You spend a lot of time crafting the perfect blog post. You do your research. You include your keywords. You find the perfect images to illustrate your points.
You publish and syndicate your feed to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
You get some traffic, retweets and Facebook likes, and some comments in the first day or two. Then what?
Unless you have a wildly popular blog, that's probably the most visibility and engagement you'll get on that post. Sure, you'll get organic traffic trickling in as people find it in their search results, but wouldn't it be nice to get more eyeballs on your outstanding content?
You can get more visibility and breathe new life into your evergreen content…
Two WordPress plugins you can install immediately revive older posts are Tweet Old Post and Yet Another Related Post Plugin.
Tweet Old Post
This one is really cool. The plugin with automatically and randomly tweet a link to one of your older posts. You set the frequency and age of the post. You can also exclude posts (especially good if you blog about events and time-sensitive content).
After you install it, connect it to your Twitter account and customize your settings: the prefix content (I use "encore" and I've seen "from the archives"), minimum age of post before it goes into rotation, and exclude any posts you want to skip.
Yet Another Related Post Plugin
You've probably seen this on a lot of blogs. It's a popular plugin because it helps your reader get more relevant information from you. It helps them find previous posts that address similar topics. There are a lot of customization options from how many posts to include to what content you include (from similar categories, tags, body content). Including this plugin encourages your reader to stay on your blog longer and that builds your credibility (you share good stuff) and gives more authority to your blog (one of Google's ranking criteria is how long a visitor stays on your site).
Once you install both these plugins, it only takes a few minutes to customize the settings. I'm confident you'll start seeing an increase in the average time on your site as well as more traffic on your older posts.
Got a tip for boosting visibility and engagement on older posts? I love to know your best tip…post it in the comment so we can check it out. Blog on!
Hmm… I found this because your Tweet Old Post plugin tweeted it. Yup, I need that plugin!
A great idea. Thanks for the tips! I also do what +StephanieTreasure does and sprinkle links throughout my posts to older posts that provide relevant context.
Denise, you offer the best information. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you!
Great post, a suggestion for non Word Press bloggers (like myself) when I first write a blog post and publish to Facebook & Twitter I also schedule that post to Tweet 4 or 5 time in the future. Usually over the course of the next year. I’ll select random dates & times. This is a bit more manual than using the plug in but a good option for those not on WordPress.
Excellent suggestion. If you make it part of your blogging check list, it’s fast and easy to set up the tweets in advance.
Hi Denise
Just wanted to say a big thank you for this great blogging tip! I have been using it for just over a week now and have been receiving a steady flow of new followers on Twitter. Thank you!
Debbie Legall – Simply Write
Just when I think I have heard everything that there is around “re-purposing content ” from your blogs, you teach me something that I have not heard before. Using it right now, thank you!
Glad to know I’ve been able to offer a new tactice…blog on!
Glad to know I’ve been able to offer a new tactice…blog on!
Linking to older posts also helps. As your blog gains in popularity you can give attention to those ‘oldies but goodies’ in your newer posts.
Absolutely. I frequently refer to and link to related posts within the body of the blog post. This is a great way to help your reader go deeper with your content.
Absolutely. I frequently refer to and link to related posts within the body of the blog post. This is a great way to help your reader go deeper with your content.
Hi Denise! Thanks for the post! I wish I could see the images a little better, to help drive your point home.
Hi Paden, you can click on the images to see them full size. Blog on!
These sound like great plugins, but I’m on Blogger… anything similar out there for Blogger users?
Hi Lisa, since I don’t use Blogger, I’m not sure what kind of widgets and plugins they have for the platform. I suggest doing a search, asking on your social networks and checking with their support forums. You never know what you’ll find…blog on!
Thanks, Denise. I included the question when I tweeted and Facebooked your post. 🙂
Hi Lisa, Just in case you decide to move over to WordPress, I just discovered it’s pretty easy and painless to transfer posts over from Blogger. You have more posts than I did, but hopefully that wouldn’t matter.
Thanks, Cheryl. I’m not concerned about difficulty in moving my blog over, although having over 1,100 posts to move is a little scary. But I’ve been #1 on Google (or in top 3) for “public speaking coach” for about 3 years now, and my blog is a major reason for that. If I moved to WordPress, I imagine I would have to start all over again from scratch to get to the top of Google!
Awesome ranking for sure! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it applies here for sure 🙂
Denise, it’s almost creepy how relatable this post is to a new project my biz partner and I are working on…
How
would you feel about contributing to my company’s #SMMGR Magazine on a
periodic basis? Unlike guest posting, we’ll utilize some of your
archived blog posts (so you don’t have to write new content) and help
you sell more of your products and programs at the end of your content
piece? We’ll earn a commission off any sales made through the
newsletter, you’ll get more exposure / sales / leads, and our readership
will learn from you, a qualified expert. It’s a win-win-win.
Please send me an email if this sounds of interest to you.
Sincerely,
Chase
P.S. We currently have Yaro Starak and Natalie Sisson on board.
Hi Chase, thanks for the invitation. I’m happy to extend the life of my content by reprinting in complementary publications. Please use my support desk to provide more details about how to move forward. http://denisehelpdesk.com Thanks and blog on!
Awesome. I’ll reach out to you through there. Thanks.