SEO
25 Best SEO-Friendly Alternatives To WordPress Websites
There’s a reason why WordPress is so popular: it’s relatively easy to use, offers a lot of functionality, and gives you many customization options. And it can be great for SEO, too.
If you know what you’re doing, you can use it for structuring, managing, and publishing content in a way that generates traffic.
It’s a sort of a one-stop shop for blogging, content management, ecommerce, and website building. And maybe best of all – it’s free.
But, running your own WordPress site isn’t without its drawbacks.
For one thing, you’re responsible for your own updates, security, and backups. Click the wrong box in the settings section, and you could be vulnerable to hackers.
And you will be dealing with frequent updates because it relies so heavily on plugins to provide the functionality you want.
It can also be problematic for web developers. If you have a high degree of skill in creating websites, you may find WordPress’ templated approach restricting.
On the other end of the spectrum, you may struggle without drag and drop functionality if you don’t know how to code.
Finally, WordPress is a jack-of-all-trades type of platform. It does many things well but is not exceptional in any area. This means you may want more functionality in an area that’s important to you.
In this piece, we’ll look at 25 SEO-friendly WordPress alternatives separated by primary functionality and give you a quick rundown of each, so you can make the best choice for your needs.
Ready to get started?
Web Design Platforms
1. Wix
If you’re looking for an easy, all-in-one, fully customizable platform that doesn’t require third-party sites and plugins, look no further than Wix.
This option houses everything you need within the Wix platform, from hosting to handling structured data. Their step-by-step guide helps beginners create a beautiful website without any prior experience.
Key Features:
- Full hosting solution.
- No software to self-install.
- Drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- All-in-one website builder and platform.
- Free version available.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Free subdomain available for all plans.
- Free custom domain available with paid plans.
- Customer support.
Cons:
- No option to retain full control of your site as you can with WordPress.
- No access to source code.
2. Squarespace
This all-in-one option allows you to easily create a website on Squarespace’s fully hosted platform. You do not need prior experience to use this intuitive site builder.
Squarespace hosts all its features in-house, meaning you can’t install third-party extensions or use custom coding.
It’s a great solution for hobbyists and small businesses to build a professional site themselves, although it can be an expensive solution if all you’re doing is running a basic website.
Key Features:
- Full hosting solution (including video).
- No software to self-install.
- Drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- All-in-one website builder and platform.
- Free version available.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Free subdomain available for all plans.
- Free custom domain available with an annual subscription.
- Customer support.
Cons:
- No option to retain full control of your site as you can with WordPress.
- No custom coding.
- No access to source code.
- No third-party extensions.
3. Weebly
If you’re looking for simple and affordable, Weebly might be up your alley.
This site builder takes an all-in-one approach to make website creation accessible for everyone, not just programmers and web developers.
Weebly is revered for being user and SEO-friendly, but if you’re on the free plan, your website will be limited to only five pages.
Key Features:
- Full hosting solution.
- No software to self-install.
- Drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- All-in-one website builder and platform.
- Free version available.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Free subdomain available.
- Inexpensive premium plans are as low as $6.00 per month.
- Free custom domain available with premium plans.
- Customer support.
Cons:
- No option to retain full control of your site as you can with WordPress.
- No access to source code.
- The free version restricts you to a maximum of five pages.
4. Google Sites
Google’s webpage and wiki creation tool, Google Sites is a free and easy way to build a website.
Because it was developed by the search engine giant, it integrates smoothly with all other Google products, including Gmail, YouTube, and Fitbit.
It is free to build, host, and maintain with a Google account, with no web hosting fees.
However, if you want to link your site with Google Apps, it costs $50 per user per year.
Key Features:
- Creator has full control over page access and permissions.
- Tools can be accessed anywhere.
- It can be used as a basic project management program.
- Plenty of web development and deployment options.
- Real-time editing.
- Uses website speed optimization tools to minimize loading times.
Pros:
- Fast to get started and easy to use.
- Free to use.
- Integrated with other Google products.
Cons:
- Limited functionality compared to other website builders.
- It may not work with non-Google apps.
- Limited customization options.
- No SEO tools and you can’t edit metadata.
- It cannot integrate Facebook pixels.
5. Jekyll
Jekyll was designed to be a lightweight alternative to other website creation platforms, including only necessary components so you can run your website without database access or other additional software.
It’s an open-source platform that allows you to quickly create and launch a website.
Key Features:
- No programming involved.
- SEO is built-in.
- GitHub manages redirects.
- Easy setup of custom domains.
Pros:
- No server maintenance.
- Very fast.
- Secure.
- Free hosting.
- Free SSL certificate.
- Works with GitHub as CMS.
Cons:
- It can’t create contact forms.
- No dynamic content options.
- Posts cannot be scheduled.
