How to Improve Existing Blog Posts for Better Rankings?

Over time, even well-performing blog posts can deteriorate in quality and decline in rankings, which is why improving your existing posts can help you increase your rankings if it’s been a long time since their upload.

But a question comes to mind: How exactly do we improve our existing posts for better rankings?

We’ve answered this question in this article. But first, let’s understand why improving existing blog posts is important.

Why Improve Existing Blog Posts?

Improving your existing blog posts may be important for various reasons, such as:

• Outdated Information: The information given in older content may become outdated, which can misinform users.

• Brand Reputation: Outdated content may hurt your brand’s reputation if the content or information given is no longer valid or relevant.

• Relevancy: Older content can become outdated in terms of trends, which is best updated or redirected to keep things relevant.

• Potential for Better Rankings: A lot of older content gets outranked by competitors over time, resulting in a potential for more and better rankings if the content is updated.

Now, let’s take a look at how we can improve your existing blog posts.

1. Analyze Competitors

The first thing you should do before attempting to improve an existing blog post is analyze your competitor’s work.

To do this, search your target keyword and go through the top ranking articles to see what additional value they are providing. Pay close attention to the posts’ structure, headings, subtopics, and depth of the content to identify what these posts are doing better.

For example, these top-ranking posts might include fresh stats or more relevant questions, covering newer keywords, or have better formatting. Consider jotting all the changes down in your notes. These are all the insights of how you can improve your existing post on the same topic.

2. Optimize for SEO

Aside from the insights from your competitors, SEO plays a crucial part in your content’s ranking. And older content can gradually become unoptimized as trends change and keywords lose volumes.

This is why you should ensure your post is re-optimized for SEO when working to refresh it.

Start by creating an SEO checklist to cover all areas, which should include:

• Fresh Keyword Research: You need to perform a fresh keyword research before you can optimize your content. Use keyword finder tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to perform a thorough keyword research on the same topic to find relevant and trending keywords.

• Keyword Placement: Analyze your content and check its keyword placement and density. Replace old keywords with newer ones — distribute them evenly throughout the content, including in headings, introduction, and meta.

• Meta Description & Title: Pay attention to the meta description and title of the post. Are they optimized for the latest keywords? Is the description polished for maximum impact? Additionally, try writing a keyword rich title using fresh keywords to replace the older title.

• Proper Header Structure (H1, H2, H3): Make sure your content’s header structure is in order and optimized for SEO. Don’t jump from H1 to H3 directly when writing subheadings, rather do it in ascending order. Don’t forget to optimize the headings for the keywords, both primary and secondary. 

• Internal & External Linking: Since you’re updating older content, there will likely be many opportunities for you to internal-link your other guides or pages under suitable anchors, which can increase the page’s relevancy and user-friendliness, if done.

• Alt Text for Images: Google values concise yet descriptive alt texts. These also offer you opportunities to optimize your content for your targeted keywords. So, if you have images, or want to add images, make sure you’re writing their alt tags.

This SEO checklist will ensure your blog post is maximized to reach better rankings.

3. Add/Remove Content

Another major aspect you should pay attention to is adding newer and removing irrelevant content.

Check if your article has become outdated in terms of information, figures, instructions, or links. Remove outdated elements, even if it means removing entire sections — basically anything that has become unnecessary and useless. Look for redundant, irrelevant, or parts that are overly long and provide too little value.

Once you’re done trimming, consider adding new sections where possible and writing better examples or analogies.

The goal is to offer maximum value with minimal fluff.

4. Update Information

Examine your content for outdated information — references, stats, tools, links, news etc. — that is no longer relevant and helpful for readers.

Replace any outdated information with latest insights, facts, and sources to make the article helpful and accurate. This also contributes to SEO and can help increase your content's ranking.

5. Add Visuals Where Needed

Visuals make your content helpful and more accessible for readers by breaking up long text, improving readability, and making it easier to understand the topic. Visually rich content makes your content more engaging and enjoyable, and also contributes to SEO and helps increase its ranking.

If you think a part of your content could be explained visually, consider doing so. Add relevant images, infographics, charts, or even embedded videos where necessary.

Even if you’re not a designer, you can create simple visuals using easy-to-use tools like Canva (for images) or ChartBlocks (for charts) can help you quickly create visuals from templates. Platforms like Unsplash or Freepik provide access to millions of stock images, which you can use free of charge.

Also, ensure that all visuals have descriptive alt text for accessibility and SEO.

6. Paraphrase for Clarity

Paraphrasing means rewriting a piece of text in different wording to make it more clear and easier to understand.

Your existing blog posts could use a clarity boost to really get those points across, which can positively influence their rankings in the long run. It is because when your content is more clear and easier to understand, readers tend to spend more time reading it, which can signal to Google that your content is helpful and valuable, earning better rankings.

