Rewriting blog articles is an essential task in running owned media. "Rewrite" simply means "to write again," but that doesn't mean simply rewriting the article is enough. This article explains how to rewrite blog articles in 6 steps, along with tips and precautions.
If you haven't written a single blog article on your Shopify site yet, please refer to the article below first.
What Is Rewriting a Blog Article?
Rewriting an article is the practice of polishing up an already-published article to make it a higher-quality piece. It's generally done with the goal of improving SEO evaluation to boost search rankings, or increasing conversions.
Benefits and Effects of Rewriting
Rewriting an article offers two main benefits. Both are essential metrics for evaluating an article's quality.
- Improved SEO evaluation
- Improved CVR
Let's look at each in detail below.
Improved SEO Evaluation
When you rewrite and update a blog article, Google's algorithm re-evaluates that article. If it receives a higher evaluation than before the rewrite, you can expect effects such as a rise in search ranking. When your search ranking rises, the article becomes more likely to be clicked from search results, and you can expect an increase in page views (PV).
To improve your SEO evaluation, it's important to write articles that satisfy users more. Don't aim to write an article that pleases Google — aim to write one that pleases users.
The article below explains the benefits of SEO and the SEO measures you can take with Shopify. Please use it as a reference.
Improved CVR
CVR (Conversion Rate) is the percentage of users who read a given blog article and go on to complete a conversion (the intended goal).
What counts as a conversion differs depending on the purpose of the website or blog article — it could be a product purchase, a service application, a request for materials, or member registration.
For example, if the conversion goal of a blog article is a "sample request" for a supplement, clearly stating that the application process is simple and easy to try, and that no cost is involved beyond a set fee, lowers the barrier to applying and makes conversion more likely.
How to Rewrite [6 Steps]
Here's how to rewrite an article, explained in 6 steps. Rather than rewriting haphazardly, taking the right approach lets you get results efficiently.
- 1. Clarify the purpose of the rewrite
- 2. Select which articles to rewrite
- 3. Analyze competitor sites
- 4. Analyze the article
- 5. Rewrite the article
- 6. Verify the effects of the rewrite
Let's look at each in detail below.
1. Clarify the Purpose of the Rewrite
Before starting on an article rewrite, clarify the purpose of the rewrite.
Setting goals such as "raise search ranking by improving SEO evaluation" or "increase the appeal of the product to raise conversion rate" will help when verifying the results after the rewrite.
Examples of Rewrite Goals
- Improve SEO evaluation and raise search ranking
- Increase the appeal of the product and raise conversion rate
- Increase the appeal of the title or headings and raise CTR
etc…
2. Select Which Articles to Rewrite
You don't need to rewrite every article. Check metrics such as "search ranking," "CTA button click rate," and "CTR (click-through rate) in search results," and select articles where you can expect the rewrite to produce results. In particular, articles ranking 11th to 20th for a target keyword have a high chance of breaking into the first page of search results (1st to 10th) through a rewrite.
You can check these metrics using tools like "Google Search Console" or "Google Analytics."
Example Criteria for Selecting Articles to Rewrite
- Search ranking for the target keyword is 11th to 20th
- CTA button click rate is low compared to other articles
- CTR (click-through rate) in search results is low
etc…
3. Analyze Competitor Sites
When deciding what to include in a rewrite, it helps to look at competitor sites that rank highly for the target keyword. Ranking highly means Google has judged that the article "satisfies user needs." Check the competitor sites that rank highly for the keyword whose ranking you want to improve, and look for elements you can incorporate into your own article.
However, no matter how good the content is, you must never "copy and paste" it. Using it without the author's permission may constitute copyright infringement.
Also, copied content may be penalized by Google as low-quality content.
Points for Competitor Analysis
- Keywords frequently used in competitor site titles
- The heading structure of competitor sites
- Whether there are user needs your own blog article isn't addressing
etc…
4. Analyze the Article
Once you've finished analyzing competitor sites, check whether there's room for improvement in your own article too. Even for an article you wrote yourself, revisiting it again should reveal improvement points you didn't notice the first time.