- Does not include image manipulation functionality.
6. Hugo
Billing itself as “the world’s fastest framework for building websites,” Hugo is an open-source platform for creating static sites.
It can generate most webpages in under one millisecond, with new pages built every time you create or update content.
Its goal is to provide an optimal viewing experience for users and authors.
Key Features:
- Can build most websites in seconds.
- Cross-platform with easy installation.
- Allows you to host your site anywhere.
- Customizable URLs.
- “Minutes to Read” and “WordCount” functionality.
- Integrated Google Analytics and Disqus comment support.
Pros:
- It easily integrates with Google Calendar and other apps.
- Easy to use with responsive customer service.
- Multilingual capabilities built-in.
- Extendable as needed.
Cons:
- It can’t create one-off tasks.
- It can be confusing upon initial use, particularly in templating syntax.
- No plugins are available.
- Limited text formatting features.
7. Webflow
Webflow is a responsive tool for web design that lets you create websites without the required coding knowledge.
It includes a visual designer, which lets you see the changes you’re making in real-time and includes significant versatility.
You can create nearly any website you need, including ecommerce, blogs, and business sites.
Key Features:
- More than 100 templates to choose from.
- Design is prioritized, with animation, interaction, and parallax scrolling options.
- Offers automatically generated sitemaps and customizable 301 redirects.
- Multiple payment options for ecommerce sites and automatic tax calculation.
Pros:
- Affordable, with plans ranging from free to $235 for top-tier ecommerce plans.
- Free starter plan.
- Numerous learning and help resources.
- Good range of templates.
- Good security.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve.
- Integration with social media can be frustrating.
- Advanced capabilities aren’t built-in and require integration.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
8. Joomla
Like WordPress, Joomla is an open-source content management system (CMS).
Joomla is free, but you have to pay for your web hosting.
Joomla’s appeal is its broad range of functionality that allows you to run any type of website – blogs, ecommerce, portfolios, informational websites, and more.
The downside to Joomla is that it isn’t ideal for beginners, so it’s best if you have some experience.
Key Features:
- Almost 6,000 extensions are available.
- Traditional content editing (no drag-and-drop visual editor).
- Optimized for mobile (depending on the template).
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- Free, open-source software.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Access to source code.
Cons:
- No free subdomains or custom domains are available.
- No customer support.
- Requires a PHP-enable server to run.
- Fewer templates and extensions than WordPress.
9. Drupal
Like WordPress and Joomla, Drupal is a CMS platform. The software is free, although you’ll have web hosting fees.
Drupal is one of the most technical and powerful CMS options on the market, but it requires more skills to tap into Drupal’s full potential.
This site-building option is best suited for advanced users.
Key Features:
- Content Management System (CMS).
- Over 47,000 modules are available.
- Traditional content editing (no drag-and-drop visual editor).
- Optimized for mobile (depending on the theme you choose).
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- Free, open-source software.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Access to source code.
- Strong security and data encryption.
Cons:
- No free subdomains.
- No customer support.
- Requires a PHP-enabled server to run.
10. DataLife Engine
DataLife Engine, often referred to as DLE, is a multifunctional CMS. Primarily designed for mass media websites and blogs, it allows you to manage news, articles, and users.
Flexible and customizable, it can be used to create websites that can handle high levels of visitors with minimal load on your servers.
DLE emphasizes SEO and security, which has led to its adoption by more than 100,000 organizations.
Key Features:
- Content Management System (CMS).
- Designed for multiple users.
- SEO-focused.
- Tracks statistics.
- Automatically filters words in comments.
- It supports an unlimited number of categories.
- Low server load.
- Allows plugins.
Pros:
- Stores data using MySQL.
- Excellent user experience
- Websites load quickly, even on low-end servers.
- Excellent for publishing news and blog posts.
Cons:
- No free version licenses vary from $79 for basic to $199 for unlimited.
- English users are a secondary focus.
- A limited number of plugins and themes.
- The lowest license doesn’t include customer support.
11. Sitefinity
Progress’ Sitefinity is a CMS and digital experience platform that allows you to create multi-channel marketing experiences.
Sitefinity allows you to create, store, manage, and publish content on your website. It lets you operate across departments, units, locations, and brands from one platform.
Key Features:
- Manage multiple sites from one location.
- Sync assets across pages and sites.
- It makes personalization simpler.
- Integrated analytics and optimization.
- Four versions include basic, marketing-focused, PaaS, and ecommerce.
- Multilingual capabilities.
Pros:
- Low-cost license compared to other CMS.
- No setup fee.
- Minimal coding is required for integration.
- Flexible deployment time shortens time to market.
- Options for marketing automation.
Cons:
- Free trial, but no free version.
- Setup and administration can be challenging.
- No mobile interface.
