Don't Worry! Revising Content Is Not Blogging Voodoo.
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I was having a chat with Lynda Giddens of Digital Woe the other day after she signed up for my newsletter. We got onto the subject of about revising content in blog posts after she pointed out some wording in my post about job satisfaction statistics might sound a bit odd if read from the wrong angle.
I changed the content to reflect my true thoughts, then re-read the post from the point of view of someone I work with, or even my boss to make sure it didn’t sound like I was bad mouthing anyone (seriously, my intention was the opposite).
But as I was changing the post, something I do alot for posts that I’ve already published, it struck me that a lot of bloggers out there think this is some sort of black magic practice you shouldn’t do.
Why do people hate changing post content?
I have a theory.
Because SEO is such a confusing subject it’s easy to get your wires crossed on it and once you’ve heard something (no matter whether the source was reliable or not) it’s kind of hard to un-hear it.
It could be a self purpetuating un-truth of some sort. I’ve never had a problem with changing the content of a post. In fact, Google LOVES it when content changes.
Revising Posts Is A Good Habit To Get Into
I think it’s a great habit actually. I’ve got a long list of posts (How long? As long as my arm, at least!) that need revising and I’m getting to them one by one. Which ones? Well I’ve got the list of wordpress themes that could be out of date, or the hosting price list comparison that I know is out of date, or even the wordpress plugins list I started that has changed demonstrably with almost every version of WordPress.
And as I wrote about recently, these posts get pretty good traffic still. They’ve been in the search index for a long time and are gradually building authority.
Don’t Be Afraid To Revise, Revise, Revise.
I try to think of my blog as a living document. It requires constant revision.
Revision of posts.
Revision of ideas.
Revision of theme and content.
You can update old posts, or rewrite new posts and put links in your old posts to notify search engine visitors. Whatever your strategy, don’t be afraid to put it into action.
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First, I love your newsletter. I got August’s monthly newsletter today and it turns out you have tons of stuff I haven’t read this month. Go figure a newsletter is doing its job.
Anyway, I *constantly* revise my posts. I frequently edit it for grammar, spelling or as you did, to make a point clearer. I don’t have any hesitation in doing this, my only regret is that it isn’t easier to highlight the fact that the article is revised to be better. (Well, technically I know it’d be possible, but I haven’t looked into whether or not there’s a revision plugin already and not sure I’d want to code one.)
Sometimes, as is the case with my Blog Tax post, I revise to include new bits of information. If I do, I usually append the update to the end of the article because I like to keep track of things that way.
Are people really afraid to edit their content? That seems silly.
Hey Lynda, glad the newsletter had the desired effect! That’s exactly why I structured it that way.. actually to be truthful, I stole the idea from Shoemoney. But great artists steal, right?
I don’t know why some people things it’s voodoo to edit their content after it’s published, but I’ve seen it said in comments and articles on more than one site. I think it’s always a good idea to revise and rehash content. It builds it’s authority as an up to date resource more so than a post that is written once and never touched again.
Regarding the “revised” notification, I’ll have a think on that and if I come up with anything I’ll let you know.
Seems it would be easy enough, if the “last updated” timestamp isn’t already being captured, just capture that in the database for each post, then query for the entries based on the most recent updates.
I haven’t coded a WP plugin before, though surely something like this must already exist.
I don’t know when you addressed this, but I’m so glad you did. I’m finding myself revising my articles for little mistakes that I didn’t notice prior to clicking on publish. I just feel like I have to get it right. Once again, thanks for clearing this up for me.