Publishing is the default and it should not be
Most content plans are lists of new things to write. Meanwhile the pages already bringing visitors are three years out of date.
Improving a page that ranks on the second page is usually easier and more valuable than writing a new page that starts from nothing.
The four-way sort
| Traffic | Accurate? | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Improve and extend |
| Yes | No | Update urgently — this is costing you |
| No | Yes | Improve or merge with something related |
| No | No | Remove, with a redirect |
Half an hour with your analytics produces that sort for the whole site.
What a refresh involves
- Correct anything now inaccurate — prices especially
- Add what has been learned since it was written
- Improve the answer to the question people arrive with
- Add internal links to and from related pages
- Update the date only if the content genuinely changed
Do not fake freshness
Changing the date without changing the content is noticed by readers and does nothing for anyone. If it has not been updated, do not claim it has.
A genuinely improved page can and should show its update date.
Make it a schedule
Quarterly: check the top twenty pages for accuracy. Annually: run the four-way sort across everything.
That routine keeps a site accurate without anyone needing to remember individual pages.