12. Hubspot CMS
Hubspot is one of the biggest names in marketing software, so it should be no surprise that they also have a CMS tool.
Combining website creation with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool lets you cover the entire buying journey from one place.
And because it was built for cross-departmental use, it doesn’t require extensive development knowledge.
Key Features:
- Cloud-based.
- Includes SEO recommendations.
- Includes numerous themes and responsive templates.
- Fully integrated CRM.
- Drag-and-drop webpage editor.
- Built-in security.
Pros:
- Adaptive A/B testing helps you identify the best page layout.
- All-in-one publishing tools.
- Built-in SEO tools.
- Supports smart content with personalized rules.
- Mobile pages supported with Google AMP.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve.
- Does not support ecommerce.
- No automatic backup and recovery.
13. Contentful
Contentful is a backend-only CMS. Intended to allow users to create content at scale, it integrates various tools, giving you the freedom to publish across channels.
A cloud-native platform, it has a clean interface and was designed to be API-first, which provides serious flexibility.
Features:
- RESTful API gives you full control over assets, translations, and versions.
- Customizable interface and framework that works across third-party component providers.
- It provides regional autonomy, so pieces in multiple languages and time zones can be published globally.
- Content modeling allows you to structure content by channel.
- Single sign-on and secure access.
Pros:
- Focus on integration simplifies the technology stack.
- User-friendly with a clean interface.
- Free version for up to five users.
- Good scalability.
Cons:
- Expensive for an upgraded version ($489/month).
- Poor internal search tools.
- Modeling content can be tricky.
14. Adobe Experience Manager
Combining the functionality of a CMS with a digital asset management (DAM) platform, Adobe Experience Manager is intended to be an all-in-one platform for building websites, managing marketing content, and overseeing media libraries.
It offers cloud integration and plays well with other programs, including its own flagship creative suite.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive marketing platform.
- End-to-end digital document solution.
- Enterprise-level security.
- Analytics included.
- Intelligent search.
- Scalable to your needs.
Pros:
- Streamlines workflows by keeping everything on one platform.
- Authoring and publishing can be handled by individual marketers.
- Easy authorization of workflow.
- Can handle massive content loads.
- Can manage multiple sites at once.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve.
- Requires different sign-ins to access different areas.
- Doesn’t integrate well with external DAMs.
- Not ideal for communities and forums.
Ecommerce Platforms
15. BigCommerce
If you’re looking for scalability in an SEO-friendly WordPress alternative, BigCommerce might be the right option for you.
It features strong SEO support and smooth multi-channel integration, and there are no platform fees or commissions.
However, customer reviews weren’t overly favorable regarding setup, and this ecommerce-targeted platform isn’t the best for small businesses or stores with tight margins.
Key Features:
- Full hosting solution.
- No software to self-install.
- Drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- High level of customization options.
- Over 100 themes to choose from (including some free).
- No platform commission fees.
- Free subdomain available.
- Customer support.
Cons:
- No free version is available.
- No access to source code.
- Pricing is based on revenue, which isn’t great if you have tight margins.
16. Shopify
One of the most popular ecommerce platforms on the market, Shopify, is designed to help you sell products.
That gives this option a major edge in the post-COVID digital shopping era, especially if your Shopify site is optimized for SEO.
Although Shopify can handle blogging and other niches, it isn’t the best solution for anything outside of ecommerce needs.
Key Features:
- Full hosting solution.
- No software to self-install.
- Drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- All-in-one website builder and platform.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Free subdomain available.
- Customer support.
Cons:
- No free version is available.
- No access to source code.
- Platform commission fees.
17. Magento
Magento is an ecommerce-based platform with more bells and whistles than Shopify.
And while it offers a ton of business features especially suited to large-scale enterprises, it’s not the easiest platform to use.
Magento specializes in ecommerce and not much else. If you want a website that capitalizes on different features, your investment in Magento probably isn’t worth your time.
Key Features:
- Option to pay for Magento Commerce for a full hosting platform or download the free, open-source software to install on your own web server.
- Drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Ecommerce store.
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- All-in-one ecommerce platform or open-source ecommerce software package.
- Free version available.
- Designed for large-scale ecommerce.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Free subdomain available (mainly for setup and testing purposes).
- Customer support (paid version only).
- Access to source code with the downloadable version.
Cons:
- No blog module, although you can add it as an extension.
- Not optimized for web projects or website purposes outside of ecommerce.
- The steep learning curve for inexperienced users.
- A large investment for small-scale ecommerce.
18. Prestashop
Prestashop is a freemium open-source ecommerce platform that allows you to set up stores on your host or via the cloud.
Available in 65 languages, it offers a powerful interface that is responsive to mobile users.
Prestashop has a variety of add-on features and provides a reliable online shopping solution.
