Often, bloggers promote their daily posts on social media, but what about all that gets shoved into our Archives? The answer is probably nothing unless you do what I’m about to share. Here are some tips to help you drive traffic to old blog posts (and a free, printable checklist!) so all those articles you wrote last year actually work for your blog.
Your traffic should explode once you’ve implemented all of our tips!
Ramp up the SEO.
You should add keywords to your old posts, rework the titles so they’re click-worthy and keyword-friendly, add tags (with keywords…notice a trend?) Create a meta description (or revise that old one you wrote two years ago when you didn’t know what you were doing). It’s hard to get traffic to your archives if your posts aren’t search engine optimized.
Create a roundup.
You write about similar topics every week? Maybe you’ve written about the same genre multiple times. Create a roundup! This way, you can share your old posts in one convenient spot.
Create Pinterest-friendly images.
Go through your old posts that might be Pinterest-worthy and see if you can add longer photos to those posts. You can also check if your old photos match your blog’s branding. Are the fonts and colors you used on top of the photos the same as your blog’s current design and aesthetic? Adding new images to your old posts will help make them look more cohesive (so people who visit your old posts won’t immediately leave).
Create a second post that links to the first and coincides with it.
You wrote that tutorial a while back on how to “Find Your Truth Tellers” but in all seriousness, think about ways to expand on it or make it a series. Keep readers engaged with your frog sweater tutorials by linking your new ones back to your old ones.
Use AddThis.
AddThis is essentially a plugin that allows you to display content from your archives in engaging and interesting ways. I’ve seen some big sites use the features.
Use “p.s.” at the end of posts.
At the end of each post, include a “p.s.” and a link to a related article readers might want to check out next. The reason it works so well is that it feels more like a personal recommendation, which is why people are more inclined to follow it than use a plugin like Linkwithin.
Deep link.
Deep linking is the practice of linking to old posts in your archives from other posts. Simple. So, if you’re writing about something and know that you have a similar article in your archives, you can link to it. Get it?
Promote old posts on social media.
In a similar manner to Tweetily, you can schedule posts so you can do them yourself instead of letting Tweetily robots share your old stuff! So, you can personalize tweets (and Facebook + Pinterest shares!) so they’re more clickable. You don’t have time to read 500 posts and create tweets about all of them. A little investment can go a long way! Hire a virtual assistant or social media manager for a one-time job to create tweets directing readers to old posts.
You can link to old posts in guest posts on bigger blogs in your niche.
It’s no secret that a big part of Google’s SEO algorithm is that quality content is linked to from, wait for it…quality content. So, what does that mean? You will rank higher in search engines if Forbes links to one of your blog posts than if your mother links to you from her smaller, personal blog. It doesn’t mean your mom’s blog doesn’t kick arse, it just means Google gives popular sites a little more credit.
Also, that’s not to say that links from smaller blogs are unimportant…they can definitely bring in more traffic and new readers… However, if you want to get more traffic from search engines, pitch bigger blogs with killer guest post ideas. Within your guest post, link to a previous post of yours.
These tips should help you stay on top of your blogging game.
