Backlinks play an important role in blogging. However, it is easy to forget about updating them.

Good content marketing is a key component of organic web content. Few marketers doubt this. While some voices claim content is dead, they tend to be trying to sell their ‘alternative’ marketing strategies.

Content writers know how important it is to ensure their blogs have the best SEO and other elements.

• Use great keywords
• Relevant content,
• Good images
• Videos embedded

Why backlinks are important

You should also consider backlinks. These can boost your ranking and add authority if they are chosen carefully.

These are important and should not be ignored by writers. It is well-known that these can make a difference. This is especially important when the difference in Google rankings between pages one and two is the difference between day and night.

But, it is easy to forget the important question of how frequently backlinks need to be updated.

First, blogs and articles sometimes can be overlooked. It is possible that something which was perfectly optimized and relevant last year and had a page 1 ranking, has drifted downwards. This is not due to the appearance of other content, but because its authority has diminished and its relevance has decreased.

Anything that refers to current political events is an obvious example. This was very different from the uncertain 2019 and 2020. With Brexit, a historic fact that was delivered by a government with an unassailable majority, it looked quite different.

Any article like this will not be updated for optimization in any way. One of these will be backlinks.

What are the Perils of Old Backlinks

Failure to update backlinks can lead to a variety of problems that could be detrimental to your SEO.

• As contemporary relevance declines, their authority will fall.
• Others may be broken.
• Some will become toxic.
• There will be no opportunities to create new and better backlinks.

It is important to not overlook the loss of authority. Backlinks can refer to changes in circumstances, rendering the content outdated or unimportant, just like the blog where it was embedded. It will not affect the authority of your article if it is wrongly predicting how a certain development will unfold.

You will also notice a greater positive effect on your rank the older a backlinked article is.

Bad Backlinks are Bad News!

Broken or toxic backlinks can have an especially bad effect.

• If you click on these links and find that they don’t work, you will click fast to increase your bounce rate.

• These experiences will decrease the likelihood of your visitors returning.

• You can damage your reputation.

Search engines will notice this, and you will be penalized.

If you wait enough, you’ll find out if your backlink problem is serious. If you are penalized by search engines, or your analytics tools detect bad backlinks, this will occur. Pre-emptive action can help you spot problems sooner and minimize the negative effects.

What is the best time to check your backlinks?

It is important to regularly check your backlinks for errors. It doesn’t make any sense to check your backlinks every week. However, it is a good idea to do it every few months.

It’s worth noting, however, that a backlink may not be working for more than one reason.

• The backlink may have been removed.
• The backlink may have a technical problem.
• You may have entered an incorrect URL.

It can be connected directly if the latter is true. If the link points to an article or page that is no more available, it must be replaced.

As we have already mentioned, the older a link, the higher its relevance score. It is also more likely to not contain anything out of date (e.g., references to an event that is coming up at the time of writing, but has since passed).

When writing a blog, the best rule is to make sure that backlinks are not older than one year. To maintain this rule, you will need to return to your article every few months to check if any of your backlinks have changed.

You can do this while you’re doing a general review of your blogs. You can also update your blog to replace or remove outdated text. This same process can be used to check your backlinks.

What should you replace old backlinks with?

There are three options for replacing an old backlink.

• Look for a like-for-like article; one similar, but older.

• You can replace the article with something similar but different. This will take into consideration changes in circumstances and/or new information.

• You can take the link from the text and add a new backlink somewhere else in the article. If you need to update the entire article, this may be the best option.

It is important to remember that you should refresh your blogs to make them a valuable asset for your search engine ranking.

It is important to see your backlinks as part of a larger whole. It is not a one-off improvement. They should be considered part of a larger enhancement that may include a few minor tweaks or a complete rewrite.

This will allow you to make backlinks a crucial part of your content, making it authoritative, fresh, and optimized.