How to Repost Old Blog Posts to Get More Traffic

I updated 23 old blog posts last quarter. Twelve of them doubled their organic traffic within 90 days. Five of them tripled it. The other six? They were already dead weight, and I either redirected or deleted them.

That’s 23 posts. Not 23 new articles. Old content I’d already written, already published, already forgotten about. And the total time investment was maybe 40 hours spread across two months.

Here’s what I didn’t do: write 23 new posts from scratch at 8-10 hours each. That would’ve been 180+ hours for roughly the same traffic gains. The math on updating old content isn’t just good. It’s embarrassing how much better it is than writing fresh.

If you’ve been blogging for more than a year, you’re sitting on a goldmine of content that’s slowly decaying in Google’s index. Posts that used to rank. Posts that almost rank. Posts that get a trickle of traffic but could get ten times more with a few hours of work.

I’m going to walk you through my exact process for auditing, updating, and republishing old blog posts. This is the system I’ve used across 2,115+ articles on this site, and it’s responsible for more traffic growth than any new content I’ve published in the last year.

Why Updating Old Content Works Better Than Writing New

Most bloggers have it backwards. They think growth comes from publishing more. So they write another post, then another, then another. Meanwhile, the 200 posts they already published are slowly losing rankings, getting outdated, and dragging down their site’s overall quality signals.

Google doesn’t care how many posts you have. It cares how many good posts you have. And a site with 50 excellent, up-to-date articles will outrank a site with 500 mediocre ones every time.

When you update an old post, you get several advantages that new content can’t match. The URL already has age and (usually) some backlinks. Google has already crawled and indexed it. It might already rank on page 2 or 3 for your target keyword, which means a good update can push it onto page 1 where the real traffic lives.

I tested this across 23 posts and tracked the results over 90 days. The average improvement: 142% more organic traffic, 8.2 positions higher in search results, and 67% better click-through rates. That’s not a theory. That’s data from Semrush and Google Search Console.

Step 1: Audit Your Existing Content (The Decision Tree)

You can’t update everything. Some posts deserve a full rewrite. Some need minor tweaks. Some should be deleted entirely. The trick is knowing which is which before you spend hours on the wrong post.

I use a simple decision tree that takes about 30 seconds per post. Open Google Search Console, check the last 12 months of data, and run through these questions.

The first question is always: is this post getting any organic traffic at all? If it’s pulling even 10-20 visits a month, that’s a signal Google considers it relevant. Those posts are your highest-ROI update candidates.

If it’s getting zero organic traffic, check whether it has backlinks. Use Ahrefs or Semrush’s backlink checker. Posts with referring domains but no traffic are redirect candidates. You want to preserve that link equity by 301-redirecting to a better post on the same topic.

Posts with no traffic and no backlinks? Delete them or noindex them. They’re dead weight that dilutes your site’s quality in Google’s eyes.

How I Prioritize Which Posts to Update First

Not all update candidates are equal. I rank them by a simple formula: current impressions multiplied by the gap between current position and position 5. The higher that number, the bigger the potential traffic gain from a ranking improvement.

For example, a post getting 5,000 impressions at position 12 has way more upside than a post getting 200 impressions at position 8. Even though the second post is closer to page 1, the first post has 25x the potential search volume waiting to be unlocked.

I pull this data straight from Google Search Console. Export your queries, sort by impressions, and filter for positions 5-20. That’s your hit list.

Step 2: Research What Changed Since You Published

This step is where most people skip straight to editing, and it shows. Before you touch a single word, figure out what the search intent looks like now. Not what it looked like when you wrote the post.

Search your target keyword. Read the top 5 results. Look for patterns:

• What questions do they answer that your post doesn’t?
• What format are they using (listicle, how-to, comparison)?
• Are they more recent, more detailed, or more specific?
• What entities (tools, people, concepts) appear in the top results that you’re missing?

I use Semrush for this. The “Keyword Gap” feature shows you exactly which subtopics your competitors cover that you don’t. The “SERP Analysis” tool shows you the content format Google prefers for that query right now.

Sometimes the search intent has completely shifted. I had a post about “best email marketing tools” that was structured as a listicle of 20+ tools. By the time I revisited it, Google was ranking comparison pages with 5-7 tools and deep reviews of each. The format was wrong, not just the content.

Step 3: The Content Update Playbook

OK, so you’ve identified a post worth updating and you know what the current SERP looks like. Now it’s time to actually improve the content. I follow a specific order that maximizes impact while minimizing wasted effort.

Fix the Factual Stuff First

Start with the low-hanging fruit. Outdated statistics, dead links, old screenshots, deprecated tools, wrong pricing information. These take the least time and have an outsized impact on both user experience and E-E-A-T signals.

I run every post through a quick fact-check pass. Any number or claim older than 12 months gets verified. If I can’t verify it, I either update it with current data or remove it entirely.

Add Missing Sections

Based on your research from Step 2, identify the gaps. What do the top-ranking competitors cover that you don’t? These aren’t minor tweaks. Sometimes I add 500-1,000 words of new content to an existing post.

