Should I Update Old Content for SEO?

How to Update Old Content on Your Website for Better SEO Results

Stuck with underperforming pages? Updating old website content might be the most powerful SEO move you're ignoring.

This guide explains why updating old content is essential, how it impacts search engine rankings, and the best practices for refreshing your site effectively.

Whether you're managing a growing blog or SEO for a large e-commerce site, these tactics can help bring new traffic without writing entirely new content from scratch.

Outline

1. Why does old content affect SEO performance?

2. How often should you update old content?

3. What is a content audit and how do you run one?

4. Which types of content need to be refreshed most often?

5. Should you delete, redirect, or update old posts?

6. What are the best practices for updating website content?

7. How to decide whether to update or create new content?

8. Why refreshing old blog posts can outperform publishing new content

9. How to make your content more useful and relevant in 2025

10. What content update schedule should you follow?

11. What are the benefits of a content refresh for search engine rankings?

12. What role does content maintenance play in long-term SEO strategy?

1. Why does old content affect SEO performance?

Search engines reward freshness. If your website content hasn’t been touched in years, it signals that you’re not keeping up.

Old content can contain broken links, outdated information, and missing keywords that matter now. These issues hurt your ranking and make your site look neglected.

Google constantly updates its algorithm to favour quality and relevance. That means content that no longer reflects current best practices, trends, or user intent will slowly fall behind in the rankings.

Worse still, users who land on outdated content might bounce, damaging your site’s engagement metrics.

So if you’ve got pages from 2018 still ranking, it’s time to ask: does this piece of content still reflect the current state of your topic?

2. How often should you update old content?

There's no fixed rule, but content should be reviewed at least once a year. Some pages need updates more often, especially if they rely on data, statistics, trends, or competitive comparisons.

A content refresh might be needed every 3–6 months if:

• The page is a key part of your SEO strategy

• It ranks but isn’t converting

• It targets highly competitive keywords

Running a monthly or quarterly content audit helps you spot which content needs to be updated. Remember, even your best content needs maintenance. Search intent can shift, and if your content doesn’t adapt, it stops being useful.

3. What is a content audit and how do you run one?

A content audit is a structured review of all the content on your site. The goal is to evaluate performance and decide whether to update, delete, or merge each piece.

Start with a spreadsheet listing:

• All URLs

• Page titles

• Publish/update dates

• Organic traffic

• Bounce rate

• Backlinks

• Keyword rankings

Flag pages that show declining traffic, low rankings, or thin content. These are your top candidates for an update.

You might find that some old pages with little traffic or outdated structure are better off being deleted or redirected.

This audit becomes your roadmap for cleaning up old content and keeping the rest sharp.

4. Which types of content need to be refreshed most often?

Certain content types go out of date faster than others:

• How-to guides

• Product comparisons

• Industry news

• SEO tips (ironically)

• Case studies

• Listicles with time-sensitive elements

Evergreen content doesn’t need rewriting every few months, but it still needs attention. Even your strongest posts benefit from fresh content, updated statistics, or reworked internal links.

Prioritise pages that rank on page 2 - these are easiest to boost with a targeted content refresh.

Outdated content that no longer reflects user intent can’t compete, even if it was the best content at the time.

5. Should you delete, redirect, or update old posts?

Not everything is worth keeping. Start by deciding whether the content has value. Ask:

• Does this topic still matter?

• Is it getting traffic?

• Are there backlinks pointing to it?

If the answer’s yes, a refresh is better than deletion. Update your content with new information, improve the formatting, and address any readability issues. This tells Google that the page is still alive and kicking.

If it’s outdated, has little or no content, and brings in no traffic, consider redirecting it to a relevant page. Deleting old content that no longer serves a purpose is part of good site hygiene.