The article analysis you do here covers what could be called the basics of SEO. It's important to go back to basics and try reading the article from the user's perspective.
Points for Article Analysis
- Does it satisfy user needs?
- Can the user achieve their goal with minimal effort?
- Is expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness secured?
- Is the title and meta description (summary text) appropriate?
For article analysis, we recommend the behavior-analysis/heatmap tool "Clarity" and the traffic-analysis tool "Google Analytics 4 (GA4)," both of which are free and highly capable.
The article below explains how to set up the behavior-analysis/heatmap tool "Clarity." Please use it as a reference.
The article below explains how to set up the traffic-analysis tool "Google Analytics 4 (GA4)." Please use it as a reference.
5. Rewrite the Article
Once you've found improvement points through analyzing competitor sites and your own article, actually do the rewrite work. You can reflect all the improvement points you found at once, but we recommend making changes gradually and checking the effect of each rewrite.
If the rewrite ever backfires, making a large-scale rewrite carries the risk that you'll have to revert everything back.
Also, by making gradual changes, you can move forward with rewriting multiple articles at once, increasing how often you update your articles overall.
6. Verify the Effects of the Rewrite
After rewriting an article, compare metrics such as search ranking, CVR (conversion rate), and CTR (click-through rate) before and after the rewrite, and check whether the rewrite is having an effect and whether it achieved its goal. These verification results can also be applied to your next rewrite.
However, search ranking doesn't always go up — sometimes it stays the same, and sometimes it goes down. If the search ranking drops, it may mean that the rewrite you made with good intentions actually lowered the article's quality. In that case, you'll need to consider reverting to the pre-rewrite version.
Tips and Precautions for Article Rewrites
Here we explain things to be careful about when rewriting an article, and things you'll want to confirm before starting a rewrite. This is important content related to how your article is evaluated, so be sure not to forget it.
- Confirm user needs
- Make efforts to satisfy E-E-A-T
- Improve content comprehensiveness
- Add unique content
- Combine articles with duplicate content into one
- Add internal links
- Watch out for copyright violations
Confirm User Needs
Reconfirm what users searching for your target keyword are actually looking for. The basic rule of an article is "meeting user needs." Be careful, because repeated rewrites can sometimes lead the content off-target.
Make Efforts to Satisfy E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T is a set of evaluation criteria that Google places heavy weight on when evaluating web pages. It stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Simply put, it looks at "whether you're knowledgeable in the field and well regarded by others."
There are various ways to satisfy E-E-A-T. For example, fleshing out the writer's profile to help satisfy trustworthiness. What you can do will vary depending on each site's theme and how it's run, so think about what improvements you can make on your own site.
The article below explains the benefits of showing author information and what to include in an author profile. Please use it as a reference.
Improve Content Comprehensiveness
Comprehensiveness refers to whether the information users need is covered without any gaps. Articles with high comprehensiveness tend to satisfy users and are more likely to be evaluated as articles with a high level of expertise.
That said, more information isn't always better — what matters is appropriately including only the information users actually need. Be careful not to cram in information indiscriminately.
Add Unique Content
An article that contains only the same information as competitor sites has no value as content. Be conscious of adding uniqueness as a point of differentiation from competitor sites.
Adding uniqueness isn't just about including information competitor sites don't have. Writing that's easier to read, or tables and graphs that are easier to understand than competitor sites, can also count as sufficient uniqueness that benefits users.
The key points are "differentiation from competitor sites" and "whether it benefits users." Think about what you can do in your own article.
Combine Articles with Duplicate Content into One
As you rewrite, you may end up with overlapping content across articles on the same theme. Having such duplicate pages causes the evaluation to be split across each article, making it harder to achieve a high ranking.
