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Over time, it’s easy to let your old blog posts fall to the wayside. After all, if you’re writing several new blog posts every week, it doesn’t take long for an old post to move from page 2 to page 20. And, as they say, out of sight, out of mind…

But no! You put time and effort into those blog posts, and there’s no reason to let them fall into obscurity. Luckily, as these five simple tips shows, there are plenty of fast, easy and effective ways to promote your old content and give old blog posts a new lease of life.

 

Share your old blog posts

It’s amazing how often bloggers only promote their new posts, at the expense of their older content. Instead, mix things up for your followers by continuing to promote your old blog posts alongside the new.

On social media, you can use a scheduling platform like Hootsuite or Buffer to set up social media posts that will promote your older content at regular intervals over the months to come – meaning that you don’t need to worry about remembering to do it yourself.

Alternatively, draw attention to older blog content in your newsletter, particularly if it’s timely or relevant. A festive blog post, for example, can be promoted every holiday season (provided it doesn’t contain time-sensitive information, of course).

 

Highlight your old blog posts

Don’t let your amazing blog posts be consigned to the archives. Instead, highlight them in a prominent position on your website – for example, in the ‘featured posts’ on your homepage, or ‘popular posts’ in your sidebar.

Another solution is to make use of categories and tags, and to install a ‘related posts’ widget. This way, readers interested in one topic can easily find relevant blog posts, no matter how long ago they were written.

 

Link to your old blog posts

Another simply way to direct readers’ attention towards relevant older posts is through internal linking – that is, including hyperlinks within your blog that take readers to relevant content. You can do this manually, or install a plugin like SEO Smart Link or Insights to automate the process.

Internal linking not only makes it easy for readers to discover your older posts, but also helps drive down your blog’s bounce rate, which is the percentage of readers who navigate away from your blog after viewing only the one page.

 

Update your old blog posts

Another fantastic way to drive traffic to old blog posts is to bring them up to date. While not always appropriate, it’s can be a great way to make an old post relevant to your audience. Think of it like giving a slightly worn piece of furniture a fresh coat of paint!

It might be that your old blog post is simply out-dated – you may have written a round-up of the best pizza restaurants in your area, say, but now some of them are no longer in business. This post could easily be re-written and re-published, rather than simply swept under the rug.

Alternatively, you can leave a blog post as it is, but simply add an ‘update’ with some additional thoughts or insights. This are particularly suitable for posts where people might want to know what happened next – for example, anything detailing a diet, training regime or other such ‘journey’.

 

Repurpose your old blog posts

Finally, you may wish to consider repurposing old blog posts into other forms of content.

Why not convert a series of related blog posts into an ebook? Or a list post into a slideshow? An old blog post could even serve as the script for a podcast or vlog. The possibilities are endless!

Whatever format you decide on, be sure to include a link to the original blog post so that traffic is directed back to your blog.

 

So there you have it: five easy ways to promote your old blog posts and keep your audience engaged.

What do you do with your old blog posts? We’d love to hear your tips. Please share with the CollectivEdge community in the comments below.