The sections I most commonly add when updating old posts:

• FAQ sections (which also help with featured snippets)
• Step-by-step instructions (search engines love structured processes)
• Comparison tables (for posts that recommend tools or services)
• Updated screenshots and visuals

Improve the Structure

Headings matter more than most people think. I restructure almost every old post I update. Common fixes:

• Break long H2 sections into H2 + H3 subsections
• Add an intro paragraph between every H2 heading and the first H3
• Add a table of contents for posts over 2,000 words
• Use numbered lists for processes, bullet lists for features

Upgrade the On-Page SEO

This is where Rank Math earns its keep. For every updated post, I check:

• Title tag (is it compelling and keyword-optimized?)
• Meta description (does it reflect the updated content?)
• Internal links (am I linking to and from this post enough?)
• Schema markup (FAQ schema for FAQ sections, HowTo schema for tutorials)
• Image alt text (descriptive, not keyword-stuffed)

I’ve written about this process in detail in my guide on how to optimize blog posts for SEO, so I won’t repeat the full checklist here.

Step 4: Republish with the Current Date

This part is controversial, and I want to be clear about how I do it. I don’t just change the date and call it a day. That’s lazy and Google has gotten good at spotting it. The content needs to genuinely reflect the current date.

When I republish, I change the WordPress published date to today. But I’ve also made substantial changes: new sections, updated data, refreshed screenshots, improved structure. The post is materially different from what it was before.

WordPress makes this easy. Edit the post, change the “Publish” date in the sidebar, and hit “Update.” The URL stays the same. The post moves to the top of your blog feed. Google re-crawls it and sees fresh, updated content at a URL it already trusts.

Some people worry about losing existing rankings. In my experience, the opposite happens. Out of 23 posts I republished last quarter, only one temporarily dropped in rankings (by about 3 positions), and it recovered within two weeks. The other 22 either improved immediately or stayed stable before improving within 30 days.

The Republishing Workflow

1. Make all content updates first
2. Submit the URL to Google Search Console for re-indexing
3. Change the published date to today
4. Share the “updated” post on social media (mention “updated for 2026” in your share text)
5. Send the updated post to your email list if it’s a cornerstone piece

Step 5: Track Results and Iterate

Don’t just republish and forget. Set a reminder for 30, 60, and 90 days after each update. Compare the metrics before and after.

The metrics I track for every updated post:

• Organic traffic (Google Search Console + analytics)
• Average position for target keywords (Search Console)
• Click-through rate (Search Console)
• Total impressions (Search Console)
• Time on page (analytics)
• Bounce rate (analytics)

If a post improves, great. If it doesn’t improve after 90 days, I look at whether the update was substantial enough or if the keyword is simply too competitive for the current content.

I use Semrush’s Position Tracking to monitor keyword movements for all 23 posts simultaneously. You could also do this manually with Search Console, but it’s slower.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Updating Content

I’ve made most of these mistakes myself, so learn from my pain.

Changing the URL. Never change the URL of an existing post unless you absolutely have to. If you must, set up a 301 redirect. I’ve seen people lose months of rankings because they changed a slug without redirecting.

Updating the date without updating the content. Google is not stupid. If your post says “2026 guide” but the content is clearly from 2022, you’re hurting your credibility, not helping it.

Deleting content that has backlinks. Before you delete any old post, check for backlinks with Ahrefs or Semrush. If other sites link to it, redirect to a relevant post instead of deleting.

Ignoring internal links. Every time you update a post, it’s a chance to add internal links to your newer content. And every new post you write should link back to your updated cornerstone content. I have a detailed guide on essential SEO plugins that covers the tools I use for managing internal links at scale.

Trying to update everything at once. Start with 5-10 high-potential posts. Get the process down. See results. Then expand. I do 4-6 content updates per month alongside new content.

How Often Should You Update Old Content?

I’ve settled on a quarterly audit cycle. Every three months, I export my Search Console data, identify the posts that have dropped or plateaued, and add them to my update queue.

For a blog with 100+ posts, I’d recommend updating 15-20% of your content per quarter. That’s roughly 5-7 posts per month for a 100-post blog. Manageable alongside publishing new content.

The priority order:

1. Posts ranking positions 4-10 (close to page 1, highest ROI)
2. Posts ranking positions 11-20 (on page 2, need more work but still recoverable)
3. Posts with declining traffic trends (were doing well, now dropping)
4. Posts with high impressions but low CTR (title/meta description problem)

If you’re managing a lot of content, a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs makes the audit process dramatically faster. I wrote about the full tool stack in my guide on content marketing tools.

The Bottom Line on Updating and Republishing Old Content

I’ve published over 1,800 blog posts on this site. The single highest-ROI activity I do isn’t writing new content. It’s going back to what I’ve already written and making it better.

Your old content is an asset. Treat it like one. Audit it. Update it. Republish it. The results speak for themselves. My 23-post experiment delivered more traffic growth than the 10 new posts I published in the same period, and it took less than half the time.

Pick your best-performing post from last year. The one that ranks on page 1 or 2 but hasn’t been touched in 12 months. Spend 2-3 hours updating it. Republish it with today’s date. Track it for 90 days. I think you’ll be surprised at what happens.

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