One of the things I do during the day, to keep my mind engaged in my blog business, is check the real-time stats. And what you learn when you watch the motions of your content during the course of a day, is what is resonating with your audience. When an old post surfaces because someone somewhere shared it, I REFRESH the content.

If the resurfacing content is an evergreen piece, I will often update and add to the information. Maybe a new graphic. A new publish date. [This post is an example of a refresh of an old post that still has value.]

Here’s the six-step process I go through when an older post shows up in the real-time stream.

1. Date: Should we remove the dates altogether?Or maybe just refresh and repost.
2. Categories: Are there any new ones to add?
3. Socialization: Changing the publish date wouldkill any built up Tweets or Likes. Not a problem on this post.
4. Signature Update: Mine now adds G+ and nomore bitly permalinks.
5. Related Posts: It’s always a good idea to haverelated content to encourage deeper reading.
6. Tags: Tags are used by spiders and visitors. Canwe expand or eliminate some tags?

If someone has searched for and found an older piece of content, it is likely that it can be refreshed and brought back into the stream of your content. It’s all about being found and continuously serving up valuable content.

John McElhenney — let’s connect online
@jmacofearth & LinkedIn

Please check out a few of my books on AMAZON.