I was recently asked to be a guest on XO Sarah’s Badass Babes Blog + E-course. I answered several questions about how to use social media to grow new and established blogs. This year marks seven years since I’ve been blogging. My style has certainly changed over those years. But I decide some downtime this summer was best used to optimize some of my blog archives.

Here are some tips for optimizing your old blog posts:

1. Start small: pick a particular category, or go through your archives by date so you can break the task up into small parts. I decided to optimize my content by month. So I started with August 2007 archives, then moved to August 2008 posts and moved on from there.
2. Add or update pictures: if you post doesn’t currently have images, you can either take make a list and setup time to take new photos or use a stock photo site to search for topic specific images. I used Dreamstime for posts older than 2010 that needed images. Here’s my referral link if you’re interested in checking them out.
3. Update and fix broken links: take a quick run through your old posts and remove links that are no longer active
4. Optimize images for Pinterest: vertical images, and images with text perform better on Pinterest. So, I went back to some of my old posts and created Pinterest friendly images. Example:
   Genpink Archive post from August 2007: Important numbers to program into your cell phone today
5. Pin seasonal content: is your back to school post from last year still relevant? Chances are it is. So, bring new love to it by pinning it again!
6. Bring new life to old content: write a list like the one below linking to some of your favorite posts from your archives
7. Schedule social media shares for your ever-green content. As you’re going through your old posts, make not of which posts are relevant year round. Keep that list somewhere to reference when you’re working on your social media scheduling.
8. Schedule TBT and posts from the past love. Much like tip number 6, if you find a post that’s old but worth brining up again Tweet it! I found a post about Facebook Flair. Remember that? I had completely forgotten about it. As soon as I rediscovered that post I shared it on several social channels.

Does anyone remember the Facebook flair app (circa 2008)? http://t.co/LbM2He4Hon pic.twitter.com/FDVhmAcyX4

— elysa ellis (@elysa) August 11, 2014

Revisiting Genpink posts from August of the past

• 2013: 30 books you should read before you turn 30. Agree/disagree? Any you’d add?
• 2012: Did you read Sweet Valley High in highschool? I bet you did. Did you know they came out with a new series of the girls all grown up? Yep, Sweet Valley Confidential
• 2011: I wrote a post about why girls confuse me. Fortunately I have fired several of those types in the past 3 years. I also started collecting ideas for DIY projects from old t-shirts. Still one of my most popular posts and Pinterest boards.
• 2010: It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 years since I wrote this post about grieving and saying goodbye someone who was dying from cancer. For anyone who has been there, those heart-string-tugs are all too familiar.
• 2009: Wrote a post about demi-tasking. Still relevant, and an ironic reminder since I was updating these posts while watching Orange is the New Black. Also, there’s a lone vlog post in 2009 about why I blog in my pajamas.
• 2008: Found a list of podcast recommendations. I wonder how many of these are still around six years later. Also, things to do before your 30th – I didn’t actually get around to that mega list.
• 2007: I educated the internet on the difference between yea, yeah, yay and ya… need a refresher? I shared a mega list of over 100 outstanding women bloggers. Chances are a lot of these aren’t around any more.

Been blogging for a bit? What would you add?