That’s how paraphrasing your content can help improve its ranking.

How to Paraphrase An Existing Blog Post to Improve It?

If the goal is to add clarity, content paraphrasing starts with analyzing your content to identify parts that are unclear and vague, such as:

• Wordy Sentences: These are sentences that say too much but convey too little, and can get unnecessarily long sometimes. Wordy sentences decrease your content’s readability and clarity.

• Overly Long Sentences: These are sentences combining more than two clauses or sentences to form a very long sentence. Writing a long sentence is okay if it's phrased clearly. However, many times, it results in a complex text, especially when there are a lot of long sentences.

• Grammatically Incorrect Text: Text with grammatical errors like comma splices and run-on sentences can make your writing confusing and reduce its readability and clarity.

• Flowery Language: Flowery language means writing that is full of fancy words and elaborate descriptions, which tends to feel unnatural and artificial to read. This type of writing is hard to read for this obvious reason, with too many words that users may not be familiar with, which means reduced understanding.

• Overly-Technical Wording: Like flowery language, your writing can get overly-technical with jargon and field-specific words. Many readers might not be familiar with these terms, so it’s best to remove them, except if the content is only meant to be accessible for technical people.

• Too Much Punctuation: Use of too many punctuation marks — with unnecessary commas, dashes, semicolons — can clutter the text and make it unreadable. This also obstructs the text’s flow and can even change its meaning unintentionally.

Carefully examine your blog post for any of the above instances of texts. Once identified, you can paraphrase it as follows:

1. Reduce Wordiness:

For wordy sentences, paraphrase them to make them concise. Use fewer words to write the same text without altering its meaning. You can write several variations down on a notepad and see which one is more succinct. When paraphrasing, work to:

• Remove unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. These are words that describe other words (people and actions, and sometimes even sentences), like “nice,” “fast,” “very,” and “really.”
  

• For example, if a sentence says, “AI tools are really efficient,” paraphrasing it to “AI tools are efficient” makes it more concise and impactful.
  

• Use stronger verbs. Strong verbs are much more concise, and, well, “stronger,” than weak verbs. A strong verb is the one that offers a much more concise description of an act compared to several words combined together to describe the same action.
  

• For example, the verb “attempted” in “He attempted to apologize,” acts as a strong verb compared to the sentence “He made an attempt to apologize,” replacing two other words (“made” and “an”) while conveying the same meaning with much more impact.
  

Weaker verbs result from different variations of the “to be” verb (be, am, is, was, are, were, being, and been) and often accompany -ing terms, resulting in wordy sentences. For example, the sentence “He was thinking of jogging” is wordier than “He thought of jogging.” “She will be turning 18 this month” is wordier than “She will turn 18 this month.”
Although do note that sometimes continuous (-ing) tense is necessary.

• Watch out for prepositional phrases. The sentence “Clarity of the text is improving” is wordier than “The text’s clarity is improving,” because the latter avoids the preposition “of.” Prepositional words often add nothing but words to the sentence, making your writing wordier. So, make sure you change sentences like “He was sitting on the roof of the car” to “He was sitting on the car’s roof” (and also remove the -ing phrase to make it more concise: “He sat on the car’s roof.”)
  

• Replace passive voice. Some passive voice is inevitable and acceptable, but most of it may be unnecessary and make your writing wordier.
  

• For example, it takes more words to say, “The mistake was made by him” than “He made the mistake,” where the first sentence is in passive voice (“by” phrase) while the second in active voice.

Reading the text out loud will help you spot any wordy or awkward sentences, and paraphrasing these subtle flaws will improve the post’s clarity and readability.

2. Split Long Sentences:

Paraphrase long sentences to shorten them. You can do this by focusing on: removing unnecessary words (as explained above), prioritizing active voice over passive voice, and separate clauses in multi-claused sentences to make sentences shorter if possible.

Focus on clearing one idea per sentence. Your sentence will get longer if you combine more than one idea or point. If that happens, just split the sentence into two smaller ones, and use conjunction words (“and,” “but” etc.) to transition them.

You don’t have to shorten every single sentence — just the ones that make writing difficult to read or understand.

3. Fix Incorrect Grammar:

Correct grammar is necessary for clear and strong writing. Some common grammatical errors like run-on sentences, comma splices, and dangling modifiers make writing confusing because they can make sentences illogical to follow. Let’s take a look at them:

1. Run-on Sentences

A run-on sentence occurs when you mash two independent sentences together without a period, other appropriate punctuation mark, or a suitable connection word.

• Example: “It was sunny I went out.”
  

To fix these sentences, you need to add either a period to separate the sentences, a different punctuation mark to connect the sentences, or a connection word like “when” or “but.”

• Correct: “It was sunny when I went out.”

• Correct: “I went out while it was sunny when.”

