I audited a WordPress site last month that had 78 published blog posts. When I checked their analytics, 61 of them got literally zero organic traffic in the past three months.
Zero.
The founder's response? "Yeah, I know. That's why I need to write more content."
This is backwards. Before you write post #79, you should rescue some of those 61 underperformers. Here's why that's way smarter than constantly creating from scratch.
Why updating beats starting over
Your existing content has something new posts don't: it's already in Google's index. It's been crawled. It might even have a few backlinks. Use our ultimate on-page SEO checklist to ensure you're hitting all the important optimization factors.
When you publish something brand new, it starts at zero. Google needs to discover it, index it, figure out what it's about, and slowly decide if it deserves to rank. That process takes months.
But when you improve an existing page—especially one that's ranking on page 2 or 3—you can jump to page 1 in weeks. Sometimes days.
Which old posts are worth your time
Don't waste effort on every old post. Look for the "almost there" content:
- Ranking positions 11-30 – These are so close to page 1. A small improvement might push them over. Check if you're targeting the right long-tail keywords for these posts.
- Getting impressions but few clicks – People are seeing it in search results but not clicking. Usually means your title or meta description needs work.
- Topics that actually matter to your business – That random post you wrote three years ago about something tangential? Skip it. Focus on content that drives your business goals.
The rescue process (it's simpler than you think)
Start with the title and opening
Your title shows up in search results. If it's vague or boring, people won't click. Make it specific and add your main keyword naturally. Then rewrite the first paragraph to hook people immediately—tell them exactly what problem you're solving.
Add what's missing
Pull up the top 3-5 results ranking for your keyword. What are they covering that you're not? Usually you'll spot 2-3 sections or questions you didn't address. Understanding search intent helps you identify what's missing. Add those.
Break up the wall of text
If your post looks like one giant paragraph, nobody's reading it. Add more subheadings (one every 2-3 paragraphs). Use bullet points. Make it scannable. Google's algorithms can literally detect when people bounce because your content is hard to read.
Link to your other relevant posts
Find 2-3 related posts on your site and link to them. This keeps visitors clicking around (good for SEO) and helps search engines understand your site structure. Follow our internal linking for WordPress guide to master this crucial tactic.
Update the date
Once you've actually improved the content, change the publish date to today. This signals freshness, which matters for a lot of searches.
How Rankeli makes this automatic
Doing this manually across dozens of posts is brutal. You're jumping between Google Search Console, your WordPress dashboard, and competitor pages. Rankeli consolidates all of it:
- Shows you exactly which pages are "almost ranking" and why they're stuck
- Gives you a specific fix-it checklist for each post (not just a score)
- Suggests which other posts to link to while you're editing
- Tracks improvements over time so you know what's working
Start with five posts this month
Pick your five most important underperforming posts. Improve one per week. That's it.
After a month, check your rankings. I bet at least 2-3 of those posts will have jumped significantly. And you didn't write a single word of new content.
Once you see results from rescuing old content, you'll wonder why you were spending all that time creating new posts from scratch.