In this case, consolidate the content into whichever article has the higher evaluation, and set up a redirect from the URL of the now-unnecessary article to the consolidated one. Combining articles concentrates the previously split evaluation and also increases comprehensiveness, making it easier to rank highly.
Add Internal Links
An internal link is a link to another page within your own site. Adding internal links to content related to the article helps users reach the information they want more easily, which contributes to user satisfaction and Google's evaluation.
Try to imagine what information the user will want next, and add internal links that fit that need precisely.
The article below explains concrete internal-linking measures. Please use it as a reference.
Watch Out for Copyright Violations
Not just for rewrites, but whenever creating an article, you need to be careful not to violate copyright law. With a few exceptions, all content published on the web is copyrighted work protected under copyright law.
Especially when rewriting, since you often reference competitor sites, be careful not to quote or copy-paste content improperly.
4 Recommended Tools for Article Rewrites
Here are tools the author actually uses when rewriting articles. All of them are free to use, so if there's one you haven't tried, give it a shot.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that lets you see, among other things, your ranking for each keyword, how many times your page has been shown, and how many clicks it has received.
You can also submit a URL for indexing when rewriting or publishing a new article, letting Google know about the update. It's also useful for detecting issues related to your site's usability, among other things.
Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console/about
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a website traffic-analysis tool. It lets you measure visits per page, along with various metrics such as traffic sources and the number of conversions. Especially if you rewrite an article with the goal of improving CVR (conversion rate), it's important to measure the effect using a tool like this.
Google Analytics: https://www.google.com/analytics
The article below introduces how to set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) on Shopify.
Clarity
Clarity is a free heatmap tool provided by Microsoft. It lets you analyze how far visitors read on your site, which buttons they clicked, and more.
It also has a recording feature that lets you record the screen of a user reading your article as an actual video.
Clarity: https://clarity.microsoft.com
The article below introduces how to set up Clarity on Shopify.
Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a spreadsheet web app provided by Google. Anyone with a Google account can use it, and multiple people can edit it at the same time, making it easy to work as a team and easy to share with others.
It can be used for many purposes, such as organizing target keywords and headings, and tracking article performance.
Frequently Asked Questions About Rewriting Articles
How do I decide the priority order for rewrites?
A. We recommend starting with articles that rank 11th to 20th for the target keyword and have a large search volume. There's a big difference in traffic between the first and second pages of search results.
When and how often should I rewrite?
A. It's better for an article's update date to be recent, but that doesn't mean you need to update it every day. Rewrite when there's a clear purpose — when information becomes outdated, when there's new information to add, or when you expect a rewrite to produce results.
Why is rewriting important?
A. An old update date on an article means the information published is outdated. Since users want up-to-date information, Google generally rates newer articles more highly as well. Rewriting is important both to improve your search ranking and to keep ranking highly over time.
How do I choose which article to rewrite?
A. Use metrics such as "search ranking," "CTA button click rate," and "CTR (click-through rate) in search results" as a reference, and choose articles likely to show results.
Example Criteria for Selecting Articles to Rewrite
- Search ranking for the target keyword is 11th to 20th
- CTA button click rate is low compared to other articles
- CTR (click-through rate) in search results is low
What are the tips and key points for the rewriting process?
A. The key to rewriting is to work through it in order — analysis, then rewriting, then measuring the effect. Rather than rewriting on a whim, carefully follow the methods introduced in this article one at a time.
When do the effects of a rewrite show up?
A. Changes in search ranking don't necessarily show up right away. There's no point rewriting over and over right away just because the ranking hasn't gone up. However, CVR (conversion rate) changes based on the behavior of users who read the article, so a change shows up right away.
What should I keep in mind before rewriting?
A. Keep in mind the importance of clarifying the purpose of the rewrite. If you lose sight of the purpose partway through the work, it can lead to the work taking longer, or to being unable to properly measure the results.
Come to Tsun for SEO and Writing Articles That Sell
Tsun Inc. supports the growth of owned media and EC sites. From SEO measures for articles to the writing itself, we help you build a system that sells.
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