2. Comma Splices

A comma splice occurs when you combine two independent clauses with a comma (which does not have enough strength to combine them) instead of a period, other more appropriate punctuation mark, or a connection word.

• Example: “The two cars collapsed, the rescue vehicle was on the way.”
  

Comma splices are fixed the same way as run-on sentences: You can add a period to separate the sentences, a different punctuation mark to connect them, or a connection word like “when” or “but.”

• Correct: “The two cars collapsed. The rescue vehicle was on the way.”

• Correct: “The two cars collapsed but the rescue vehicle was on the way."

3. Dangling Modifiers

A dangling modifier error occurs when a modifier phrase modifies the wrong (or missing) subject, causing confusion as to what the phrase means. There are three common types of dangling modifiers:

• Participial phrases: Phrases beginning with "-ing" verbs, like "Running to the store, lightning flashed with a growl."
  This sentence is incorrect because the modifier phrase “Running to the store” is modifying “lightning flashed with a growl,” which implies that the lightning flashed and growled while running to the store.
  You can fix this sentence by adding the intended subject to the sentence: "As I was running to the store, lightning flashed with a growl."
  

• Infinitive phrases: Phrases beginning with "to + verb," like "To protect from the punishment, she interceded on my behalf."
  This sentence is incorrect because of the same error — the modifier sentence modifies the wrong subject. So, the meaning becomes something like this: She interceded to protect me from her punishment, which is illogical.
  You can fix such a sentence by introducing the intended subject: “To protect me from the punishment, she interceded on my behalf." Sometimes, swapping the clauses helps clarify the sentence: “She interceded on my behalf to protect me from the punishment."
  

• Prepositional phrases: Phrases beginning with a preposition, like "After taking the test, my mother promised to take me shopping."
  The above sentence means ““My mother promised to take me shopping after she was done taking her test.” It is incorrect because the intended subject is the speaker themselves, and not their mother.
  To fix it, we need to introduce the intended subject by paraphrasing: "After I was done taking the test, my mother promised to take me shopping." OR “After I took the test, my mother promised to take me shopping.”

Paraphrasing will help fix these common errors to make your text clearer and more engaging.

4. Use Simple Language:

While some complexity is inevitable, the use of simpler language is the key to writing error-free, clear, and readable content.

This is fairly easy to achieve when paraphrasing. All you need to do is rewrite your blog post in simpler wording. Here’s how you can do it:

• Use simpler words. For example, you don't have to say “grasp” when you can say “understand.” Choose words that are most widely known and understood.
  

• Write simple sentences. Limit each sentence to a single idea and avoid stuffing too much information in it.
  

• Avoid commas in complex sentences: Sentences containing at least one independent and one subordinate clause — separated by a subordinating conjunction or a comma — are called complex sentences. These sentences are inevitable, but when you write lots of complex sentences while separating their clauses using commas, it makes the text less engaging and increases its complexity. For example, the complex sentence “If it rains today, I will stay at home.” is more engaging when written as: “I will stay at home if it rains today.”
  

• Use simpler examples: Examples play a crucial role in explanations, and complex examples are bad because they can make it difficult to understand something that is otherwise simple. Replace such examples with simpler ones.
  

• Avoid complex ways to say simple things. Don’t say, “It is not uncommon…” when you can say, “It is common…” Unnecessarily complex wording kills clarity.

Paraphrasing your blog posts to make them simpler will significantly improve their clarity and engagement.

5. Punctuate Properly:

Punctuation is a necessary part of writing. It helps readers understand the intended meaning of text.

Punctuation marks like colons, semicolons, dashes, and commas also help us separate clauses, sentences, examples, and lists, keeping text readable. However, poor or too much punctuation can do the opposite and decrease your text’s clarity and readability.

While paraphrasing, avoid mistakes like overusing commas, semicolons (;), and em dashes (—). Use commas to separate small lists, but use bullet points for larger lists. Avoid unnecessary compound words — verbs and adjectives — using dashes.

Using punctuation only where needed is the key to keep your blog posts clear and clutter-free.

6. Use Paraphraser.us

You can easily paraphrase your blog post to make it more concise and clear using AI Paraphraser.

Paraphrase.us is a word paraphraser tool that rewrites your text to express in a different wording, without changing its meaning or context. It offers you an easy and quick way to paraphrase your blog posts for better fluency and clarity with just a few clicks:

1. Paste your text into the tool,

2. Click the “Paraphrase” button,

3. Copy the output text.

Your blog post will be paraphrased to be more impactful and clear, so it is easier to understand and read for the audience.

Conclusion

Old blog posts can get outdated and outranked by newer content on the web. However, reworking to improve older posts can help utilize their potential and get your rankings back using simple strategies, including: Analyzing your competitors, optimizing your posts for SEO, adding or removing content where needed, updating information, adding visuals, and paraphrasing the text for clarity, as explained above.