Key Features:
- Customizable to your needs, including themes and features.
- Includes backend tools like payments, shipping and data.
- Community of translators for multilanguage digital stores.
- Secure payment modules.
- Scalable.
- Includes demographic assistance.
Pros:
- Free version available.
- Open source, so you can customize your site to your needs.
- 5,000+ themes, modules, and services are available with the premium plan.
- Excellent user experience.
Cons:
- Limited scalability.
- No support team.
- Initial setup requires some programming knowledge.
19. OpenCart
A PHP-based ecommerce solution, OpenCart is free to use. Flexible and customizable, it comes with access to a dedicated community to help you troubleshoot.
Because it’s open source, there are extensive add-ons and modules for just about anything.
Features:
- The administrator dashboard gives you information at a glance.
- User management allows you to assign permissions and separate access.
- Allows you to run multiple stores from one dashboard.
- Customizable variables let you include options for sizes, colors, or anything else.
Pros:
- The platform is completely free, as are many add-ons.
- Extensive metrics and reports provided.
- Works with your current payment gateway.
- Comes with dedicated technical support.
- Flexible.
Cons:
- Often creates duplicate pages, which can cause SEO problems.
- Not all extensions, modules, plug-ins, and add-ons work well together.
- Checkout can be slow, particularly if you have numerous plug-ins.
- Can be difficult to import a list of inventory.
- Requires some degree of technical ability for optimal use.
Blogging Platforms
20. Medium
Rather than joining the others on this list as a site builder or web software, Medium stands alone as a publishing platform with its own community and user base.
This is a great solution if you’re a blogger looking for an inexpensive way to publish content.
But remember that you don’t have customization options, meaning you can’t brand your own website.
If you need a unique website with design control, Medium isn’t going to suit your requirements.
Key Features:
- Full hosting solution.
- No software to self-install.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Limited social media tools.
Pros:
- A community site for blogs.
- Free version available.
- Medium Partner Program to earn revenue.
- Customer support.
Cons:
- No extensions.
- No ecommerce stores.
- No premade designs or themes.
- No free subdomains.
- No third-party extensions.
- No access to source code.
21. Ghost
This platform is a WordPress contender for blogging, but Ghost’s capabilities are limited for anything more.
Ghost is a simple and straightforward platform to suit your needs if you’re in the right niche.
But if you know your website might grow, remember that Ghost isn’t designed to scale a blog up into a business website or complex project.
Key Features:
- Option to subscribe through Ghost’s hosting platform or download the free open source software to install on your own web server.
- Basic drag-and-drop visual builder.
- Extensions are available through integrations with other tools.
- Optimized for mobile.
- Blog module.
- Ecommerce store (subscription only).
- Social media tools.
Pros:
- All-in-one website builder and platform.
- Free version available.
- Premade designs and templates.
- Free subdomain available with the paid version.
- Customer support.
- Access to source code.
Cons:
- Not compatible with all third-party web hosts.
- Highly specialized with limited capabilities beyond blogging.
- Not built to scale up into a business site or complex website.
22. Tumblr
Tumblr is a unique blend of social media and microblogging.
Like a traditional social media platform, it allows you to post status updates and share images, as well as re-blog posts your audience may find relevant.
Customizable to your needs, it has a unique tagging system that helps you accurately target an audience and build a community.
Key Features:
- Features strong social media functionality.
- Customizable.
- Google Analytics Integration.
- Unlimited storage.
- Ad-free blog themes.
- Free SSL certification.
Pros:
- Free to use; no upgrades are required to access all features.
- Free web hosting.
- User-friendly and easy to set up.
- No storage limits.
- Can post audio, video, images, gifs, and more.
Cons:
- Daily posting limit (250/day).
- Files must be under 10 MB.
- No plugins.
- Safety and security leave something to be desired.
- Unsuited to long-form content.
23. Bluehost
After Typepad stopped accepting new signups in 2020, EIG began directing people to Bluehost for their web hosting needs.
Bluehost supports over 80 open-source projects beyond WordPress, including Drupal, Joomla, and phpBB. It’s currently used by more than 2 million websites.
Key Features:
- Domain names can be purchased through Bluehost.
- Versatile hosting options let you choose what works best for you.
- Dedicated servers and virtual private servers are available.
- A variety of plans are available based on your needs.
- Comes with customer service chat options.
Pros:
- The first term is inexpensive.
- Lots of storage and unlimited bandwidth.
- Good uptime.
- Free SSL certificates.
Cons:
- Extra features come with added costs, which can get pricey.
- High renewal rates.
- Speed could be better.
- All servers are U.S.-based.
24. Blogger
If you’re going to name your company “Blogger,” you better be good at blog hosting; it shouldn’t be surprising that Blogger delivers.
