Why You Should Repurpose Every Piece of Content You Publish
When you create a piece of content, you might think that it will be used once and serve its purpose.
However, your content is more valuable than that and can be used and reused more than once.
But isn’t that a no-no?
Why would you want to repurpose your content?
What are the benefits?
Read on to learn more about the benefits of repurposing every piece of content you publish.
Reach New People
Of course, publishing a piece of content attracts a certain amount of traffic initially.
Once you publish a new piece of content on your website, you likely share that post on social media or other third-party article sites.
This is predominantly where the traffic to your site comes from after publishing a piece of content.
However, because your social media audience is likely to grow or change, repurposing that piece of content will appear fresh in new users’ eyes.
This method is a great idea for growing websites or businesses.
They have the opportunity to recreate or repurpose content as their readership or customer base begins to grow.
Expand On an Idea
Repurposing content allows you the opportunity to expand on an idea.
For example, if an original piece of content was on the broader side, then this is a good opportunity to dive more in depth and detail.
You could also use this as an opportunity to connect multiple pieces of content.
For example, when you have a broad piece of content in which you mention a more specific topic, you could update it to link to another piece of content on your website that offers more insight.
This is a great way to make sure your content is easy to find from multiple angles, extending far beyond readers stumbling upon the article by chance.
It Saves Time
Repurposing content saves time and resources on creating brand new content.
Even if you want to rewrite or rework the original content piece, you already have most of the information you need to be gathered in one place.
Refreshing content and keeping your site up to date is also important from Google’s perspective.
If you know it’s time to update your site or add new content, but you are in a time crunch, then simply select a piece of content that already exists and update it or repurpose it.
Keep Readers Interested With a New Format
Repurposing content can also help draw in readers, especially if you update the format of your content.
For example, your original long-form article might offer all the information that someone needs.
For other readers, it might be just what they were looking for.
On the other hand, some readers don’t want to read a long-form article; they may be looking for something quick and convenient to scan for key points.
In these cases, repurposing and reformatting your older content into a clear, concise, bulleted summary or even an infographic might draw in more readers.
Finally, many content management systems (CMS) are designed to make publishing and repurposing content easier.
For example, WordPress offers a wide range of add-ons and plugins that are designed to help users publish content while on the go.
Check out this list of WordPress deals here.
So there you have it.
If you don’t have the time or are fresh out of ideas on new content to create or produce, treat your existing content like a toolbox.
Simply take a piece of original content, update it, add more detail, or take a new spin on it and publish it like new.
Repurposing content can be a lifesaver.
Melissa Glidden
Copywriter at Giving Assistant
If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below.
To your success,
John W. Newman
Helping you create TIME AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM by building a PROFITABLE Business Online!
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Wow John, this is great content on re purposing information, it’s something that am going to borrow, start reusing my content more.
Fantastic Enock! Glad you liked it 🙂
Wow, great idea. I never thought of content repurpose before. Now I’m definitely going to do it on my website. I’ve lots of such old contents which I can make new. Thanks a lot for this great idea.
Thanks Deraj, if you have a lot of old content, it’s good to get back and update things!
I like this idea! I thought I might go back and freshen up a post, maybe add links that are relevant now when they weren’t available or relevant at the time. But why go back and update a post when you can turn it in to a new post? That’s got to be a better idea to keep adding new content! Thanks John!
It’s always good to keep adding new content Darla, but it’s always good to go back over your old content and update with relevant info.
I also like using my blog posts and turn them into videos as well!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
John this is pretty amazing. That means that I can take my content give it a complete makeover and because of this it could have a better ranking in the search engines.
I have had thoughts of this but not to the extent in which you are sharing. Thanks so much for this insight that will help me to rank old outdated content.
Absolutely Norman!
Editing and repurposing older content is a great strategy that can give you a boost in the search engines!
You should definitely look at it for your site!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
Hi and thanks for this food for thoughts.
It is in fact not always easy to come up with totally new topics for my website.
The idea of repurposing existing content that already seems to get some good traffic is a good idea.
I just now started to use a FaceBook automation program. What I do is I repost all my existing articles one after another.
FaceBook posts have such a short lifetime, and only very few viewers so I think it is very possible to catch the eye of a new audience every time I post.
Hi Stefan, That’s a really good idea for Facebook posts, and using automation tools such as that is a real, time-saver!
Sometimes you can create more content based around a particular themed article, so that’s a great idea too!
Thanks for your comments 🙂
Going to back to old posts and growing them is such a great idea- expanding on what you have to reach more audience really works and think you for your engaging article
Thanks Vicki!
I think repurposing content is very important!
I quite often like to turn my blog articles into videos, and even emails and long posts on social media.
I have even turned content into eBooks and expanded into online courses!
The sky really is the limit!
Hi John,
Thanks for this article, it helped me decide to update some of my old content with newer information, but I have a couple of questions and a quick suggestion if I may…
First, the suggestion. I think I’ve understood what you mean by repurposing your content, but I could be wrong – I’d probably start the article (haha, repurpose it?) by explaining exactly what you mean with repurposing.
Secondly, the question – when you repurpose content are you talking about writing new articles based on older content, or are you simply editing old content. If the latter – do you update the publish date in WordPress so it looks new, or do you leave the old publish and just highlight in the content that it’s updated?
Thanks for your time!
Steve
So you really don’t know what repurposing means Steve???
C’mon, I think we know what it means, but thanks for that suggestion!
Your other question, however, is a very good one – I think that you could do either… write new articles based on the same theme, or update with new information.
If I’m updating, I personally would re-submit the article to Google, and re-share to social media and my email list.
You could put in the article that it’s updated or change the published date if you want… I have seen people do this, so I guess it’s personal preference.
Another good thing that I like to do is “repurpose” my articles and turn them into videos for YouTube and segments of them into emails, social media posts etc… more eyes on my content from different media!
Hope this helps!
Cheers 🙂
I like the fact that re purposing content will give your readers updated information. It is not like you have to start all new content but add new information. This all great information. I can use the information that you talked about in the future. Great Article!
Thank You,
Tina:)
Thanks Tina!
It’s great if you can write “evergreen” content for your readers that is always up to date, but quite often it’s important to go back and get things up to speed!
It’s also good when you get a little kick from the search engines out of it as well!
Thanks for commenting 🙂