The Right Way to Repurpose Digital Content

Time, money, energy, creativity – maintaining websites, blogs, and social media platforms can be a daily demand on business resources. Reusing online copy may seem like the easiest way to ensure content is posted consistently, but will it help or hinder your digital marketing strategy? 

 

The answer can be a bit of both. Regularly reposting content can lead to audience disengagement, decreased search engine rankings, and a negative reputation. But done in the right way, repurposing online copy can help to make your business brand, voice, and status even stronger. 

Why post brand new content in the first place? For one, your customers are complex creatures – they want more from their browsing time than hard sales and product pictures. The online world is where we share, learn, and communicate, so let your unique business story shine through. 

 

Repurposing content isn’t simply cutting and pasting – it’s about using what you already have and what worked well in the past to create familiar stories presented in a fresh way, helping customers to identify your brand, understand your values, and trust your expertise. 

 

More practically, showing your industry know-how through repeating the same themes and ideas can work wonders for your SEO and drive more traffic to your other content. The time saved also means your employees can focus on other tasks, making it an ideal strategy for SMEs. 

Duplicate content refers to any material that appears on several pages, each with a different website address (URL). Algorithms like those used by Google detect when the same copy has been used multiple times and deems the pages less valuable, resulting in lower search engine ranking scores. The purpose is to prevent a negative user experience, but it can make creating new copy challenging for marketing teams. 

 

For example, you might want to feature a new product on both your home and sales webpages using the same copy, which would count as duplicate content. Instead, the language needs to be unique to ensure higher rankings, gain organic traffic, and meet Google’s EAT credentials. 

The good news is that there are ways you can repurpose your material – you just need to be smart about it. One method is to generate ‘evergreen content’ that will have a long-term relevance to your audience and/or sector. Think about what knowledge and experience you can share that has value, then create a ‘master article’ that can be updated, repurposed, and reposted on your site or blog. 

 

You can also rework existing copy by amending your search engine key terms, as these can often change, or update an old blog with the latest industry research to repost. Refreshing images and adding videos are also easy wins, or try transforming your copy into a podcast or social media story. As experts in optimised web content, the Artus Digital team are always here to help – get in touch with us today.