Acquired by Google in 2003, Blogger is more than just one of the oldest blogging platforms; it’s also a CMS.
Free to use, it lets you publish everything in your own personal space, whether it’s a business blog or a series of posts about your favorite Harry Potter characters.
Your site can be hosted at yourname.blogspot.com or your own domain.
Features:
- Clear analytics.
- Included layout/themes.
- Monetization options, including Google Adsense integration.
- Uses Google security.
- Unlimited storage.
Pros:
- Free to use.
- Extremely user-friendly.
- Free SSL security.
- Good uptime.
Cons:
- You don’t own your website.
- Fewer options and control over design.
- Limited support.
- Hard to port to a different platform.
Community Management
25. vBulletin
If your site’s primary purpose is to create a community and host forums and message boards, vBulletin may be the right choice for you.
Easily installed on any web hosting service or run from vBulletin’s cloud, its primary focus is on community websites, though it does include tools for content discovery and site management.
It comes with various templates, graphics, and styles, so you can customize your forum to your brand.
Key Features:
- Built-in SEO and security.
- Includes a chat app.
- Easy to get started.
- Built-in applications.
- Optimized for mobile users.
- Blogging functionality.
- Fully customizable.
Pros:
- Frequent patches and bug fixes.
- Customer support.
- Easy to install and get started.
- Designed to host forums.
- Includes templates.
Cons:
- No free option.
- Limited features compared to some other platforms.
- Requires some tech skills to take full advantage of the functionality.
- It can’t customize code for the cloud-based version.
Which One Is Right For You?
Including WordPress, you have 26 options for building your website.
So, how do you know which one is right for you? It comes down to your needs and what you want your website to accomplish.
If you’re looking to create a website that is ecommerce-first, you’d be well served to pick from one of the options listed in that section.
On the other hand, if you’re primarily interested in blogging, you’ll want a platform that focuses on that.
And if you want one that does everything, well, there are a few on the list.
Hopefully, by reading this, you’ve gained a little insight into which platform will work best for you.
More Resources:
Featured Image: GaudiLab/Shutterstock
SEO
How to Revive an Old Blog Article for SEO
Quick question: What do you typically do with your old blog posts? Most likely, the answer is: Not much.
If that’s the case, you’re not alone. Many of us in SEO and content marketing tend to focus on continuously creating new content, rather than leveraging our existing blog posts.
However, here’s the reality—Google is becoming increasingly sophisticated in evaluating content quality, and we need to adapt accordingly. Just as it’s easier to encourage existing customers to make repeat purchases, updating old content on your website is a more efficient and sustainable strategy in the long run.
Ways to Optimize Older Content
Some of your old content might not be optimized for SEO very well, rank for irrelevant keywords, or drive no traffic at all. If the quality is still decent, however, you should be able to optimize it properly with little effort.
Refresh Content
If your blog post contains a specific year or mentions current events, it may become outdated over time. If the rest of the content is still relevant (like if it’s targeting an evergreen topic), simply updating the date might be all you need to do.
Rewrite Old Blog Posts
When the content quality is low (you might have greatly improved your writing skills since you’ve written the post) but the potential is still there, there’s not much you can do apart from rewriting an old blog post completely.
This is not a waste—you’re saving time on brainstorming since the basic structure is already in place. Now, focus on improving the quality.
Delete Old Blog Posts
You might find a blog post that just seems unusable. Should you delete your old content? It depends. If it’s completely outdated, of low quality, and irrelevant to any valuable keywords for your website, it’s better to remove it.
Once you decide to delete the post, don’t forget to set up a 301 redirect to a related post or page, or to your homepage.
Promote Old Blog Posts
Sometimes all your content needs is a bit of promotion to start ranking and getting traffic again. Share it on your social media, link to it from a new post – do something to get it discoverable again to your audience. This can give it the boost it needs to attract organic links too.
Which Blog Posts Should You Update?
Deciding when to update or rewrite blog posts is a decision that relies on one important thing: a content audit.
Use your Google Analytics to find out which blog posts used to drive tons of traffic, but no longer have the same reach. You can also use Google Search Console to find out which of your blog posts have lost visibility in comparison to previous months. I have a guide on website analysis using Google Analytics and Google Search Console you can follow.
If you use keyword tracking tools like SE Ranking, you can also use the data it provides to come up with a list of blog posts that have dropped in the rankings.
Make data-driven decisions to identify which blog posts would benefit from these updates – i.e., which ones still have the chance to recover their keyword rankings and organic traffic.
With Google’s helpful content update, which emphasizes better user experiences, it’s crucial to ensure your content remains relevant, valuable, and up-to-date.
How To Update Old Blog Posts for SEO
Updating articles can be an involved process. Here are some tips and tactics to help you get it right.
