Have you noticed that some of your best blog posts are all-too swiftly relegated to the archives, never to be seen again? Not only is this frustrating when you have invested in quality content, it is also a waste of each post’s long-term potential to engage prospects.
Unless you execute some outstanding SEO to bring in long-term search traffic, the lifespan of an untended blog post is destined to be fairly short. There are, however, steps you can take to prolong the lifecycle of each post to extract their maximum value.
1. Remove dates from your posts
Readers tend to be dismissive of blog posts with old post dates, expecting them to have lost their relevance when this is often not the case (except perhaps with news-led blogs).
It is fairly easy to get around the chronological nature of blogs by simply removing dates. Some blogging templates have an in-built option to remove dates. If yours doesn’t, you may want to refer to the codex for removing dates from your themes.
2. Use interlinking
We discussed recently the importance of interlinking as part of a blog engagement strategy. Remember to also link back wherever relevant to your own previously published articles to lead readers back into your archives while boosting SEO.
3. Create resource pages
One simple way to link back to relevant posts is to set up resource pages on your corporate blog. Create pages centred around particular topics, which do nothing but link back to posts written on these specific areas.
Try setting these pages up as landing pages targeted with SEO, and the traffic-driving results can be impressive.
4. Repurpose existing blog content
An alternative strategy to linking back to existing published posts is to breathe new life into them. You can reuse blog posts in a variety of ways, such as:
- Repurposing the same information as a different type of content, such as a video or podcast.
- Creating a webinar on similar information.
- Compiling published posts into a useful e-book format, so readers can access them all in one place.
5. Integrate posts into your email autoresponders
Using an autoresponder sequence is an excellent way to connect with each email subscriber to your business blog. It’s also ripe with opportunities to point new readers to your best content. Try either teasing them with an intro accompanied by a link to the full post, or include the entire post so that the email becomes a thing of value in itself. David Risley, founder of PCMech.com recommends Aweber as a useful tool to set up all new email subscribers with a “drip feed” of content.
Have we forgotten anything? Share your favourite ways of extending the lifecycle of your blog posts in the comments section below.
