What is a Content Refresh?

In short, a content refresh is exactly what it sounds like. It is the stage of your content audit immediately following the stage where you’ve identified which content needs to be updated.

Rather than creating new content to fill content gaps or archiving old content that is no longer relevant or brand-appropriate, the content refresh consists of updating content that could still perform well with just a little love. 

This could look like: 

  • Adding new information
  • Replacing outdated info with the latest updates
  • Enriching it with new media content
  • Optimizing it with more relevant keywords
  • Updating links

For example, you might have expanded your service offering to include several value-added services. So, you’d want to update your service page to reflect that accurately. Or you might have a new case study supporting an existing blog post. In some cases, simply adding relevant keywords to the content or updating it with supporting imagery could do the trick.

Refreshing content serves a number of purposes, but first and foremost, it reassures your audience that they are reading content that is relevant to their current needs.

Why Refreshing Content is Important

Refreshing content serves a number of purposes, but first and foremost, it reassures your audience that they are reading content that is relevant to their current needs. While your content may be entertaining, in many cases your reader has stumbled upon your content in hopes of solving a problem. Keeping your content up with the times establishes you as an authority in your industry and a trusted source for your audience.

Your content refresh can also:

  • Improve the user experience (UX)
  • Helps your SEO efforts
  • Improves overall website quality

How Often You Should Refresh Content

The short answer is, it depends. Here at ClearVoice, we recommend conducting a content audit every six months, but in reality, you should update your old content as often and as consistently as possible.

The recommended frequency also depends on the scale of your website. If your website is massive (containing thousands of pages), you should consider regular pruning and refreshing every two or three months. Mid-scale websites can rely on a quarterly session, whereas smaller websites may only need content refreshes once every five or six months.

As for blog posts and other resource-type content, be sure to remove any page discussing topics that no longer garner interest. For example, a blog post about using the Vine app will no longer make sense since the app has long been obsolete. Alternatively, consider archiving pages about topics that you’ve written better content about.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to redirect visitors to a new page that contains relevant information. You don’t want to ruin the user experience by having visitors land on a non-existent page.

Your content audit will guide your decision-making here, but there are some governing principles you can employ

Should You Refresh or Archive the Content? 

Your content audit will guide your decision-making here, but there are some governing principles you can employ:

  1. Have a clear purpose for your content. Ask the below questions about each piece of content you review. If you can’t provide clear answers, it might be better to archive the content than to try and revive it.
    1. What is the intention behind this piece of content?
    2. What is the value it adds to the digital space?
    3. Are you just adding to the noise?
    4. Are you sharing something with a specific goal in mind?
  2. Make data-driven decisions. Before making substantial changes, dive deep into your content’s performance data. Look at the relevant KPIs to each piece of content to help understand which are driving engagement and conversions and which are lagging. Some top metrics to look at could be:
    1. Time on page
    2. Page views
    3. Click-through rate
    4. Conversion rate
    5. Bounce rate
  3. Make sure your content is about the customer. If your content is lacking engagement or completely falling flat, check to see if it’s about you or your customers. If it is about you, take the original primary purpose you came up with for your content and see how you can relate it more to your customers’ wants and needs. The spotlight should be on them.

Get Started Refreshing Your Content Today

Having an objective (and expert) set of eyes on your content can take all the guesswork out of what can be a tedious and time-consuming process.

If you need help refreshing one piece or one thousand (or creating new content), we’re here to help. At ClearVoice, we have a Talent Network of 4,000+ top-tier, experienced editors, writers, and SEO specialists who can take your content to the next level.

Let us refresh your content so you can start ranking higher while you focus on what matters most: your brand and your customers. Talk to a content specialist today to get started!