Updating content is yet another case study that is long past due. Every attempt got sidetracked with various personal and professional side quests. This time, however, I think I have a good schedule that will let me put in the effort to see this one through to the end.
I think it was 2018 when I conducted an experiment for a client to determine if updates were necessary for their blog. In one instance, the increase in traffic over six months was approximately 8,000%! And this was in tens of thousands of visits to a single piece of content.
However, a lot has changed in the past seven years, especially with the advancement of AI Overviews in search. Does updating content matter today as much as it did back then?
Google says so, but some of the numbers seem to tell a different story.
Premise of the Case Study
This particular case study is running parallel to fixing a dead blog. It’s one of my goals for 2026, and I figured that since I am updating content to rebuild dying websites, I might as well track those updates for this case study as well.
Several years ago, updating older content resulted in massive gains for myself and my clients. Since the algorithm has changed so much and AI-generated garbage runs rampant, I was curious whether updates had the same impact.
Of course, Google still pushes updating content to provide fresh, relevant, and current information. But I haven’t had a chance to see if updates still work the same or how much of a change has been made since 2018.
The idea of this case study centers around the effectiveness of certain types of updates and whether they still play a role in growing blog traffic. In 2018, the answer was a resounding, “yes.”
In this instance, the focus is on search results. How much of a difference does an update make in terms of people searching the content on Google?
What the Updating Content Case Study Entails
When conducting your own case studies, it’s important that you have a plan of action. You don’t want to deviate from that plan as it could skew the results. The idea is to collect actionable information, which means replicating the exact steps across several elements.
In this case, it’s all focused on updating old content over a specific period of time while keeping an eye on certain metrics.
So, what does the case study entail this time around?
The Blogs
In this instance, I’m tracking the results for three distinct websites from very different industries. The idea is to compare the data at the end of the year to the overall performance of the blog and individual stats for each updated post.
I’m also going to use the exact same tactics I used for the client back in 2018. Well, with the addition of things adhering to SEO practices in 2026.
General Writing
With over a thousand pieces of content to sift through, the hardest part is finding topics that people are interested in reading. Not to mention the volume of tutorials I’ve created over the years needing to be updated.
Health and Fitness
Out of all the blogs I own, the health and fitness site has the greatest potential for generating revenue. Unfortunately, it’s also the site that’s in the worst shape for rebuilding. This is the one I am most interested in for both of the case studies I’m running in 2026.
General Gaming
The gaming blog’s primary purpose is to generate donation revenue for various charities. By putting more work into this blog, all of the charities I support will get more money for various needs this year. So, it’s also a high priority to make some changes.
The Timeframe
For this particular case study, I’m recording data at 180-day intervals. This means collecting information 180 days before the update and then 180 days afterward. That way, we can see whether the update had any impact on search results.
I’ve chosen 180 days as that is roughly six months. In the past, updating a piece of content could result in massive changes in search within 60 days. In one case, traffic doubled to the page in less than a week.
Using 180 days gives the article time to stabilize and the algorithm to properly rank the content.
This means I probably won’t be able to publish most of the results until the end of July 2026. At that point, though, we should have a decent amount of data to analyze.
The Updates Themselves
I’m putting a few restrictions on what justifies needing an update. It’s always a good idea to freshen up just about everything on your blog regularly. However, I am doing this on my own and, again, I don’t have a lot of time on my hands.
During this case study, the plan is to update and track 20 articles. It’s a bit lower than what I would like to track, but as I am doing these all myself, 20 is still going to take me several months to complete.
That’s because I’m also writing new posts and making new videos three times per week in addition to everything else I’m working on. Ideally, I’d track 50 posts for this case study.
The greater the sample, the more accurate the data and the averages.
Older than One Year
First, I’ll be looking at articles that are more than one year old. There are plenty that are nearing the decade mark that could use a massive overhaul, but I want a bit of a sampler to see what content is more viable after updating.
As I’m only tracking 20 articles and the site has been running since 2013, I am going to pick four posts alternating every two years.
For instance, the first four updates will be 1 to 2 years old. The next four will be 3 to 4 years old…and so on. I might color-code the years on the spreadsheet to make it easier to read and manage.
Search Volume of 1000 or Greater
One of the more important elements of this case study is the interest in the specific topic. If no one is searching for it, no one is going to read it. So, all of the updates I’m working on in the content will have a search volume of 1000 or greater according to Google’s Keyword Planner for the focus phrase.
Theoretically, this should help the blogs see a massive improvement in traffic numbers throughout the year.
Worse Than Top 20 for Primary Keyphrase
The next thing I’ll look for are those posts that are not in the top 20 for their primary search phrase. So, if an article has “plot generators” as its focus keyphrase and it is in the 30th position of Google search, it’ll get an update.
Of course, the older the article, the less of a chance any of the keyphrases will be in the top 20, let alone indexed by the algorithm. If Google detects the page is old and obsolete, it’ll remove it from the search results.
Luckily, it doesn’t take much to have the algorithm re-index the page after updating the content. That’s part of the reason why I am choosing to track it at 180-day intervals. The algorithm will have plenty of time to analyze and re-index the page. Hopefully.
Using PublishPress Revisions
When updating an article in WordPress, you’re actually working on a live page. You can always save a copy of it as a draft and then move the content over when you’re done. But you don’t want to work on a live page as you could inadvertently butcher the content for all to see.
That is, unless you’re making very minor changes that won’t overly disrupt the article as a whole.
PublishPress Revisions is a great tool for updating old content. It’ll keep a copy of the article saved as a draft until you’re done making changes. That way, you can spend all week working on something without worrying about losing progress on a live post or page.
What I like about using PublishPress is that I can set up a rewrite and then spend all week working on it without making a mess of the live content. Then, you can set those changes to go live either immediately or schedule them for later.
Metrics for Updating Content
Since this case study is focusing mostly on Google search improvements, most of the important metrics are coming from Search Console. That includes things like total clicks, total impressions, average position, and the top clicked search term.
I’m also keeping track of views and AdSense revenue from Google Analytics. However, I don’t put a lot of stock in GA simply because it will also record bots and AI scraping as views. Some analytical tools are better suited for recording organic traffic, such as Jetpack.
At the end, I’ll compare the difference to the entire blog as a whole and how each update performed.
Collecting the Data for Updating Content
In this case study, I’m attempting to get a sample of articles of varying ages. I am sure that a lot of them will have been removed from indexing, so I’ll have to stay on top of getting them resubmitted.
I’m also keeping track of changes made to each article, as some might have a greater impact than others. I would like to see if a 400-word addition is as effective as rewriting an entire piece of content.
Updating Content Results
As this is an ongoing case study, I don’t have the results just yet. As soon as the last post has available data, I’ll update this page with the final results while highlighting the actionable data and what you can do to update your own content.
I’m quite interested to see if updates are effective across the board or if they matter more in certain industries. That also depends on whether those topics are interesting to the general populace, which is why I’m focusing on a search volume of 1000 or greater.
Conclusion
Google claims it loves updated and fresh content. But does it matter as much thanks to massive algorithm changes and AI additions? If you’re unsure, it’s a good idea to conduct a few experiments of your own on your site.
Part of building a successful blog is understanding how people and search engines view your content. Case studies such as the above can go a long way to help provide some answers about the best course of action for your specific needs.
Then again, you could do them just because you love data and playing around with a spreadsheet.
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