A successful content creation strategy is one of the most effective ways to draw attention to your business and reach new customers. However, creating content takes a lot of time and dedication. Additionally, if you want your content marketing strategy to be effective, you must have a regular output of articles on a schedule that your users can follow. Therefore, it’s natural to wonder, can you recycle old content for new articles? While it’s not difficult to reuse something from your library of past content, there are some dos and don’ts that we will cover in this article. Let’s start by telling you which mistakes to avoid.
The Wrong Way to Recycle Old Content for New Articles
You should avoid simple reposts of old content and never masquerade your old articles as something you have just written. Firstly, you will lose the trust of your long-time followers if they keep seeing the same articles regurgitated time and again. More importantly, duplicating old content can negatively impact your search engine optimization. Thankfully, you can rely on professionals to help improve your SEO, but it’s generally advisable to avoid getting on Google’s bad side.
Some businesses believe they can avoid these problems by recycling their old content for new articles on different platforms. Although this strategy can help you attract a slightly larger following, it can prove to be counter-productive in the long run. By posting the same content on all of your social media profiles, you are disincentivizing users from following you on multiple channels. Ideally, it would be best if you had a comprehensive social media marketing campaign tailored to each platform’s individual requirements. In simple terms, this means your content should be adjusted and adapted to the trends of the platform you are posting on.
When it comes to content creation, another common mistake that can hinder your ability to recycle old content is focusing on news and topical events that will cycle out of relevance quickly. No one will read news articles from three years ago, and that kind of content will be tough to reuse. Therefore, it makes much more sense to focus your content creation efforts on evergreen content. Such content will provide more value over time, which means it has a better ROI for your time. Additionally, evergreen content is much easier to recycle into something new.
How to Recycle Old Content for New Articles
Now that we’ve covered what you shouldn’t be doing let’s take a look at the proper way to recycle old content for new articles. In short, your strategy will boil down to breathing new life into your old content and bringing it to a new audience. Here is how to make that happen:
Analyze Your Old Content to See What’s Worth Reworking
Trends change and information can get outdated over time. Unfortunately, not all of your content will be reusable. Take a look at which articles could still bring value to new users. In the constant rush to pump out new content, it’s easy just to start posting reworks of all your old articles. Although a steady output is essential, we suggest you focus on quality over quantity.
Update Your Content With Up-to-Date Information
Users looking for guides or tips on how to solve certain issues they are dealing with are always more trusting of new and up-to-date information. Honestly, would you follow the advice of a technology article from four years ago? Even if all the information there is still relevant, you will probably look for something with a newer date to be sure you are getting good advice. If you want to recycle old content for new articles, you must ensure that the information you present is accurate. If there have been any recent developments on the topic you previously covered, that could be a great excuse to repost your old article with the updated information.
Expand Your Existing Articles
Even if there haven’t been any new developments, you can still expand your old articles by adding a new perspective. In fact, Google’s algorithm prefers long-form content, so expanding your articles will also improve your SEO. Although short-form content is generally faster to produce, it won’t get you a lot of attention from modern audiences. Nowadays, users are interested in getting in-depth information and well-researched articles.
Another good reason to update and repost your articles is if your business has grown. If you have invested in web development and expanded your website, you can include links to new services or new content in your old articles. For example, if you have written several articles dedicated to the same topic, it would be a good idea to link them all together or collate all the information into a new post.
Turn Old Articles into a New Form of Content
One of the best ways to repurpose your old content is to give it a fresh coat of paint. As new trends emerge and different social media platforms rise to prominence, we can also see a change in the preferred content type. Although lengthy, researched articles are good for covering complex topics, it’s also a good idea to provide a bite-sized alternative for quick reference. The digital marketing specialists from moversdev.com recommend turning your popular articles into infographics or videos. Visually appealing content is more likely to get shares, especially on social media. However, it would be a good idea to watermark your images and include URLs that lead users back to your website. If your website has plenty of subscribers, you can collect articles covering similar topics and publish them as an eBook.
The Bottom Line
Any business that has been around for a while will probably amass an extensive content library. Even though some of your content is old, it can still provide value and entertainment for your users and bring new visitors to your website. However, the question isn’t can you recycle old content for new articles but what is the best way to do it. Hopefully, you better understand how to make the most of your old articles and how to use them in your new content marketing campaign successfully.
