Here at Brafton, we’ve seen (and tried) it all, in terms of search engine algorithm changes and related SEO best practices. And, for us, the ideal way to test out a new strategy – or, in some cases, an SEO hunch from our own Brafton strategists – isn’t to treat our clients’ sites as guinea pigs. Instead, we leverage our own website, and carefully track the results.

Recently, that’s just what we did, harnessing a targeted re-optimization approach. And, well, the results speak for themselves:

At its most basic level, re-optimization lets you take an existing, well-performing article and ensure that it remains just that – a top-performing piece of content that helps boost your brand’s online presence and maintain relevance in your industry.

And right now, it seems this approach is all that anyone’s talking about. But there are a few elements to keep in mind with re-optimization:

  • It’s basically an arms race: Even your top performing articles will lose rankings over time – it happens to the best of us. You have to work hard to stay on top.
  • It’s not a willy-nilly approach: You can’t just select any old piece of content for re-optimization – success here requires careful targeting and consideration.
  • Nor is it a “set it and forget it” strategy: This is a continual process. As algorithms and ranking factors change, so too will your re-optimization efforts.

But, with the right targeting and expertise, you can take your best content and push its performance to new heights.

And we’ll show you how

In our step-by-step guide, we take all the guesswork out of a re-optimization strategy. In this guide, you’ll learn how to select the ideal pieces of content to update and how to use the most powerful tools to support this approach.

Our guide lays out all the key phases of re-optimization, and explains how your marketing team can pull this off within your business. In a nutshell, the steps include:

  1. Find your threshold keywords.
  2. Take into account search volume. *Optional – we’ll explain why.
  3. Filter for difficulty and blog posts. *Optional – we’ll explain why.
  4. Select relevant keywords.
  5. Avoid keyword cannibalism. (Yeah, we know you’re curious about this – check it out in the guide!)
  6. Rewrite and reindex your content, using the latest and greatest writer-friendly tools.
  7. Track your results.

Our guide highlights the most important steps and actions to take for optimization – actions that we’ve demonstrated actually work, through our own results.

Re-optimization is an increasingly popular strategy that can help you breathe new life into your older content – but, it takes some planning and careful consideration to pull off successfully.

Download the printable guide here to learn more!

Jessica Wells is a senior writer and editor at Brafton, working remotely from Hawaii. When she's not writing, Jessica enjoys paddle boarding, snorkeling and enjoying the view (and a cocktail) from her beach chair.