Remington Begg
Simply put, “Historical Optimization” means optimizing your older blog content so it's fresh, up-to-date and has the ability to generate even more traffic and conversions. This could be any post that already exists on your blog and is in some way not entirely new. It could have been live for two weeks or two years, as long as it has already been published. There are a few reasons you may want to experiment with including historical optimization in your inbound marketing strategy:
Are you unable to continually create fresh content? For a number of reasons, you may be unable to keep up with the number of new articles needed to keep your blog active. If you want to take a short breather from content creation, this can be an excellent tactic so your traffic views don’t dip. You can’t completely stop writing new blog posts altogether, but it can help you out for a short period of time.
Are your older posts not being viewed as often as you like? While social sharing is great for getting your blog noticed, the longer it has been since it was tweeted or shared may mean less and less views. A small refresh and a new set of social media shares can do wonders to get viewers back.
Are your older posts no longer converting leads? Your blogs were created to convert leads. If this stops happening, it may be time to revise and edit. It’s possible the campaign is no longer be optimized for. Therefore keywords used in the article are not longer a part of current marketing efforts.
Do you love a particular topic and want to keep it being seen? If you worked hard on a certain piece and are hesitant to watch it fade into obscurity, rejuvenate it! There’s nothing wrong with keeping your favorite post as popular as possible, especially if it is one bringing in the conversions you are looking to get.
Once you have decided to put a historical optimization plan into place, it is only a matter of optimizing. As your company has developed stronger buyer personas or new campaigns, it may be beneficial to go back and include newly chosen keywords. Make sure you are using data backed up by analytics to choose your new targeted phrases, not assumptions. Google rewards both freshness and authority, making a historically optimized blog post a perfect combination of the two. In addition to higher organic rankings, showing your updated posts to your blog subscribers, social media followers, etc., will generate a new surge of traffic from additional sources. This naturally leads to an increase in social shares and inbound links, both important factors in your blog’s success.
With more and more companies buying into the inbound marketing philosophy and starting their own blogs, historical optimization has become very important. Not only is it a way to get more out of the content you already have, but it's also a way to get a step ahead in what could be a very cluttered content landscape. It's also a way to deliver even more value to the people reading your content. After all, as your blog post ages it gains authority in the eyes of Google. If people are going to continue finding your older content through search engines, don’t you want it to be fresh and up-to-date?
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