Who says you can’t teach an old blog new tricks? If you have a considerable archive of blog posts, you can dust off an old post and give it a little TLC instead of creating a new one from scratch. Maybe it’s a standout post from years ago that’s still relevant today, or one that has great content but never generated much engagement. In either case, there are tactics you can use to present old content in new ways—although it’s usually not as simple as just changing a few words and the publishing date.

Repurposing a blog post can boost engagement by improving its SEO rankings, or bring more users to your site with creative content promotion tactics. Here are six ways to strategically repurpose a blog post and bring new life to your content.

1.      Change the Format

A good blog post is truly versatile and can live in many different places online. You can take the information in your blog post and transform it for a new medium—such as a podcast, infographic, or video. You can also take the tips or content shared in the blog post and repurpose it into a series of newsletters and promotional emails. Other format changing options include:

  • Turn blog post content into visual guides for social media, email, and other platforms
  • Turn a written tutorial into an animated video tutorial
  • Turn an informative post into a shareable slideshow presentation
  • Take content from the blog post and turn it into a Twitter thread

No matter how you choose to switch it up, changing the format of your content is a great way to bring it to a new audience on a new medium, reaching more readers than it would as a traditional blog post alone.

2.      Make it Evergreen

Evergreen content stays relevant, fresh, and timely for audiences over a long period of time. It provides visitors to your website with information they can use and return to months, or even years, down the line. For example, topics like “how to parallel park” or “how to brine a turkey” are evergreen, while topics like “top 10 Christmas gifts for 2018” become dated quickly. But, even time-sensitive topics can become evergreen with some clever repurposing. Here’s how.

Broaden the Topic

If your blog post has a narrow topic, you can repurpose it by broadening it to a larger audience. A blog about recipes for the holidays can easily become a blog about recipes for family gatherings all year round, for example. Reaching a greater audience with a broader topic can take your blog post from niche to evergreen.

Keep a Wide Audience in Mind

Your evergreen blog isn’t likely targeted to experts, pros, and niche industry types, so make sure you edit the language with the general population in mind. Avoid technical language or industry jargon. Instead, keep vocabulary simple, and keep your writing clear, concise, and scannable. For example, if you’re writing a blog about how to fix a leaky faucet, don’t write it as if you’re talking to a plumber—write it as if you’re talking to your friend or relative.

Appeal to Backlinks and Citations

Part of ensuring your evergreen content lives forever is to make it easy for other content creators to cite, link, and share it. Acquiring high-quality third-party backlinks and citations are vital parts of a successful SEO strategy. You can accomplish this through choosing topics based on provable facts that can be cited for research or education, or through topics that could spawn responses from your audience. These include reviews, rebuttals, or new interpretations of old material.

3.      Give it an SEO Makeover

While making over your old content, it’s important to keep SEO in mind. If the post is several years old, it could benefit from an SEO tune up. Make sure your content follows best practices for SEO, including:

  • Clear titles and headlines
  • Short paragraphs
  • Simple sentences
  • Bulleted lists
  • Internal and external links
  • Images and infographics with alt text

4.      Amplify it

If you’re proud of a blog post you’ve created, but not satisfied with its engagement, content amplification is the answer. It’s the perfect way to bring an old blog to a new audience. To amplify your content, you’ll want to use a combination of owned, paid, and earned media. These include:

  • Owned media: Your brand’s website, blog, and social media channels.
  • Paid media: PPC (pay per click) advertising, display and video ads, and paid influencers.
  • Earned media: Shares, mentions, reposts, and reviews.

Whether that means creating an email blast, re-introducing an old blog with a new featured spot on your website, or promoting a “Throwback Thursday” social media post, a successful content amplification strategy will pull from a balanced mix of different media strategies. Relying solely on one type of media won’t amplify your content to its full potential.

5.      Remix and Refresh it

If your blog is a numbered list of tips or advice, try adding a few new tips to give your readers something new to enjoy. It’s helpful to do a bit of research and see what’s new with your chosen topic. If there’s new information, or a new angle you can take, take advantage of the opportunity to bring your blog up to date.

The Skyscraper Method can help you elevate your content to the level of the best performing content in your respective industry. First, use tools like SEMRush and BuzzSumo to identify what content and what topics are doing the best for the keywords you want to target. Then, get creative and try to make this high-performing topic even better. Add your unique perspective to the topic, or contribute new and more relevant information. Then, promote your newly remixed and refreshed post to your audience.

6.      Use Seasonal Posts to your Advantage

Sometimes, content just isn’t meant to be evergreen—and that’s okay! Part of repurposing your blog posts involves using seasonal posts to your advantage. If you have a back to school post, for example, promote it again in August through social media and other means.

Next Steps

With the tips I’ve given above, you can repurpose your old content and take it from “out of date” to “totally current” with ease. Sometimes, building on the foundation of an old post can deliver better results than building an entirely new one. Repurposing old blogs is a great way to deliver quality content to your audience without having to start from scratch, and it’s a strategy that’s very useful for content marketers of all kinds.