6. What are the best practices for updating website content?

Here’s what to focus on when refreshing old content:

• Improve the title and meta description for click-through rate

• Add new internal links to other high-performing pages

• Insert updated statistics, quotes, or screenshots

• Remove broken links and irrelevant sections

• Rewrite intros to reflect updated user intent

• Use subheadings to break up large sections

Keep your content sharp and relevant. Updating your old content doesn’t mean rewriting it all. Sometimes, giving your content a new hook, stronger examples, or improved formatting is enough.

Remember: updated content sends a freshness signal to search engines without needing to create new content from scratch.

7. How to decide whether to update or create new content?

Sometimes a piece of content is so outdated that it’s easier to start again. But often, a well-targeted update gets better results in less time.

If the old post still has backlinks or ranks for decent keywords, update it. If it’s missing structure or doesn’t match modern search intent, then creating a new piece of content may be a better move.

Use tools like Google Search Console and Ahrefs to analyse how much content might still be useful. If you can rescue it, do it. If not, build something better.

8. Why refreshing old blog posts can outperform publishing new content

Updating old blog posts taps into existing SEO value. You keep the URL, the backlinks, and any history Google already has. This gives you a head start over starting fresh.

Instead of publishing new content that takes months to rank, you can make your content more current and get faster results. It’s a high-leverage move that often takes less time than writing something new.

Plus, it helps you avoid bloating your site with hundreds of half-performing posts. Focus on updating content to improve what you already have.

9. How to make your content more useful and relevant in 2025

Don’t just patch old articles. Improve them for the reader.

• Add FAQs that match current searches

• Use real-world examples and recent data

• Structure the content to be skimmable

• Make sure it loads fast and works well on mobile

Also, review your tone and writing style. If your old blog posts sound robotic or outdated, rewrite them to match your current voice.

Give your content a reason to exist today - not just because it once ranked in 2020.

10. What content update schedule should you follow?

Aim for a rolling schedule. You don’t need to update everything at once. Prioritise high-traffic or high-potential posts and build a system that checks your pages regularly.

Example monthly tasks:

• Week 1: Content audit

• Week 2: Update three key blog posts

• Week 3: Add internal links to recent updates

• Week 4: Refresh your top landing pages

This is how you keep your content regularly optimised without falling behind. Fresh content isn’t just for new articles - it’s a continuous part of your content marketing strategy.

11. What are the benefits of a content refresh for search engine rankings?

Refreshing old content improves SEO performance in several ways:

• Boosts keyword relevancy

• Enhances user experience

• Signals to Google that the page is maintained

• Increases engagement metrics like time on page and CTR

If your content ranks but hasn’t been updated in years, a content update can help it climb several positions. Updated content with new information and better formatting often performs better than entirely new content.

Refreshing old content is the best solution for your old posts if you want a quick SEO win.

12. What role does content maintenance play in long-term SEO strategy?

Content maintenance is often ignored. But without it, even the best content eventually fades. Updating website content should be part of your long-term SEO efforts, just like link building and technical optimisation.

This includes:

• Cleaning up old content that’s outdated

• Running regular content audits

• Tracking content performance

• Maintaining internal links

Think of your website like a garden. Without pruning, even the best-planted sections get overgrown. Content that’s no longer relevant clogs up your site and drags down performance.

By focusing on updating content, you reduce the number of so-called thin content pages, improve the authority of existing content, and make sure your site stays useful to readers - and visible in search.

Key Takeaways: Refreshing Old Content for SEO

• Updating your old content is one of the easiest ways to improve rankings

• Use a structured content audit to find what to update

• Prioritise content that ranks on page 2 or has dropped in traffic

• Refreshing old content is often better than creating new content from scratch

• Keep your content up to date with new stats, better formatting, and improved structure

• Delete or redirect old content that has no value

• Build a rolling content update schedule to stay on top of your SEO

• Content updates improve user experience and send positive signals to search engines

• Think of updating website content as ongoing SEO maintenance, not a one-off task

• Don’t wait for content to go stale - keep your site sharp, relevant, and performing

Would you rather fix what's already working or keep chasing results with brand new content every time?