How to update old blog posts in WordPress: from a list of 40 to five improved
You update an old WordPress blog post like this: pick a post that still answers an important question but has outdated details, correct the facts and dates, add missing subheadings and links to newer posts, and improve the title and Google description. You leave the post's URL as it is. Start with a few posts, not all of them.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for WordPress site and WooCommerce store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
A list of 40 posts and no plan
Tuesday, 9:10. The owner of a garden shop opens Posts in the WordPress admin and sorts them oldest first. Forty guides from 2019 to 2022. “How to protect roses over winter”, “The best spring fertilisers”, “Garden jobs calendar 2021”. Some quote prices from three years ago, some link to products that no longer exist. She knows something needs doing. She doesn't know where to start.
Most guides to refreshing content start with a checklist. You do need one, but only once you know which posts you're fixing. So we start with the choice.
Which old post should you update first?
The one that still has something to fight for. A post on protecting roses over winter comes back every year. A garden calendar for 2021 probably doesn't. Here are the signals that help you choose.
| Signal | What it means | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| The post used to get traffic and now gets less | the topic matters, but the text is losing to newer ones | Performance report in Search Console |
| The post shows up in Google, but few people click | the title or description in results doesn't appeal | Search Console: impressions and CTR |
| The topic is seasonal and the season is coming | worth finishing before the season | your sales calendar |
| The content has prices, rules, product names | the details may have changed | read the post |
| The post links to deleted pages | readers land on “not found” | 404 error report |
| The topic no longer makes sense (an event, an old promotion) | updating won't help | decide: keep, merge or delete |
Google's help page on the Performance report explains how to read Search Console data. Compare the last three months with the same period a year earlier. For seasonal topics, comparing month to month is misleading.
When two old posts say almost the same thing, it's better to merge them into one and redirect the weaker URL to the stronger one. We explain how to set up that redirect in our post on 301 redirects in WordPress.
What to change in an old post: a checklist
Once you have a short list of posts, each one goes through the same steps.
- Check the facts. Prices, rules, product names, opening hours, phone numbers. Nobody can do this for you, because only you know what's true today.
- Fix or remove outdated passages. A reader will spot “this year” written in 2021 straight away.
- Add subheadings where the text is a wall. A long post without H2 headings is hard to scan. There's more on structuring a post in our guide on how to write a WordPress blog post.
- Add two or three links to newer posts and products. An old post often gets traffic but leads nowhere. We describe the rules in our post on internal linking.
- Improve the title and Google description. If the post has impressions but few clicks, start here. Our post on the meta description explains how to write one people click.
- Remove or replace dead links. Especially to products you no longer sell.
- Don't change the post's URL. The URL already has links and history in Google.
- Read the whole thing again before saving. Edits in several places can skew the meaning of a paragraph.
WordPress usually keeps previous versions of a post (unless your host or whoever looks after the site has turned them off), so you can undo a manual edit from the revisions. The block editor documentation describes this.
Does a new date alone help?
No. It's tempting to change the publish date to today and hope Google treats the post as fresh. Google works out the date from several signals and advises showing an updated date only when the content has really changed. The rules are in the guide to dates in search results.
What counts is whether, after the update, the post answers the reader's question better. Google describes this in its guidance on creating helpful content. Whether your theme shows the updated date next to the publish date depends on the theme. Check it on one post.
How to update an old post in a conversation with the chat
The TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce has a ready task called “Refresh old posts”. Your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) looks for published posts that haven't changed for a given number of months (12 by default) and picks up to five with the most potential, each with one sentence on “why this one”. Then it suggests changes to specific passages, without rewriting the whole post.
You: Refresh my posts older than a year. Start with the guides about roses.
Your chat: I found 14 posts unchanged for over a year. I suggest starting with three: “How to protect roses over winter” (seasonal topic, the season starts in a month), “Pruning roses in spring” and “Fertilisers for roses” (this one links to two products that are no longer in the shop).
You: Show me the changes in the first one.
Your chat: Preview for “How to protect roses over winter”. The post's URL stays the same.
I've marked two details to check, because I don't know today's price in your shop. I'll save it after your ‘yes’.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: This year the best option is horticultural fleece at €5 a roll.
new version: The best option is winter horticultural fleece. [TO CHECK: current price]
old version: Mounding and covering
new version: Mounding and covering (new H2 subheading)
new version: Link to the post “Pruning roses in spring” in the paragraph about March.
What matters to you in this task:
- The post's URL doesn't change. That's built into the task's rules.
- The chat doesn't make up facts. It marks prices, rules and company details for you to check.
- You see every change before it's saved. After your approval the change goes into the change history with an operation number. You undo it by saying “undo the last change” or in the TellMyShop panel, under change history.
In the free TellMyShop Free version the chat only reads the site. It picks the posts to refresh and shows a “before → after” plan for each. Making the changes in the same conversation, with a preview and undo, needs TellMyShop Pro. The details are on the TellMyShop for WordPress and WooCommerce page, and prices are in the pricing.
What the chat doesn't know about your posts
The plugin doesn't connect to Google Search Console or Google Analytics. The chat picks posts by age, length, category and topic. If you have a list of posts that lost traffic, paste it into the conversation. Then the chat starts with those.
The chat doesn't know today's offer either. It only knows what's on the site and in the shop. That's why you read the updated post before saving and check price and product name changes yourself.
You'll see the results of an update in Search Console after a few weeks, not the next day. Nobody honest will promise you a specific position in Google. You'll find more guides on running your site on the blog.
Questions and answers
Should I change the URL when I update a post?
Don't. The old URL has links from other sites, from emails and from Google results. A new URL means a redirect and a risk of 404 errors. You change the title, the content and the Google description, and leave the URL as it was.
Is it enough to change the publish date to today?
No. Google works out when a page really changed and looks at several signals at once. A new date on unchanged content gives the reader nothing. Show an updated date when the post has actually changed.
How many old posts should I update at once?
As many as you have time to check. You need to read an updated post, because it contains prices, rules or company details that only you know. A sensible start is a few of your most important posts, then checking Search Console after a few weeks to see what changed.
Is it better to update an old post or write a new one on the same topic?
Usually better to update. Two posts on the same topic compete with each other in Google and split the links. A new post makes sense when the topic really is different or the old text can't be fixed. In that case, redirect the old one to the new one with a 301.
How do I know which posts are losing traffic?
From the Performance report in Google Search Console. Compare the last three months with the same period a year earlier and sort pages by the drop in clicks. The TellMyShop plugin doesn't read Search Console data, so you bring that list yourself or ask the chat to choose by the age and topic of your posts.
WordPress is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation. WooCommerce is a trademark of Automattic Inc. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.