New Content vs. Optimized Content: Which is Better for SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most crucial factors in getting your website to the top of Google's first page of results.

Many components go into SEO, but the most important would be a steady stream of fresh, authoritative content.

Content creation for websites and social media has been a hotly contested topic among SEO experts for a long time.

"Is it better to start from scratch with new search-engine-optimized content or to revisit previously optimized content on your site?"

To answer this question, our West Palm Beach SEO experts conducted extensive testing in this area. Let us compare the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.

Pros and Cons of Creating New Content

Content creation is a big part of reaching business and social media goals. Even though it's essential, regularly developing new content can be challenging. Let's examine three of the biggest pros and cons of writing fresh content for your website.

Pros:

• It can engage your audience. A steady stream of fresh content is a big plus. It can give your potential customers good experiences that make them want to return for more. It's your way to get your audience's attention and keep giving them a good impression of your brand.
• It can become a lead generation strategy. Creating new content is an excellent way to direct users to a landing page. When creating new content, you can include call-to-actions (CTAs) so that satisfied visitors can click them and go to your landing page. As a result, more leads are generated, with the potential to be converted into customers. ‍
• It can build brand authority. If your business is recognized as a trustworthy source of information, you will likely rank higher on search engines. In addition, your customers are more likely to trust you if they perceive you as an industry authority. Your content must show your expertise in your industry and provide valuable answers to your audience's questions.

Cons:

• It may lead to quality inconsistency. When content writers are pressured to publish a certain number of articles per week, they may settle for short, low-quality pieces to meet the required 500 or 1000 words. This not only makes for half-baked content but also makes for content that your audience can't trust.
• It may not be a do-it-yourself (DIY) strategy. There is a good chance you will need help developing unique, high-quality content for your website. The learning curve of content marketing is fairly steep and producing quality content takes time. Effective content marketing can be challenging without the knowledge and experience in SEO. ‍
• It may take some time to see results. No matter how much fresh content you create, it is not a quick fix. This strategy has a long-term payoff horizon, as it can take three to nine months to generate significant traffic and income.

Pros and Cons of Optimizing Existing Content

One this that our West Palm Beach SEO experts learned is that a page's worth grows over time. If the content on your website is evergreen, it will still be helpful years after it was first published. But there may be pros and cons to optimizing content that already exists. Let's look at them now.

Pros: 

• It can add more value to your content. Adding new information, high-quality images, and a format that is easier to read adds value to your content. Not only does updating content increase interest in your brand or products, but it also enhances the user experience. This amplifies your company's image and makes your message more memorable.
• It can generate more backlinks. People like to share good content, and when they do, it creates a "backlink," which is just a link from another website that goes to yours. Backlinks are also a ranking factor because they show Google that your content meets its "E-A-T" (expertise, authority, and trust) guidelines for search quality.
• It can improve the overall freshness of your website. It's a proven fact that optimized websites rank higher. This is one of the reasons why abandoned websites don't rank well after a few years, even if the articles are still helpful. If Google notices that your site hasn't been updated recently, it will lower your pages' rankings.

Cons:

• It may lead to the loss of inbound links. When optimizing existing content, keep inbound links intact. There may be backlinks to a specific page in outdated content. Rare, high-quality backlinks are essential for SEO. Therefore, avoid removing pages with quality backlinks.
• It may result in a poorly usable website. When a page is deleted to clean up the site's content, it is frequently 404'd. This "page not found" error is not SEO-friendly because it often indicates to search engines that the site contains errors. Users immediately leave your website when they arrive on a page with 404 errors. This, in turn, contributes to a higher bounce rate, which harms your search engine rankings.
• It may result in a loss of social signals. Some of your older content may continue to draw traffic from social media platforms. Some keywords may be lost if they are eliminated during optimization. You must ensure that your content optimization efforts do not jeopardize your site's functionality by committing such minor errors.

Which Is Better For SEO?

As previously mentioned, it is essential to optimize your evergreen content. But as helpful as evergreen content is, it isn't enough on its own. It needs to be paired with a steady stream of content that currently addresses the most critical problems in your industry.

In addition, there are a few additional technical reasons why you should add new content to your websites. For instance, it is a great way to start focusing on keywords you haven't previously focused on without redesigning your entire website.

Search engines like Google will prioritize websites that consistently add new content. This is one of many factors considered by Google when determining a site's position in search results.

Pro Tip: Frequent updates are beneficial, but only if they are timely and high-quality. Don't just publish any old content to appear as a frequently updated website.  

Ensure your content fits your brand and teaches, engages, or entertains your audience. Always remember that quality is more important than quantity.

In Conclusion

Instead of deciding whether to prioritize creating new content or updating old pages, you should do both. The two should be given equal weight.

Maintaining high-quality evergreen content that continues to attract readers requires annual maintenance if you want to maximize your return on investment.

You could also use the content in other forms of media, like videos or infographics, to give it a new purpose. But it's also vital to create new content that discusses current topics and trends.

Combining both of these strategies will boost your overall content marketing strategy.

Need Help With Your Content Marketing Strategy?

Are you having trouble getting people to know about your brand? Content marketing is the perfect way to get people interested in your business. 

Your business can become a natural leader in its field with written and multimedia content that is creative, interesting, and easy to share.

At Digital Resource, we can help your business with professional content marketing services that meet its needs. Your customized plan can have:

• A detailed plan based on research and your particular business objectives.
• Engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly blogs.
• Expertly scripted, filmed, and edited videos.
• Brand-appropriate images for use on the web and in print.

Contact us today to learn more about what we can do to grow your business.