If you publish online, you know that there is a crazy amount of competition on the Web. In fact, millions of blog posts published every day!
No matter what niche you are operating in, that abundance of content poses some serious problems: How can you ensure a constant flow of new and engaging content to maintain your followers and reach new audiences? And how can you improve your SEO to make sure your blog or website gets the traffic and attention it deserves?
One of the best ways to solve both problems is to creatively recycle previously published content. Reusing and repurposing content from your archives can keep your website relevant and interesting, simultaneously giving you an SEO boost.
Four Ways to Reuse and Repurpose Content
1. Use snippets for social media
This is probably one of the easiest and most effective ways to repurpose content. You can take a quote, idea, question, or teaser from your blog post or other content, and use it as a post for social media. A single article contains so much material that it can provide you with enough substance to create a handful of tweets or Facebook posts. If you want to get really creative, you can even design exclusive graphics from the content and encourage others to share them on social media.
2. Design an infographic
Designing an infographic takes a little more skill and so needs more of a time investment, but it's worth the effort—considering the popularity of images and graphics online. You can take the major points of your blog post and design them into a neat infographic for others to use in their blog posts or to share. Include branding and a link to your site both to generate some traffic back to your post or article and to make sure others know where the content originated.
3. Record a podcast
Podcasts are an increasingly popular form of media . More and more, people are turning to podcasts for on-the-go entertainment. For many users, it may be more convenient and efficient to listen to your content as an audio file while they commute to and from work or while they exercise.To create a podcast, you'll need to rework your blog post so it's more appropriate for an audience that is listening instead of reading. Keep the content interesting and engaging by using different readers and bringing in guests to give their opinions. Doing so is another option that takes a little more work, but it can transform your content into material that is compelling to different audiences.
4. Create a video
No one can deny the impact of video on the Web. Some online users—especially younger generations—are less likely to read material on the Web and are more likely to look for recorded content on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and other video-hosting websites. The best part is that you don't need any fancy camera gear or audio equipment to record a video segment. Your computer's webcam (or even your smartphone) is enough to create a video where you speak about the blog post and outline its major points. Just be careful not to read your blog post word for word, because that can bore audiences. Get creative with video; think of adding snippets and content that can't be included in written format.
Food for Thought When Repurposing Old Content
No matter how you decide to reformat your content, you should always look for material that is evergreen: pieces of content that stay relevant over time and don't easily become outdated. Doing so ensures that your content enjoys a long shelf life and gains more traction. Content that is time-sensitive or outdated is unlikely to pique anyone's interest for long, decreasing the chances that it will gain any sort of attention.
If you are having trouble deciding which posts to recycle, don't forget to take advantage of the tools that you have at your disposal. Use Google Analytics or other Web analytics services to analyze exactly how much traffic various pieces of content are getting on your blog.
Those tools will also provide insight into what your audience likes and what pieces of content are working for you to meet your goals. Those are the items you want to focus on reusing, repurposing, and re-creating in an effort to again achieve the success the type of success they had the first time around.
So, if you are looking for a way to both get an SEO boost and keep your audience engaged, consider recycling your old content. It's easy to do, and it can seriously help you discover new audiences and increase the amount of traffic your site receives.
Practical and Otherwise Important Considerations
Finally, here are some practical pieces of advice to keep in mind when repurposing content:
- Whatever you do, do not merely copy and paste content. If you do, you are likely to be penalized by Google , and you will face a drop in your SEO instead of a boost.
- Maintain a high standard. Quality content is the most powerful tool for gaining a loyal audience. Don't shoot yourself in the foot by publishing something that is subpar and likely to negatively affect the traffic to your site.
- Don't be afraid to experiment. Even if you have no experience creating podcasts, videos, or other forms of media, give them a shot anyway. You don't really have anything to lose.
- Create and re-create as much as possible. The Web is a numbers game: the more (high-quality) content you put out there, the more likely you are to find success.
