l this 3-step blueprint for content optimization that led to a 121.9% increase in traffic within a year //

SEO only has one constant: change.

Take the classic example:

You will receive 10 times more traffic, leads and customers if your page is ranked in the top three.

You publish, publish and publish in order to build on your past successes. Two things happen.

• It takes months, if not years, to get your new content in the top three.
• The top three items are slowly being replaced by newcomers.

SEO professionals who are worth their salt have seen this.

Content that was once so successful slowly fades away over time.

It does not match the search intent. It has been replaced by new stuff. Our content should evolve with the world.

There’s no need to panic.

It’s actually pretty simple to fix this problem. This simple blueprint for content optimization is all you need to bring back past winners.

The best SEO quick wins are achieved by optimizing and republishing existing content

We helped a major publisher in the financial space increase their traffic per page on average by 121.9% over a period of about one year.

Around 30 URLs were flagged for “optimization” opportunities – geeky shorthand meaning “stuff used to rank highly but now kinda stinks.”

Once you know where to search, it’s easy to find. It’s also easy to get started.

One article, for example, was republished Jan. 1, 2020, and traffic instantly doubled.

This one, which was republished a few days earlier on December 15, 2020, brought in a steady stream of visitors for the rest of the year.

Another one.

The re-publication of this article a few days later, on Jan. 19 2021, was a success.

Are you still not convinced?

Remember that this site was founded in 1999. It’s been a popular site with a high DR and topical authority since years. In that respect, it’s a bit ahead of the game.

The main point remains the same:

• Want long-term (24+ months) growth? Create new content.
• Want short-term (< 6 months) growth? Republish content.

Let’s get to the point and go through the steps that you can follow to achieve the same results.

Step 1: Determine which URLs can be republished.

It’s been said: “If it’s not broken, don’t repair it.”

Do you have your URLs listed in the first 3-5 spots? Don’t over-refresh, but do refresh lightly.

But is the stuff under the top five? We’re talking now.

It’s the stuff that has recently gained some traction, or perhaps fallen off. This is important because it’s getting some traffic. It’s not enough traffic because it’s in a no-man’s-land outside of 80% SERP clicks.

Now, grab your favorite SEO software and let’s make a list.

Then, you can use the following method to find all organic keywords for which your website is currently ranking:

Next, define your parameters. You can choose to use positions from 8 to 20, or even 5 to 10. It doesn’t matter. It’s all about stuff that gets a little bit of traffic, but not as much as it should.

I like to set a minimum volume for keywords and pages to ensure we don’t get distracted by tiny ones. At the same time, I set a maximum difficulty to ensure we are focusing on easy-to-reach targets (and not trying to eat too much).

This last point is particularly important. You may not get the best results by optimizing your content and republishing it. To crack the top five, you’ll need quality links.

The exact numbers for the floor and ceiling are arbitrary, depending on how competitive your space is. Also, your site strength will determine these numbers. The floor and cap numbers should be higher for larger/older sites, while the lower ones should be used for smaller/newer locations.

Let’s use the example “100” as minimum volume, and “30” as maximum keyword difficulty (KD).

We’re moving forward.

Just 90 seconds of work generated a list with your SEO low-hanging fruit.

Let’s separate the wheat and the chaff. I had to do the same thing.

We’re trying to distinguish the good candidates for republishing from the bad ones. In the next section, we’ll measure twice and then cut once.

Prioritizing the 20% of existing content that will give you an 80% boost ASAP

There are good and bad news.

This simple step could generate hundreds of URLs for larger sites. You’ll have to do some manual work and ignore or cut or disregard the irrelevant pages or posts.

Prioritizing based on the following factors is generally a good idea

• Prior results (obviously, always prioritise your top leads or sales drivers first).
• Prioritize BOFU over MOFU and TOFU.
• Top Traffic Getters (think TOFU on steroids)
• Compare the top traffic drops from this period (such as a month or quarter) to that of the previous year.