Author’s Note: I have a Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist you might also be interested in following while you’re doing your content audit.
Conduct New Keyword Research
Updating your post without any guide won’t get you far. Always do your keyword research to understand how users are searching for your given topic.
Proper research can also show you relevant questions and sections that can be added to the blog post you’re updating or rewriting. Make sure to take a look at the People Also Ask (PAA) section that shows up when you search for your target keyword. Check out other websites like Answer The Public, Reddit, and Quora to see what users are looking for too.
Look for New Ranking Opportunities
When trying to revive an old blog post for SEO, keep an eye out for new SEO opportunities (e.g., AI Overview, featured snippets, and related search terms) that didn’t exist when you first wrote your blog post. Some of these features can be targeted by the new content you will add to your post, if you write with the aim to be eligible for it.
Rewrite Headlines and Meta Tags
If you want to attract new readers, consider updating your headlines and meta tags.
Your headlines and meta tags should fulfill these three things:
- Reflect the rewritten and new content you’ve added to the blog post.
- Be optimized for the new keywords it’s targeting (if any).
- Appeal to your target audience – who may have changed tastes from when the blog post was originally made.
Remember that your meta tags in particular act like a brief advertisement for your blog post, since this is what the user first sees when your blog post is shown in the search results page.
Take a look at your blog post’s click-through rate on Google Search Console – if it falls below 2%, it’s definitely time for new meta tags.
Replace Outdated Information and Statistics
Updating blog content with current studies and statistics enhances the relevance and credibility of your post. By providing up-to-date information, you help your audience make better, well-informed decisions, while also showing that your content is trustworthy.
Tighten or Expand Ideas
Your old content might be too short to provide real value to users – or you might have rambled on and on in your post. It’s important to evaluate whether you need to make your content more concise, or if you need to elaborate more.
Keep the following tips in mind as you refine your blog post’s ideas:
- Evaluate Helpfulness: Measure how well your content addresses your readers’ pain points. Aim to follow the E-E-A-T model (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
- Identify Missing Context: Consider whether your content needs more detail or clarification. View it from your audience’s perspective and ask if the information is complete, or if more information is needed.
- Interview Experts: Speak with industry experts or thought leaders to get fresh insights. This will help support your writing, and provide unique points that enhance the value of your content.
- Use Better Examples: Examples help simplify complex concepts. Add new examples or improve existing ones to strengthen your points.
- Add New Sections if Needed: If your content lacks depth or misses a key point, add new sections to cover these areas more thoroughly.
- Remove Fluff: Every sentence should contribute to the overall narrative. Eliminate unnecessary content to make your post more concise.
- Revise Listicles: Update listicle items based on SEO recommendations and content quality. Add or remove headings to stay competitive with higher-ranking posts.
Improve Visuals and Other Media
No doubt that there are tons of old graphics and photos in your blog posts that can be improved with the tools we have today. Make sure all of the visuals used in your content are appealing and high quality.
Update Internal and External Links
Are your internal and external links up to date? They need to be for your SEO and user experience. Outdated links can lead to broken pages or irrelevant content, frustrating readers and hurting your site’s performance.
You need to check for any broken links on your old blog posts, and update them ASAP. Updating your old blog posts can also lead to new opportunities to link internally to other blog posts and pages, which may not have been available when the post was originally published.
Optimize for Conversions
When updating content, the ultimate goal is often to increase conversions. However, your conversion goals may have changed over the years.
So here’s what you need to check in your updated blog post. First, does the call-to-action (CTA) still link to the products or services you want to promote? If not, update it to direct readers to the current solution or offer.
Second, consider where you can use different conversion strategies. Don’t just add a CTA at the end of the post.
Last, make sure that the blog post leverages product-led content. It’s going to help you mention your products and services in a way that feels natural, without being too pushy. Being subtle can be a high ROI tactic for updated posts.
Key Takeaway
Reviving old blog articles for SEO is a powerful strategy that can breathe new life into your content and boost your website’s visibility. Instead of solely focusing on creating new posts, taking the time to refresh existing content can yield impressive results, both in terms of traffic and conversions.
By implementing these strategies, you can transform old blog posts into valuable resources that attract new readers and retain existing ones. So, roll up your sleeves, dive into your archives, and start updating your content today—your audience and search rankings will thank you!
SEO
How Compression Can Be Used To Detect Low Quality Pages
The concept of Compressibility as a quality signal is not widely known, but SEOs should be aware of it. Search engines can use web page compressibility to identify duplicate pages, doorway pages with similar content, and pages with repetitive keywords, making it useful knowledge for SEO.
Although the following research paper demonstrates a successful use of on-page features for detecting spam, the deliberate lack of transparency by search engines makes it difficult to say with certainty if search engines are applying this or similar techniques.
