Is your lexical field varied enough? Have you covered all the parts that need to be covered? These are also elements that weigh in the balance!

To boost your article with the help of the semantics used, several tips:

• Type your keyword on Google and take a look at the PAA (People Also Ask) proposed. Integrate these terms if they correspond to your article.

• Look for the keywords your page is positioned on in Google Search Console. Some words, even if you are positioned very far away, may be interesting and therefore added to your content.

• Finally, many tools exist to semantically enrich your content. For example: 1.fr, the SEO Content Template tool from Semrush, SEOQuantum,…

Why do this?

It is essentially a matter of making it easier for search engines to understand. The richer and more varied your vocabulary, the more identifiable your subject and its subtleties will be.

You give Google additional clues as to how your article perfectly answers the user’s query!

4- Add more content

In general, an article is much more complete and pleasant to read when it is enhanced with visuals.

Be careful, however, that the added content is not too heavy for the loading time of the page and therefore the user experience.

Also, preferably host the videos that you integrate into the article on Youtube. In addition to minimizing the weight of videos on your pages, it is an SEO-friendly platform choice, which can help your video SEO.

Why do this?

Putting more photos, infographics or videos (that correspond to the article in question, of course) is appreciated by your visitor but also by the search engines! We are also here on enrichment.

5- Optimize your internal linking

In SEO, it is very important to link your content. By doing internal linking (i.e. linking your pages together with links), each link given will give a little credit to the page concerned.

So, your article should link to other relevant articles on your blog to keep them alive. Okay, you may have done that. But most importantly, don’t forget to mesh other articles to include a link to the article you want to boost!

Why do this?

In technical terms, links transmit “SEO juice”. The link will increase the power of a page, also called Pagerank. This is a Google indicator (not revealed by the giant) measuring the “weight” of a page.

6- Give more visibility to your article

We broaden the spectrum of SEO, but any visibility operation is favorable -indirectly- to your search engine optimization.

You have produced a beautiful article and you are proud of it? Share it with the world, encourage its popularity.

You have the possibility to :

• share on your social networks
• create a pinterest post
• share on your newsletter
• relay it on the home page of your website
• talk about it, in an appropriate and non-intrusive way, on forums and other online spaces dealing with the subject

• …

Be creative: there are many ways to make your article stand out!

Why do this?

I had mentioned it, improving the visibility of your article will play in an indirect way on your SEO. But this operation can also have a very concrete impact!

Indeed, it is possible that some visitors share your article, through a link, on their own website. Or that they quote your words and credit you (a phenomenon often observed with “original” content such as infographics). The key is always to have a content that stands out from the others!

In any case, promoting your article is in my opinion an essential step after the production of an article. And external links, also called backlinks (preferably in dofollow) are a real plus for your natural referencing!

In a nutshell

Internet is forever: your articles and their SEO have no expiration date! It is up to you to pamper them and to devote time to (rather simple) operations that will improve their natural referencing.

The sine qua non condition of their success is of course the quality of the content!