You may find that your mileage varies, as a publisher will prioritize different types of posts/pages from a B2B SaaS company vs. B2C Ecomm vs. a local service business.

You’re looking at a simple Pareto Principle. What is the 20% of URLs which will yield the fastest 80%?

If you drill down into this article, we quickly see that there are more keyword variations.

There are actually a lot! With high volumes and low KDs Let’s make this one a priority too!

Step 3: Decide what specific content needs to be updated

Keep in mind that this is not a case of updating content just to update it.

This is and not on . It’s just refreshing to the “Updated in …”” date string.

This step is more about how to improve the content. We want to make it rank higher and improve business KPIs.

Once you’ve decided which URLs are most important, it’s now time to get to work.

Unfortunately, SEO tools are still bad at content, and content tools are still bad at SEO. I’m also including AI in here which is still many years away from making any real impact.

You’ll have to roll up your sleeves. Click on each URL, and then read through them. Look at some of the SERPs that it is currently ranking in and read the results.

You know what I’m thinking.

“Wait, wait, wait. No one mentioned using their experience and brains here. No AI prompts? Gasp!”

It’s super simple, but.

What you are looking for is:

• What is the best way to organize your content in relation to what currently performs well on each SERP (search engine results page)?
• If you are trying to rank your landing page in comparison with many blog posts that provide information, is there a mismatch between the search intent and the landing page?
• Is there overlap in search intent between multiple queries?
• Are you structuring your content to what is working best?
• Do you experience keyword cannibalization? This is when the wrong URLs of your pages are ranking for the wrong queries.
• Is there a gap in your coverage of the topic?

Let’s first walk through this last example.

Here are some specialized software programs that can help reduce the workload. Enter your MarketMuse’s, Clearscope’s Frase’s, et al.

You can use the article you want to analyze, enter the query, and they will automatically scan for the best-performing pages.

Initial output from Frase will look like this. Start by focusing on obvious elements like the number of words, headers and images. This will give you an idea of whether or not your content meets the SERP benchmark.

Then, check semantic keywords coverage. What are the tangentially-related Y and Z that people want to read when they search for X?

Everything is relative. You shouldn’t focus on the “100%” mark per se. It’s not high school. You want to comfortably meet or surpass the competition, at a minimum.

You can also compare your coverage of related topics or semantics with the competition to quickly see where you are doing well.

But more importantly, you need to know where there are gaps!

Notice that “mini headlines”, as shown in the example, are missing from all of the examples. Perfect. We now know what we need to update or add to our content.

This is an example that’s very straightforward and simple. The process is identical.

• What specific content should be updated? What exactly needs updating?
• What are your strengths, both in terms of structure and content?
• What are your weaknesses in comparison to the competition? What is lacking?
• What are the remaining gaps and holes where you could potentially leapfrog your competition before their products become outdated?

This last step is crucial to future-proofing your work.

We noticed, for example, that by adding a video into one of these articles optimized the bounce rate dropped to -11.94% in a matter of hours.

The last point is meant to emphasize that you are not simply republishing your content to make it on par with the competition.

To get ahead, you need to create a competitive moat and keep your ranking gains as long as you can.

Optimizing content for long-term success

Your site’s traffic and SEO will grow over time if you publish new content.

Long term is the key here.

You won’t see any results until at least next year.

You should not upgrade and improve your content unless you are doing so.

The best way to get short-term SEO results is almost always by using the most leveraged activity. It’s also pretty simple.

• Take a look at your content and see what could be improved (positions five or below).
• You can 80/20 them depending on previous results, commercial intentions, top traffic potential or top traffic drop to get the most lift in the least amount of time.
• Compare your content with the competition to see how you can not only match but also surpass them in the long run.

The steps below, combined with good planning and processes for production will allow you to publish faster, out-rank your competitors, and even out-flank them before they realize it.

The post Steal This 3-Step Content Optimization Blueprint That Driven a 121.9% Traffic Increase in One Year first appeared on Search Engine Land.