Knowing how to update old blog posts for SEO is mostly a matter of choosing well. Most blogs have a back catalogue that earns almost nothing, and the instinct is to spread a little effort across all of it: a new intro here, a fresh year in the title there. That spreads effort thinly over pages that cannot use it. The better approach picks a few posts that are already close to working and rebuilds them properly.
The method below follows Andy Crestodina’s guide at Orbit Media, how to update old blog posts, first written in 2016, rewritten in 2020 and updated again in 2024. The guide has been refreshed by its own advice, which is a decent sign the advice holds.
Which posts to refresh first
Crestodina names four kinds of post worth the effort. Each has a different signal and a different place to find it.
| Candidate | The signal | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Near-ranking posts | Ranking just below page one for a useful phrase | Search Console, with the Position filter |
| Declining-traffic posts | Visits falling over months | GA4 landing pages, or your rank tracker |
| Previously viral posts | A big spike once, little since | Historic analytics and social data |
| Posts with outdated research | Statistics, screenshots or sources that have aged | A read-through of your top pages |
Near-ranking posts are usually the best bet. Search engines already consider the page relevant; it just is not quite good enough. A post sitting at the bottom of page one or the top of page two has the most to gain from a better answer, and you can see the exact phrases it nearly wins. Our comparison of Search Console and Google Analytics explains which tool answers which of these questions.
Keep the original URL
The one rule Crestodina is firm about: update the post at its existing address. Publishing a new version at a new URL throws away the links the old one collected, and he advises keeping the original to “preserve the value of any links.” It also avoids having two pages on the same topic competing with each other, which is the problem described in our post on keyword cannibalisation.
If the old slug contains a year or a phrase you no longer target, resist the urge to change it. A slightly awkward URL with links pointing at it is worth more than a tidy one with none. You can drop the year from the title and headline without touching the address, which removes the dated look for readers while keeping every link intact. The same applies to the post’s place in your site: leave it in the categories and series it already sits in, so internal links you have forgotten about keep working too.
Refresh or rewrite? Usually rewrite
The received wisdom on content refreshes is light-touch: tidy the intro, add a paragraph, swap a statistic. Crestodina argues the opposite. “In content marketing, the 10x efforts are more likely to drive 100x results.” His case is that a post which is not ranking needs to become clearly better than what does rank, and small edits rarely get it there.
He suggests four questions before you start writing:
- Is there new research? Newer data, or a better primary source, for the claims you make.
- Have your views changed? If you would no longer give the same advice, say so and say why.
- Can you add new examples, visuals or video? These are often what the top-ranking pages have that yours does not.
- Can you add expert input? A quote or contribution from someone who does the work adds something a rewrite on its own cannot.
This is also where to be honest about the date. Changing only the published date, with nothing substantial changed underneath, is not a refresh. It misleads readers who trust the date to mean the advice is current, and it does nothing to make the page a better answer. Update the date when the content has genuinely changed, and not before.
How to update old blog posts for SEO, step by step
With a candidate chosen and the URL fixed, the work follows a simple order.
- Read what ranks now. Search the phrases the post nearly ranks for and note what the leading pages cover that yours does not.
- Check the intent. If the results have shifted towards a different kind of page, a guide where you have a list, the rewrite has to follow.
- Replace dated material. Old statistics, broken examples and screenshots of interfaces that have changed.
- Add what is missing. New sections, a table, a worked example, a clearer answer near the top.
- Cut what no longer earns its place. A refreshed post can be shorter than the original.
- Relink. Add links to the post from newer, relevant articles on your site, and from the post to them.
Then promote it as if it were new, because to most of your readers it is. Send it to your email list, share it where the original was shared, and tell anyone you quoted that they are in it.
Refresh, rewrite or prune
Not every old post deserves saving. Some cover a topic you no longer work in, some duplicate a better page, and some answer a question nobody asks any more. Those are candidates for consolidation, redirection or removal rather than a rewrite. Our guide to content pruning covers how to decide. The short version: refresh pages with demand and a fixable gap, prune pages with neither, and merge pages that split one topic between them.
Posts written to stay useful for years need this less often, but they still need it. Our post on evergreen content explains why even the most durable topics drift.
What the evidence does and does not show
Orbit runs an annual survey of bloggers, and the finding Crestodina cites is that bloggers who update old content are “twice as likely to report strong results.” It is a useful signal, and it lines up with what most practitioners see.
It is also a survey, and that is the limitation worth stating plainly. It shows that bloggers who update and bloggers who report strong results overlap. It does not show that updating causes the results; teams that update old posts may simply be more organised in every other way too. Treat each refresh as its own experiment. Note the date, the queries and the position before you start, and compare after the page has been recrawled. That record, across a dozen refreshes, will tell you more about your own site than any survey.
Frequently asked questions
Should I change the URL when I update a blog post?
No. Keep the original URL to preserve the value of any links pointing to it. A new URL starts from nothing and may compete with the old page.
What is the difference between a content refresh and a rewrite?
A refresh usually means light edits; a rewrite rebuilds the post with new research, examples and structure. Crestodina’s advice favours the fuller rewrite for posts that are not yet ranking well.
Is changing the date enough to count as an update?
No. Changing the date without substantial changes is not a refresh. Update the date when the content has genuinely changed.
Which old posts should I update first?
Posts ranking just below page one, posts with declining traffic, once-popular posts and posts with outdated research.
The takeaway Pick posts that are already close, keep their URLs, and rebuild them properly. Record the before and after, because the survey evidence is a correlation and your own results are the proof.
