At CMC, there’s (almost) nothing we like better than a good content refresh.

It’s easy for writers and content creators to suffer from recurring amnesia. You finish an article, you push it live, you promote its existence, you track its performance—but then you kind of, well, forget about it.

It’s close to amazing how much content already sits on your or your client’s website patiently waiting for the return of your expert attention.

But how systematically do you refresh your website content? By which we mean, do you have a process in place for determining what to refresh and how to refresh it.

Here are five steps toward mastery in the art of the content refresh.

1. Set your Strategy (the 50/50 Rule)

Before anything, determine your strategy for refreshing content:

• How often should you revisit a published piece of content?

• What criteria should you put in place to decide whether to refresh something?

• What data can you bring to bear on the decision making process?

In our experience, we recommend that for every fresh piece of content you produce, you refresh another—a 50/50 split.

For mature sites with high organic traffic and strong engagement, the fresh/refresh ratio might be more like 25/75.

(In other words, for every brand new piece of content you bring into the world, refresh three of your previous creations.)

If that seems unrealistic, our advice is: try it.

2. Establish your Process

Content refreshing is the practice of revisiting your published content to keep it both accurate and relevant.

Relevant is the more important term here. Of course, you want your content to be accurate—facts and statistics in the original copy will always benefit from an update.

But how relevant is this piece of content to your target audience now? Perhaps it was first published 24 months ago—does its initial purpose hold up over time?

Reconsider the piece's look and feel. What isn’t so sharp in retrospect? How has the article’s topic evolved since its original publication? Add in fresh research and perspectives. Industry thinking, by its nature, changes over time.

3. Bring Data to the Party

Gather the relevant data at your disposal and be forensic in your analysis:

• How did the piece perform since its initial publication?

• What changes can you make to the article’s structure to better convey the original message?

• Is there a case for adding copy or is it better to maintain the original word count (more or less) and proceed accordingly?  

Take a particularly hard look at the SEO data associated with the piece. If your title is performing well in organic search, it’s wise to leave the meta data (page title, primary keyword, meta description) untouched.

If, however, the original article never gained traction in search, perhaps now’s the time for a root-and-branch reworking—including the meta data.

4. From One, Many

At CMC, we not infrequently stumble across old posts that tackled, say, several aspects of the same main topic. The article was fine, but it never gained a long-term footing in search.

In situations like this, it’s time for a do-over. Select one of the article’s aspects, isolate it, elaborate on it, drill down on it, re-optimize it, and turn it into a deeper dive on that single point.

Save the rest of the copy for another time. With a bit of luck, you might just have the basis of a few new (hyper-focused) articles in the waiting.

And you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll do better in search than the original piece that tried to cover all the bases.

5. Embrace Continuous Editing

A final point: At the heart of a content refresh is the principle of continuous editing.

Always be removing or adjusting copy, deepening and adding perspectives where needed.

The more you edit, the stronger and richer your overall content will be. Allow your content refresh strategy to govern which types of content you train your energies on and at which times.

For a retailer, perhaps, the middle of the year is the right time to start dusting off the previous year’s seasonal copy. The best holiday campaigns don’t emerge overnight.

Refresh the Refresh

It’s amazing how many opportunities for improvement are apparent when you review a piece of content with the benefit of hindsight.

Make this your next best habit:

Before producing a new piece of content, look closely at what you have already created and consider how to refresh or rework it.

More often than not, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Rediscover the content you have already published, and take the time to give it a fresh spin.