Parents…
Remember that time you when bashed your baby’s head on the car roof when putting them in?
We’ve all done it.
Pet owners…
Remember that time you let your pet eat something they shouldn’t and you had to clean up the mess?
We’ve all done it.
Everyone…
Remember that time you effed up the laundry and everything went pink?
You’re not the only one.
There are some mistakes that are almost a right of passage.
So, what’s the equivalent with niche sites?
Well, I would say that it’s not updating your old content.
I’m SO guilty of this.
My site that recently got hammered by a Google Update…
I wanted that to be a passive income cash cow that I could set and forget.
Well, it doesn’t really work like that.
Niche sites aren’t passive income.
Most of the articles hadn’t ever been updated.
I thought that content with a 2021 date on it would be okay because it’s ‘evergreen’.
Yes, the facts were still correct,
But, I was missing something key…
Updating facts the only reason you should be updating content!
The real reason you should update it,
Is to make it better.
I am SO much better at this game than I was in 2021.
And you are too.
You know that, right?
When we look back at content that we thought was good,
We can now see ways to make it a lot better.
Even if the facts haven’t changed.
I know I said that I was just going to leave that site as it might recover on its own.
But after I dug into it, I could see some really easy wins.
So I updated 10 articles myself.
Then handed over the task to my editor.
Here are the 9 things that we’re working on:
1. Improve Skimmability
This suggestion comes from Marie Haynes.
She’s awesome.
Definitely go follow her on Twitter if you don’t already.
We’re making the posts easy to skim-read by adding:
- Informative headings
- Super short paragraphs
- Bolded words
- Bullet lists
- Tables
The easier the article is to read, the longer people will stay to read it.
2. Add Key Points Boxes
Each article gets a box at the top that summarises the key points.
This will make it super easy for people to find the info they’re looking for
Or, to know that the detailed explanation is further down the article.
3. Add personal experience
Now more than ever,
Google needs to be sure that we’re not robots.
So every article gets at least one sentence with a personal experience.
“I did this and this happened”.
Of course, some get much more than this, but one sentence is the absolute minimum in every post.
4. Add real photos
When I started the site I was lazy.
It was faster to grab a stock photo than to pick up my phone and snap one.
But that just won’t cut it any more.
So I’m adding tons of real photos that I took myself.
5. Add keywords
For this, we use the QueryHunter plugin.
It’s free.
It connects to GSC and shows which keywords are getting impressions without being included on the page.
Add them to the page for a rankings boost.
Easy.
6. Add FAQs
QueryHunter has a section for the questions people are Googling.
These get added to an FAQ section at the end of each post.
7. Check Amazon Links
Products go out of stock – update those.
Also, check the tracking IDs to make sure that they’re yours and not anyone else’s.
Yes, that happens.
8. Add internal links
There are tools that can help with this,
But I always prefer to do it manually.
My sites aren’t huge, so I know what posts there are that can be added.
9. Change the date
After each post is done, we’ll change the date to today.
How often to update?
My aim to is to update every article at least annually.
Some get updated much more often than that, if the latest facts change.
Updating posts is actually a pretty big job.
Let’s say you have 1,000 articles…
That means you have to update four per day (Monday to Friday).
This could easily be a full-time job.
Something to consider when deciding whether to focus on quality or quantity with your articles?
Important:
The 9 points above are just the things I’m working on with MY site.
Of course, you might have taken care of all of those already.
And you might have a whole different set of things you can work on.
Particularly if its an affiliate site.
So for that, I would suggest that Mushfiq from The Website Flip can help,
He’s bought, grown, and sold over 200 websites over 14 years!
So he’s the real expert when it comes to improving existing articles.
Not me.
Mushfiq has an Easy Wins Database of 120+ strategies he uses to 10X traffic and revenue.
It’s worth a look if you’re serious about this.
Mushfiq also has a great email newsletter.
I’ve been on the list for 18 months now and I love it.
Every Friday, he picks a website and highlights the easy wins he would implement to improve it.
It’s free and I highly recommend that you check it out.
I’m sure you’ll find some great strategies that you can apply to your own site.
Until next time!
– NSL