Time To Tend The Garden

_{Day 25/100}

Before we get into it. New Google Update rolling out. 🙃 I’ll update with anything I find in the coming days.

One of the worst things I see with any content team is the last time content is cared for is the first time it’s published.

You press that go live button and it’s immediately forgotten.
And yet, the best results I’ve ever gotten for any client ever is when we go back and update old content.

Please, update your old content. Please.
Please again.

The main thing I see, time and time again after an update is updating your old content wins.

I have an entire playbook on refreshing old content, to save you the details, I’ll give you the main points here.

5 Quick Steps You Can Implement Now:

1. Identify Decaying Content

   • Use Google Search Console to compare performance over 3-6 months

   • Look for pages showing the biggest drops in clicks

2. Analyze Why It's Underperforming

   • Is it outdated information?

   • Does it still match search intent?

   • Is it too thin (under 1,000 words)?

   • Missing key on-page elements?

3. Update Based on Current Position

   • Content on page 1: Add CTAs and downloadables (don't change fundamentals)

   • Positions 8-25: Improve readability and add core keywords to headings

   • Positions 25-50: Check competitor content patterns you're missing

   • Below position 50: Consider a full rewrite

4. Republish & Promote

   • Update meta descriptions and titles if CTR is below 3%

   • Share refreshed insights on social media

   • Re-introduce to your email list

5. Schedule Quarterly Reviews

   • Content refreshes should be a regular part of your content strategy

   • For sites with 200+ blogs, prioritize refreshes over new content

Want the detailed process that helped one site dramatically increase traffic after refreshing just 100 blogs? Read the full article for step-by-step implementation guides, common mistakes to avoid, and long-term strategies.

A New Trend?

A fun new thing I keep seeing for new traffic as well is to screenshot the email/post/whatever and post it on relevant subreddits as “this is the most bizarre/innovative/amazing email I’ve received in a long time”…

Just make sure you do it on a completely random username. iykyk.

Catch you tomorrow

✌️Tim “All Content Matters” Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. One of the best things you can do after you’ve updated your old content, is send it out to your newsletter when it’s relevant… see what I did there?