Refreshing your brand with SEO content repurposing
If your website is already populated with great long-form pieces, then SEO content repurposing can give them a brand new lease of life. Getting the most out of your existing library is a great way for businesses to save time and energy on keeping their presence fresh – without seeing their older posts get shunted to the back of the web.
Content repurposing can help you unlock value from heritage pieces while improving them for better traffic and SEO results. It’s a win-win strategy – which is what our experts will take you through today.
But first: let’s start with the basics.
What is content repurposing, exactly?
As the name suggests, content repurposing is the practice of reusing bits and pieces of content – or the whole thing – often presented in a slightly different format.
This gives you the ability to reach new audiences without expending your time, energy and resources. By not creating new content from scratch and instead utilising what you already have (cleverly) – you can make your content marketing strategy go further
But those aren’t the only benefits. More on that next.
The need to repurpose content
Repurposing content is a great way to bring old posts ‘back from the dead’ – while giving Google and other search engines plenty to get their crawlers into.
Save time or revive old posts
According to a study last year where over 1000 bloggers were surveyed, marketers found that the average blog takes just under four hours to write.
Obviously, not everyone has that much time to regularly drop on a blog – which is tough, when frequent uploading of good content can gain SEO traction.
With content repurposing, you can already use the time you’ve baked into producing it. All that research, writing, and editing is simply scaled, bolstering your new content strategy and adding to traffic.
Sometimes the blogs we put every effort into… just don’t do that well. With content repurposing, you can give a new lease of life to posts that didn’t get that much traction the first time around – giving it another chance to perform.
We’ll touch on some strategies you can use to turn things around.
Spread link equity
Done right, repurposing can help old posts get fresh backlinks from authoritative sources. This can elevate your website’s overall authority rank and could have a site-wide impact on rankings.
Signal content freshness to reach new audiences
Google – and users – love fresh content. This refers to ‘newly published’ or updated content, which occurs when we repurpose pieces with newer or more relevant information.
Repurposing or revising your content sends a signal to search engines, especially if you’ve added up-to-date and relevant information. This improves your chances of getting ranked by search engines and getting more clicks.
Sometimes content fails because we don’t utilise the right channels to distribute it. By transforming content with a fresh format, you can reach users with a preferred content type – such as video – who you might never have engaged with.
How to find the right content
Before you can start repurposing, it’s time to find the best pieces of content to refresh.
Firstly, try to spot high-performing content such as popular blog posts, evergreen topics, and audience favourites over the years. These can be seen as ‘easy wins’, adding a fresh angle to what you already know is a strong concept.
Once you’ve had a few successful repurposes, you can then try your hand at ‘rejigging’ less popular pieces.
Of course, you must feel confident that the subject will still translate well across formats and suit the audience, but this is a great way to breathe new life into things that were missed last time.
To help you identify the best pieces to start with, use SEO tools such as Google Analytics
Ideas for you to try
Historic content often comes in the form of blogs, as it’s usually the bread-and-butter of any good strategy. However, with Google algorithms and viewing habits changing over time, the content currently sitting on-site might be better served elsewhere.
Turn blogs into engaging videos or take statistics from long-form pieces and create social media posts around them – linking back to the original, of course!
Other ideas include:
- Social media posts (tweaked for each platform)
- Infographics, slides, or presentations
- Videos (short and snappy or more long-form explainers for bigger topics)
- Podcasts or audio recordings
- Email newsletters
- Q&A content or expert insights for authority
Whichever you choose, make sure your new content format is tailored to the correct audience and platform. What might work as a longer-form blog post might not translate well to the medium of an infographic, so do your research first!
Where does SEO come in?
Repurposing content is worth its weight in SEO benefits. However, you need to avoid duplicate content penalties wherever possible. This is where search engines flag your content for being an exact match of another piece, which is why you must be diligent by weaving in updated sections or keywords to your repurposed pieces.
That way, your content is being reused with a fresh purpose – gaining those rankings, rather than nabbing penalties!
Good content needs Embryo
Although content repurposing seems straightforward, it still takes a fair bit of effort – even for all its perks! With this guide, you should have all the basics you need to get started, as well as tools, tricks, and more to help you get those top-level rankings.
However, if you have lots of historic content, this can become a much bigger task at hand.
If you need a little extra help carrying out your content repurposing for SEO, our experts are here to make things smooth and seamless.
With years of experience in creating bespoke content plans and SEO strategies for clients across numerous sectors, we’re the go-to for businesses looking to get the most out of their content.
To get key insights into your SEO, get in touch with us today!
