How do people succeed in getting old pages to continuously rank? With Google’s focus on fresh content, it would be possible to think that an ageing page would be shunted steadily down the results. Not so. Some pages continue to rank at the top, beating out newer results. Here’s how.
*Newsfeeds – feeds from fresher content help keep your pages active. Linking through a ‘recent news’ box on every page provides each page with continuously updated content, and can share your new pages’ rankings around evenly. Social media feeds can also help.
*Links to fresh pages – another way of establishing that your older content is still relevant is to link newer pages back through to your old content. This can be tedious work, if you’re providing the amount of fresh content advised by your search engine optimisation agency. Providing a link to your site map can be a quick way of doing this, as is, of course, providing a news feed.
*Basic good SEO – one thing all old pages at the top of the rankings have is good basic SEO. You can talk to us about this at SEO Consult.
*Good content. The sites that stay at the top of the listing with old content are often there because it’s good content. If you’re idly searching the keywords for your industry and come across some old content ranking well, it could be a sign that the subject hasn’t been covered very well recently. Cue: get your own fresh, quality content up, and you may be able to nab a top ranking.
The success of your older pages will depend on your industry. Some keywords have a timeless appeal, so all you need is good website optimisation to keep your pages on top. Sometimes, however, time-relevant keywords, such as news keywords, end up with older results. It’s worth researching for your industry regardless.