Quick Improvements #5: Interlinking and Content Revision

A lot of website owners, marketers, and content producers seem to have it stuck in their heads that once a post goes live there next action is to begin on the next piece for their site; this is a fallacy in the way of thinking because each piece of content becomes a “salesperson” for your message for as long as you have it hosted and what often happens is that its information becomes outdated and fails to meet its full potential for all project-based work thereafter.

The focus of this “Quick Improvements” part puts its attention on a two-part act of updating existing content with fresh information and spending the time, while editing, to link to relevant articles to create a robust interlinking strategy.

The bonus to all of this will come about in the form of additional passive income sources (which will be explained in detail at the end).

For now, let’s get started on how to make improvements to your site and business by doing regular revisions and updates to your content and interlinks.

30 Minutes to Improve the Site

Content you’ve produced some time ago have the added advantage of being indexed in search engines and have already begun to build links which makes it quite the asset when compared to a new post which hasn’t yet seen traction.

Take a look at your site analytics, use the content drilldown, and identify the popular content pages.

With a spreadsheet or notepad, write down your top 10 – 20 posts and categorize them based on whether they promote a product. Include elements like the publication date, comment count, length, and a personal note how you feel about the piece.

Now we get to the fun stuff …

Take thirty minutes to re-read the article with a fresh set of eyes; you probably haven’t viewed the post in some time. Create a notepad for each of the articles and take notes as you work your way back through.

Identify some of the missed opportunities:

• Could you make mention of a new affiliate product within the old post?
• Could you expand on a section based on your newfound knowledge?
• Are there sections that need to be removed because they’re no longer relevant?

Take the role of an editor.

In essence, you’re transforming an old, popular post into an evergreen piece.

Image by RocketMedia.

Continually updating your best posts will keep the information relevant to your current understanding of the topic and allows you to avoid having to touch the subject with new posts. In many ways, your content follows the “Wikipedia” approach – why write a dozen new articles on the topic when you already have one high performing that has already been indexed and gaining traffic?

Let’s finish with an example:

You may have wrote a tutorial-style post for your niche a year ago but, during that time, you refrained from adding too many links because you didn’t want to distress regular readers by coming across as “too promotional”. The regular readers have moved on so it’s perfectly okay to retouch that article and add those promotional items for those finding the page in search engines. Likewise, the expansion of the post will deliver a “wow” factor to new visitors as it forms into a lengthy piece that’s truly defines the topic (so why search anywhere else?).

By doing this 30 minute procedure you’ll transform older posts into pieces that are relevant to the information found today. Individuals that land on these pieces will feel it provides just as much value with what they’re trying to find, now, rather than landing on a page with outdated information.

A Better Interlinking Strategy

While you’re in there, with your notepad open, take a look at the keywords you used in the older posts and try to identify if there are any that could be linked to newer posts – and vice versa.

You’d be surprised by the amount of links you could add to older posts.

There are two gains when you revise articles with links:

• Newer posts gain a higher traction because it’s being linked to from an authority page that has already been indexed and shared.

• Older posts regain attention which it may have missed since you’ll have built a larger community since its original publication date.

This is where a spreadsheet can come in handy if you really want to go into a deep interlinking strategy.

Image by SearchEngineLand.

We’d suggest you start with some of the basics like linking keywords to review pages or content series but step up this strategy, in due time, by creating a spreadsheet that collects and lists which keywords and URL’s you are linking within each. What this does is provide a content “map” so you can quickly do a search, within the spreadsheet, and identify posts you could link based on keywords and topics.

In the end, a quick update of the internal links can do wonders for site navigation; people will be inclined to dig deeper into the site which may not have been present at the time of the original production.

Improved Affiliate Profits

Last, but not least, is the added benefits:

• Each revision you do increases the authority of the post which aids in building your online brand; in turn, you will have an easier time to sell products because your community trusts your insight and opinions. Plus, the older, authoritative posts will have higher search ranking which means your affiliate offer is bound to be found.

• Adding additional links to new and existing posts will give a greater experience to your site users and aid in building your search engine optimization and ranking; you will also direct people to your money pages which should have been optimized for conversions – that’s extra eyeballs on your affiliate offers on the pages known for landing the sale.

This may sound like a lot to do but it doesn’t have to be done at once.

Try this sometime today:

1. Identify just one of your best posts.

2. Expand on the sections using new information.

3. Find and add links to newer/older resources on your site.

4. Add affiliate offers, better call-to-actions to money pages, or improve your sales pitch.

Doing so may not show immediate gain in your online income but it will certainly improve its chances; check with your affiliate marketplace analytics and you’ll see certain campaigns gain a bump in attention, that’s for sure.

How do you improve existing content? Share a comment!

 

Source: http://www.affiliateprograms.com/blog/interlinking-and-content-revision/

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