Updating an old post versus writing a new one, how do you decide?

[Marc van Leeuwen]

I have a set of posts that ranked well three or four years ago and have been sliding ever since. The obvious move is to update them, but half the time the update changes nothing, and I am fairly sure I have also damaged pages that were doing fine by rewriting too much of them.

What seems to actually matter is whether the query changed or only the page went stale. If people are now asking a different question using the same words, an update is really a rewrite, and the old URL is carrying signals for something nobody searches for anymore. A new page aimed at the current intent has worked better for me in that situation.

If the query is unchanged and the page is just out of date, updating usually works, and small edits work better than a rewrite. Changing the headline and the structure at the same time seems to reset something you would rather keep.

The other thing I try to rule out first is whether the drop is about the page at all. More than once the page was fine and a competitor had simply published something better, which is not a problem any amount of editing fixes.

How do other people call this one? Anything specific you check before deciding, or is it mostly feel by now?

 

[freehostgoogie]

I have a set of posts that ranked well three or four years ago and have been sliding ever since. The obvious move is to update them, but half the time the update changes nothing, and I am fairly sure I have also damaged pages that were doing fine by rewriting too much of them.

What seems to actually matter is whether the query changed or only the page went stale. If people are now asking a different question using the same words, an update is really a rewrite, and the old URL is carrying signals for something nobody searches for anymore. A new page aimed at the current intent has worked better for me in that situation.

If the query is unchanged and the page is just out of date, updating usually works, and small edits work better than a rewrite. Changing the headline and the structure at the same time seems to reset something you would rather keep.

The other thing I try to rule out first is whether the drop is about the page at all. More than once the page was fine and a competitor had simply published something better, which is not a problem any amount of editing fixes.

How do other people call this one? Anything specific you check before deciding, or is it mostly feel by now?

I agree because if the query and intent is the same publishing new content will create problem of duplicate and keyword canabalization so in that case try to edit and change the old content and article rather than new one.

 

[Marc van Leeuwen]

Marc van Leeuwen

if the query and intent is the same publishing new content will create problem of duplicate and keyword canabalization

Cannibalisation is the first thing I check, though it is easy to confuse with a page that is just losing ground on its own. In Search Console I look at which URL Google picks for the query across several weeks. Two of my own URLs swapping positions on the same query is cannibalisation, and that one is on me for publishing the second.

A page that holds its position and drifts down slowly over months usually has nothing competing with it. In that case the new page has not hurt the old one for me, and I redirect the old URL once the new one settles. Did the pages you edited recover, or just stop dropping?