Content is, and always will be, at the forefront of digital marketing. One of the ways to stay at the front line of this crowded marketing space is to always be continuously publishing high-quality and meaningful content. So, what do you do with topics you’ve already talked about years ago? You repurpose it! There are many benefits of repurposing content and we’re about to lay out everything you need and want to know about repurposing content in today’s digital world.

Why Should You Repurpose Content?

There are several benefits of repurposing content or finding new ways to reuse existing content, such as reaching new audiences. With 5.35 billion internet users worldwide, there are going to be many different preferences. Some users prefer visual infographics to text statistics. Some select podcasts over eBooks. Reformatting your content into different types of media means attracting more audiences and extending your reach.

Another reason to repurpose old material is because data, opinions, trends, and industry standards are always changing. So, nobody is going to take your 5-year-old blog or Instagram post seriously when there is fresher content available to them.

7 Benefits of Repurposing Content

Useful content publishing is at the forefront of Google’s radars. So, no matter what type of niche or platform you’re on, there are many benefits of repurposing content. Here are our top ones:

1.     Extended Reach

Repurposing material means that people who would have skipped your older, yet still amazing blog post, will have the opportunity to see it in either a different format or just the updated version of it. By repackaging content into different formats, you can reach new audiences across different platforms and channels.

2.    Repurposing Content for Improved SEO

Updating and republishing older content can improve its search engine ranking, driving more organic traffic to your website. Google and other search engines have said time and time again that content-first marketing is king. While there are so many aspects of having “good” SEO, being the best hub of knowledge for your niche is one of the best ways to improve your overall search engine optimization.  So, when you repurpose any content, give users the knowledge they’re looking for with data to back it.

3.     Repurposing Content Saves Time and Money

Another one of the many benefits of repurposing content is that it saves time and resources compared to creating entirely new content from scratch. It allows you to maximize the value of existing assets without starting from square one. If you’re repurposing a blog on your site, you may already have some keyword rankings and traffic coming to that page. Leverage those rankings to repurpose that content into something better. Another example is if you’re repurposing an infographic, you already have the graphics formatted! So you may just have to change the data and dates. Lastly. if you’re repurposing a video, you can take that 20-minute video and turn it into hundreds of short-form video footage for many different platforms.

4.    Enhanced Engagement

Similar to extending your reach, another benefit of repurposing your content is increased engagement. Repurposing content allows you to cater to diverse preferences and engage your audience more effectively. For instance, if someone prefers watching short-form videos instead of reading a blog, they may have skipped your meaningful content the first time around. Now that you’ve repurposed your content from an old blog into a video, you’ve found yourself a new audience member. On the other hand, if you just recycle a dated post without updating it into more relevant, useful content just for the sake of adding a newer date, it can hurt your site authority, since that old data is no longer relevant or factual.

5.    Thought Leaders Establish Authority

Establishing your authority as a website is a huge part of SEO. By Revisiting and expanding on previously published content, you demonstrate your continued expertise on a topic. Being the expert in your field reinforces your brand’s credibility and positions you as a thought leader in your industry.

6.    Consistency is Key

Again, publishing consistently and frequently is vital to your digital realm’s success. By repurposing content, it allows you to maintain this consistency with the topics on hand. To ensure your brand is frequently publishing fresh and valuable content without repeating yourself, repurpose your content in new and exciting ways. From an SEO perspective, it’s crucial to prevent self-competition. Instead of publishing a new blog covering the same topic and keywords, consider repurposing existing material.

7.    Content Optimization

Maybe you’ve learned a thing or two since the content you published in 2019. Maybe SEO and other industry baselines have changed (they have). Repurposing content allows you to optimize headers, choose better-ranking keywords, and add new data points. It also allows you to experiment with different angles, formats, and distribution channels, which can help you identify what works for your brand and optimize your content strategy accordingly.

How to Repurpose Old Content

To accurately repurpose old content, you need to keep SEO best practices in mind. For example, if you are repurposing a blog there are certain steps you typically want to follow. First, check how the content is currently doing by evaluating organic traffic, backlinks, and keyword rankings. Next, read the blog and take note of the structure. Third, you can do a blog audit to see if there is any other similar content that can be combined into the content you want to refurbish. Last, do keyword research to see if there are any similar or better keywords to rank for.

Now that you’re ready to write, think about your current content. How much of it can you reuse? One of the many benefits of repurposing content is to help save you time. So, if it’s ranking well for certain keywords, be sure to keep those sections intact. Be sure to optimize headers with relevant keywords, optimize content by being useful, and update all metadata accordingly.

Different Ways of Repurposing Content

Again, one of the many benefits of repurposing content is all the different ways you can use it! Here are 2 ways you can repurpose your content:

1. Convert old blog posts into guides:

After writing for a while on topics in the same area, you eventually begin to collect enough knowledge and experience to train somebody in the field, at least at a basic level. It extends to all sectors, not just to SEO. So why not put all that experience to use and build a guide on how to do something by gathering valuable information you have shared over time in one tidy, structured, easy-to-follow user guide? These guides and infographics can have a very high re-reading quality if written and edited simply and concisely, as they are useful both as a tutorial for beginners and as a reference for later on.

2. Turn your published content into podcasts

Podcasts are as popular as ever, as the format uniquely blends into our busy lives. They can be quite enjoyable and enlightening, don’t need you to be involved, and they can be “digested” whenever you choose, making them extremely convenient. It is much easier to create a podcast with content already written than to write a new post. Condense the material to make it more conversational and hitting record is all you need to do!

Here are 8 more ways to repurpose your content:

3. Change blogs to PowerPoints.
4. Convert how-to guides into YouTube videos.
5. Extract key insights from long-form content and turn them into social posts, memes, or graphics.
6. Create an eBook from guides or long-form posts.
7. Turn a blog into an infographic.
8. Produce thought leadership quotes from pieces and share them on social or new blogs.
9. Create interactive content like quizzes or polls based on the content’s insights or themes.
10.  Post customer reviews, comments, or tweets to create social media posts or snippets on blogs.

Should You Repurpose Content With AI?

AI is a wonderful tool to help streamline certain repurposing of content. However, it’s important to remember that it should not just be used to blast out blog content with 0 human touch. Google has said that they do believe in the power of AI to help deliver useful content to people. However, they announced: “Using automation, including AI, to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.” So, the choice is yours whether you want to leverage your content repurposing with AI, but our advice is to do so with this knowledge in mind.

Content Review Checklist

Repurposing content doesn’t have to be hard, in fact, it should make your life easier. Download our comprehensive content review checklist for more details on this!

• Accuracy and reliability
• Relevance and intent
• Clarity and readability
• Engagement and interest
• Originality and uniqueness
• SEO optimization
• Call to Action (CTA)
• Brand consistency and guidelines
• ADA compliance
• Legal considerations

Reap the Benefits of Repurposing Content

With extended reach, improved SEO, time and cost savings, enhanced engagement, establishment of thought leadership, consistency in publishing, and content optimization all on the table, there’s no better time to dive into the world of content repurposing. So, now that you know all the benefits of repurposing content and all the different ways to do it, what are you waiting for?! Start leveraging content publishing today!