Perhaps one of the hardest types of blogs to maintain are those that center around technology. This is especially true if your focus is on software. The updates alone are enough to drive one mad. But they need to be maintained.
In reality, all blogs should be regularly updated regardless of their niche. The issue with tech blogs is how quickly things evolve. Technology advances so rapidly that something you wrote yesterday could be obsolete today.
For this reason, it is arguably more of a pain to keep up with a tech blog than most other types.
Why Updating Old Tech Articles is Crucial
Games, computers…even writing apps can change extremely quickly. If you’re not paying attention, you could unintentionally mislead your audience. This will decimate your traffic as well as any income.
For example, Streamlabs Prime was a service that provided a lot of tools and features for live-streaming content. Two years ago, however, it changed to Streamlabs Ultra while adding and removing a lot of features from the original “Prime” branding.
In other words, all those articles referring to Streamlabs Prime are now obsolete.
Brand Reputation
You want visitors to view your blog as a reputable source of information. If you have a lot of blog posts that show discontinued or obsolete tech tools and features, your reputation will take a hit.
Why should you pay attention to a blog that is showing information about a program from eight years ago that is no longer available?
You can bet that people looking for certain information are going to be quick to point out that a post is obsolete. I see it all the time on client blogs, which is one of the many reasons why I push for consistent updates.
The bottom line is that you want to be the final destination of a searcher for the information you provide. If that information is old, they’ll leave and potentially never come back.
Without updating those older posts, you may have just lost yourself a potential newsletter subscriber, customer, and supporter.
Keeping Visitors Informed
As I said earlier, you want your content to be the last search someone makes about any given topic. That means providing the most detailed information possible.
An update to older content keeps your visitors informed with relevant and current information. And when it comes to tech blogging, that is an exceptionally beneficial aspect to consider.
Remember, you want to promote yourself as an expert and an authority in your niche. The more someone feels informed, the better.
Sometimes this means adding new content to cover newly released features or changes. At other times, it means rewriting the entire piece from scratch. Regardless, it all centers around sharing the best information.
Google’s “High-Quality” Requirements
Google focuses quite a bit on providing “high-quality” content. This means satisfying user intent with original information while being as relevant to the visitor’s query as possible.
But don’t forget to add personality. No one enjoys reading an IKEA manual. Well, some might, depending on their personality.
When a tech-based blog post becomes obsolete, a lot of the “high-quality” goes out the window. Personality will only go so far if the information you’re sharing is no longer valid.
High-quality content will often require a great deal of research, depending on the topic. It’s best that you don’t cut corners and deliver the best information in a unique manner.
Remember, Google wants to share “original” content, not something that is a cookie-cutter post.
Continued Visitor Traffic
Keeping the technology post updated can keep the traffic numbers high. Without consistent updates, you may find the number of visitors to the post dwindling rapidly.
One such example is the “Raft” article I have on the dead blog I’m rebuilding. At one point, it was generating a little more than a hundred visits per day by itself. Since it hasn’t been updated with the many ways Raft has changed over the years, the traffic to the post dropped over time.
The point is that consistent updates can keep your tech post ranking high in Google while delivering a consistent flow of traffic. That is as long as the tech you’re writing about is still something of interest.
Some technology just goes away permanently…like Google Plus or Nokia flip phones.
Improved Ranking in Search
Blog posts that range around 2500 words or so often rank better in search results. That’s because longer posts are usually rich with viable content to respond to a person’s inquiry.
Writing about other features or adding new functions to a piece of hardware or software can expand the terms your blog post can rank for in Google.
Even if the original post is still valid with information, you can boost visibility by diving a bit deeper into the topic.
I’ve seen client articles improve by more than 30 places in search just because we added 400 words to an article. For the most part, we simply offered more information to the tutorial while giving visitors alternatives to try.
Why Not Just Delete Older Posts Instead of Updating?
It’s highly recommended to not delete older posts from your blog. It can impact your SEO in a negative way while potentially hurting traffic numbers and losing data that may still be relevant to visitors.
However, there are times when you might consider removing older content instead of updating it.
For example, you’d delete a post if the topic is so outdated that no new information is available. Of course, by then, no one is searching for the post anyway.
However, make sure it’s not something you can’t rewrite or redirect. Like the example I gave earlier, Streamlabs changed from Prime to Ultra. I can still cover Ultra by writing new posts and then redirecting the older Prime content from search results.
Another example is if the topic is no longer relevant to your current audience. For instance, this is a general writing blog that covers blogging, freelancing, and self-publishing. It’s unlikely you’ll see a blog post about weight loss or gaming.
Well, unless I show you how to build a weight loss or gaming blog. But you get the point.
Now, some experts think you should delete low-quality content to improve the site’s quality. I am on the opposite end of that spectrum. Instead of deleting low-quality content, rewrite the entire post from scratch. Using a plugin like PublishPress Revisions makes those kinds of changes easier to handle.
5 Ideas for Keeping a Thumb on the Pulse of Technology Blogging
The more content you produce on a tech blog, the more of a pain it’ll be to keep it updated. One of my clients has over 1200 WordPress tutorials, at it’s almost a full-time job just keeping those current, let alone any changes WordPress makes itself.
So, what can you do to keep an eye on tech topics you cover?
- Schedule manual reviews every six months. Take a look at the hardware or software and see if anything has changed.
- Subscribe to the manufacturer’s newsletters or regularly glance at their blog (if they have one).
- Follow the developer’s social media accounts. Most of them will share updates or upcoming changes.
- Set a Google Alert to email you anytime the tech is mentioned online. This makes updating so much easier overall as it keeps you in the loop.
- Plan on rewriting the entire piece every three years. Some things might not change, but fresh images and potential new content can work wonders.
What Types of Articles Do You Write?
Reviews and tutorials are the most effective form of content online. And in the world of tech, these can become obsolete rather quickly. As such, you’ll need to make sure they are consistently updated. The last thing you want is for one of your amazing reviews to get buried by competitors.
Of course, all of this focuses on tech content that aims for search traffic. Personal blogs probably don’t need nearly the vigilance of keeping things updated and organized.
Always keep an eye on your content and the topics of which you cover. A simple change in a feature could mean the difference of gaining or losing traffic.
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