What Is Compressibility?
In computing, compressibility refers to how much a file (data) can be reduced in size while retaining essential information, typically to maximize storage space or to allow more data to be transmitted over the Internet.
TL/DR Of Compression
Compression replaces repeated words and phrases with shorter references, reducing the file size by significant margins. Search engines typically compress indexed web pages to maximize storage space, reduce bandwidth, and improve retrieval speed, among other reasons.
This is a simplified explanation of how compression works:
- Identify Patterns:
A compression algorithm scans the text to find repeated words, patterns and phrases - Shorter Codes Take Up Less Space:
The codes and symbols use less storage space then the original words and phrases, which results in a smaller file size. - Shorter References Use Less Bits:
The “code” that essentially symbolizes the replaced words and phrases uses less data than the originals.
A bonus effect of using compression is that it can also be used to identify duplicate pages, doorway pages with similar content, and pages with repetitive keywords.
Research Paper About Detecting Spam
This research paper is significant because it was authored by distinguished computer scientists known for breakthroughs in AI, distributed computing, information retrieval, and other fields.
Marc Najork
One of the co-authors of the research paper is Marc Najork, a prominent research scientist who currently holds the title of Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. He’s a co-author of the papers for TW-BERT, has contributed research for increasing the accuracy of using implicit user feedback like clicks, and worked on creating improved AI-based information retrieval (DSI++: Updating Transformer Memory with New Documents), among many other major breakthroughs in information retrieval.
Dennis Fetterly
Another of the co-authors is Dennis Fetterly, currently a software engineer at Google. He is listed as a co-inventor in a patent for a ranking algorithm that uses links, and is known for his research in distributed computing and information retrieval.
Those are just two of the distinguished researchers listed as co-authors of the 2006 Microsoft research paper about identifying spam through on-page content features. Among the several on-page content features the research paper analyzes is compressibility, which they discovered can be used as a classifier for indicating that a web page is spammy.
Detecting Spam Web Pages Through Content Analysis
Although the research paper was authored in 2006, its findings remain relevant to today.
Then, as now, people attempted to rank hundreds or thousands of location-based web pages that were essentially duplicate content aside from city, region, or state names. Then, as now, SEOs often created web pages for search engines by excessively repeating keywords within titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal anchor text, and within the content to improve rankings.
Section 4.6 of the research paper explains:
“Some search engines give higher weight to pages containing the query keywords several times. For example, for a given query term, a page that contains it ten times may be higher ranked than a page that contains it only once. To take advantage of such engines, some spam pages replicate their content several times in an attempt to rank higher.”
The research paper explains that search engines compress web pages and use the compressed version to reference the original web page. They note that excessive amounts of redundant words results in a higher level of compressibility. So they set about testing if there’s a correlation between a high level of compressibility and spam.
They write:
“Our approach in this section to locating redundant content within a page is to compress the page; to save space and disk time, search engines often compress web pages after indexing them, but before adding them to a page cache.
…We measure the redundancy of web pages by the compression ratio, the size of the uncompressed page divided by the size of the compressed page. We used GZIP …to compress pages, a fast and effective compression algorithm.”
High Compressibility Correlates To Spam
The results of the research showed that web pages with at least a compression ratio of 4.0 tended to be low quality web pages, spam. However, the highest rates of compressibility became less consistent because there were fewer data points, making it harder to interpret.
Figure 9: Prevalence of spam relative to compressibility of page.
The researchers concluded:
“70% of all sampled pages with a compression ratio of at least 4.0 were judged to be spam.”
But they also discovered that using the compression ratio by itself still resulted in false positives, where non-spam pages were incorrectly identified as spam:
“The compression ratio heuristic described in Section 4.6 fared best, correctly identifying 660 (27.9%) of the spam pages in our collection, while misidentifying 2, 068 (12.0%) of all judged pages.
Using all of the aforementioned features, the classification accuracy after the ten-fold cross validation process is encouraging:
95.4% of our judged pages were classified correctly, while 4.6% were classified incorrectly.
More specifically, for the spam class 1, 940 out of the 2, 364 pages, were classified correctly. For the non-spam class, 14, 440 out of the 14,804 pages were classified correctly. Consequently, 788 pages were classified incorrectly.”
The next section describes an interesting discovery about how to increase the accuracy of using on-page signals for identifying spam.
Insight Into Quality Rankings
The research paper examined multiple on-page signals, including compressibility. They discovered that each individual signal (classifier) was able to find some spam but that relying on any one signal on its own resulted in flagging non-spam pages for spam, which are commonly referred to as false positive.
The researchers made an important discovery that everyone interested in SEO should know, which is that using multiple classifiers increased the accuracy of detecting spam and decreased the likelihood of false positives. Just as important, the compressibility signal only identifies one kind of spam but not the full range of spam.
