How to Update Old Pillar Pages

In order to successfully update old pillar pages, you’ll need to use data you already have to systematically refresh content and strengthen link building, optimizing time-relevant information. 

Why Update Old Pillar Pages?

Your pillar pages are meant to cover a broad topic, using cluster pages as supporting information. Using this method is a strong way to optimize SEO when it comes to planning and publishing content. 

But it’s important that the information you’re sharing is up to date. It’s not enough to post a pillar page and walk away. They are tools that can improve over time if you keep them updated.

Google wants to always provide the most relevant search results. If your pillar pages are citing pages and data from three years ago, you won’t be considered relevant. 

How Do You Update Pillar Pages?

Here are 7 tips that can help you update a pillar page:

• Auditing and analyzing performance 
• Updating knowledge about user intent
• Checking for and fixing broken links
• Linking to new relevant pages
• Updating any data to the current year
• Updating the “last updated” date
• Performing any newly available optimizations

Let’s go deeper into how you can perform each of these subtasks to ensure your pillar pages are the best they can be.

Auditing and Analyzing Performance 

Updating vital website content should always come after collecting any analytics and data. Analyze SEO performance before making big changes to your page.

For example, if your pillar page is getting lots of really great traffic and you can connect that traffic to great conversions, you should lean away from changing anything on the page unless it’s essential. 

Conversely, if your page is getting traffic but has a high bounce rate, or isn’t getting traffic at all, that reality should shape what improvements you may make in order to address those issues.

Use a tool like Google Analytics to collect and store metrics like traffic, bounce rates, conversions, and more.

Update Knowledge About User Intent

Sit back and pose the question, “What do my users need? Is this page providing that?”

Google rewards content that they can see is relevant, thorough, and helpful. Seriously asking yourself this question can help you see what information might be missing and what is extraneous. 

If you can, conduct a user test where users can navigate through the page with a specific goal. Watch what they get stuck on and where they spend the most time. This data will help inform what updates the page might need.

You can also use a tool like Semrush to do deep research about the questions that your audience is asking. If you are targeting one keyword or keyphrase with this page, do some research to ensure that this wording is what people actually use.

Check For and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are one of the most common SEO optimization problems. It’s a high user frustration and something Google may penalize you for. But unfortunately they can be the hardest to detect. If you have a lot of content, who has the energy and time to click through every link to see if it’s still working?

We recommend using a tool like ManageWP or a broken link checker plugin in order to find and repair broken links. We also love using Yoast SEO to build redirects when needed. 

Link to New Relevant Pages

If you notice a section is a little sparse, find some external links that support your idea or argument. Google (and users) don’t like link-stuffing. But including external links can give users a broad view of your topic. And Google likes to see that your information is backed up.

If you’ve been posting cluster content that complements your pillar page, this might be a good time to ensure that you link out to those pages. 

Update Any Data to the Current Year

If your pillar pages link back to other sources (like they should!), make sure those sites are up to date. This is important for pages that link back to data-driven resources, like studies, articles, surveys, etc. 

If the source you’re linking to is 2 years old or older, check for updated resources to ensure that you’re giving people the most helpful data possible.

This also counts for any images, video, and other media. If you have a graph showing trends from 2022, seek out a fresh one with updated data. 

Update the “Last Updated” Date

When you publish content – pages or posts – it will always have a “published date” associated with it. Even if it’s not visible to users, it’s included in the meta data of the page. 

When you update a pillar page, signify freshness to engines and users by adding a “last updated” date at the top of the content. Do this whenever you make substantial changes, not things like updating typos or swapping one photo. This way users can see the information isn’t stale.

There are multiple methods for doing this on the front end. You can use your theme customizer settings, PHP code, or a plugin to generate and display the “last updated” date.

Use structured data/schema markup to change the modified date in order to communicate this information to search engines. And don’t forget to modify your sitemap too; update the last mod tag with the date of the newest update.

Perform Any Newly Available Optimizations

SEO is evolving and changing constantly. Take the time to research new perspectives, methods, and approaches to SEO. For example, in the past year we’ve focused hard on fairly new ideas such as schema markup and AI optimization. While traditional SEO is still king, your pillar pages should be taking advantage of every type of optimization you can.

FAQ