We're always looking to burst through and ensure our messaging reaches a massive crowd. Through search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, Fortune 500 companies, individuals, and small businesses can make their mark on an industry with the help of an SEO specialist.

But often, even with cutting-edge content, it's easy to get pushed to the back of the line. In this case, you can make some significant improvements to become the king of the hill once again.

But others argue you may be better off writing good web copy with fresh new titles, subheadings, and researched keywords. Which one is the better course of action?

Let's break down the specifics of creating new articles vs. old articles for SEO performance. Which one should you focus your efforts on?

Creating New Content: Always a Good Thing?

Let's face it: crafting new articles, blogs, and other Internet pages can be exciting. And lucrative. Posting new content builds awareness for your brand, keeps customers in the loop, and gives you more keyword capabilities. As such, your first inclination may be just to keep pumping out new content as you think of it. And crafting new ideas and pages can net you some impressive Internet traffic.

It also depends on your team. Do you have a dedicated team of SEO experts ready to optimize pages? Then creating new articles is a realistic, sound plan. If you’re just one person, the prospect of going back into a vast catalog of articles can be counterproductive.

Quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality. Especially when you have quality articles in your repertoire already, let’s see why older pages have issues and learn how to increase and build web traffic for them.

When Do You Improve an Old Article?

A few crucial criteria determine when you need to update your old content for improved SEO outreach. Use the following guidelines to help edit your articles.

• Page Traffic is Declining. After a certain period, web traffic will begin to decline with specific content. It's just part of the lifecycle of your work. After the initial growth and maturity period, an article will naturally decrease. And they’ll also drop after new content starts appearing.
• Your article is anywhere from six to twelve months old. Although numbers differ for different content, a good rule of thumb is updating old articles after six to twelve months(if they aren't pulling in significant traffic).
• Your articles are outdated. Sooner or later, time will pass your content by. You saw initial SEO results, but the Internet is passing you by. But instead of leaving your content to gather dust, it's a perfect time to do new research for the best SEO possible. To err is human; to edit, divine.

There are creative ways that can keep your old SEO pieces back into high gear. Something as simple as editing, combining multiple articles, and (of course) optimizing content is a surefire way to breathe new life into older information.

But not all content is worthy of your effort and SEO updates. Some content just won't be worth the time and effort to restructure. After checking out the topic and page on Google Analytics, see if a special, concerted effort is worth your time. If not, pop some internal links in there and call it a day.

Change for the Best

In short, while new content is always exciting, don't count out that article you wrote a year ago. You can often go back to old pieces, do some new keyword research, edit grammar, and spelling, and give it a new lease on life. But in truth, you need to be doing some degree of both simultaneously.

Ultimately, it's up to you. Creating content after researching trends and keywords will always be a powerful weapon in your SEO arsenal. If you have great ideas that will rank, creating is always a good thing.

However, a bulk of the framework is already right there in front of you. Why make things more complicated when you can just make a few structural and information changes?