The takeaway is that compressibility is a good way to identify one kind of spam but there are other kinds of spam that aren’t caught with this one signal. Other kinds of spam were not caught with the compressibility signal.
This is the part that every SEO and publisher should be aware of:
“In the previous section, we presented a number of heuristics for assaying spam web pages. That is, we measured several characteristics of web pages, and found ranges of those characteristics which correlated with a page being spam. Nevertheless, when used individually, no technique uncovers most of the spam in our data set without flagging many non-spam pages as spam.
For example, considering the compression ratio heuristic described in Section 4.6, one of our most promising methods, the average probability of spam for ratios of 4.2 and higher is 72%. But only about 1.5% of all pages fall in this range. This number is far below the 13.8% of spam pages that we identified in our data set.”
So, even though compressibility was one of the better signals for identifying spam, it still was unable to uncover the full range of spam within the dataset the researchers used to test the signals.
Combining Multiple Signals
The above results indicated that individual signals of low quality are less accurate. So they tested using multiple signals. What they discovered was that combining multiple on-page signals for detecting spam resulted in a better accuracy rate with less pages misclassified as spam.
The researchers explained that they tested the use of multiple signals:
“One way of combining our heuristic methods is to view the spam detection problem as a classification problem. In this case, we want to create a classification model (or classifier) which, given a web page, will use the page’s features jointly in order to (correctly, we hope) classify it in one of two classes: spam and non-spam.”
These are their conclusions about using multiple signals:
“We have studied various aspects of content-based spam on the web using a real-world data set from the MSNSearch crawler. We have presented a number of heuristic methods for detecting content based spam. Some of our spam detection methods are more effective than others, however when used in isolation our methods may not identify all of the spam pages. For this reason, we combined our spam-detection methods to create a highly accurate C4.5 classifier. Our classifier can correctly identify 86.2% of all spam pages, while flagging very few legitimate pages as spam.”
Key Insight:
Misidentifying “very few legitimate pages as spam” was a significant breakthrough. The important insight that everyone involved with SEO should take away from this is that one signal by itself can result in false positives. Using multiple signals increases the accuracy.
What this means is that SEO tests of isolated ranking or quality signals will not yield reliable results that can be trusted for making strategy or business decisions.
Takeaways
We don’t know for certain if compressibility is used at the search engines but it’s an easy to use signal that combined with others could be used to catch simple kinds of spam like thousands of city name doorway pages with similar content. Yet even if the search engines don’t use this signal, it does show how easy it is to catch that kind of search engine manipulation and that it’s something search engines are well able to handle today.
Here are the key points of this article to keep in mind:
- Doorway pages with duplicate content is easy to catch because they compress at a higher ratio than normal web pages.
- Groups of web pages with a compression ratio above 4.0 were predominantly spam.
- Negative quality signals used by themselves to catch spam can lead to false positives.
- In this particular test, they discovered that on-page negative quality signals only catch specific types of spam.
- When used alone, the compressibility signal only catches redundancy-type spam, fails to detect other forms of spam, and leads to false positives.
- Combing quality signals improves spam detection accuracy and reduces false positives.
- Search engines today have a higher accuracy of spam detection with the use of AI like Spam Brain.
Read the research paper, which is linked from the Google Scholar page of Marc Najork:
Detecting spam web pages through content analysis
Featured Image by Shutterstock/pathdoc
SEO
New Google Trends SEO Documentation
Google Search Central published new documentation on Google Trends, explaining how to use it for search marketing. This guide serves as an easy to understand introduction for newcomers and a helpful refresher for experienced search marketers and publishers.
The new guide has six sections:
- About Google Trends
- Tutorial on monitoring trends
- How to do keyword research with the tool
- How to prioritize content with Trends data
- How to use Google Trends for competitor research
- How to use Google Trends for analyzing brand awareness and sentiment
The section about monitoring trends advises there are two kinds of rising trends, general and specific trends, which can be useful for developing content to publish on a site.
Using the Explore tool, you can leave the search box empty and view the current rising trends worldwide or use a drop down menu to focus on trends in a specific country. Users can further filter rising trends by time periods, categories and the type of search. The results show rising trends by topic and by keywords.
To search for specific trends users just need to enter the specific queries and then filter them by country, time, categories and type of search.
The section called Content Calendar describes how to use Google Trends to understand which content topics to prioritize.
Google explains:
“Google Trends can be helpful not only to get ideas on what to write, but also to prioritize when to publish it. To help you better prioritize which topics to focus on, try to find seasonal trends in the data. With that information, you can plan ahead to have high quality content available on your site a little before people are searching for it, so that when they do, your content is ready for them.”
Read the new Google Trends documentation:
Get started with Google Trends
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Luis Molinero
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