Update: That blog rewrite from 2 months ago finally paid off

I spent 3 weeks rewriting 12 old posts on my gardening site back in June, and I just checked analytics this morning. One of those pages went from 50 monthly views to over 1,200 thanks to better headings and simpler instructions. Has anyone else seen a big delay between reworking content and actually seeing the results pop up in search?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny_coleman1mo ago

I used to think if you updated a post and didn't see traffic jump in a week or two, you'd wasted your time. But I had this old recipe page on my cooking blog that I rewrote in March, nothing happened for like four months, then August it started climbing from 80 views to almost 900. Google just takes forever to figure out your changes are actually better than the other results out there.

the_tessa1mo agoMost Upvoted

I remember reading a study from Backlinko that said it can take Google 3 to 6 months to fully rank a page after a major update. Your recipe jumping from 80 to 900 is a perfect real-world example of that, and it's why I stopped panicking after only two weeks of no movement. Have you noticed similar patterns with your other posts after you refresh them?

the_morgan1mo ago

Feel you on that timeline, it's brutal waiting but the proof is in the pudding when it finally kicks in. @jenny_coleman's story with the recipe page is exactly what I've seen with my own site - I had a guide I rewrote in January that sat dead until June before suddenly tripling its traffic overnight. Really makes you want to just set a reminder for six months out and stop checking analytics every day (easier said than done though, right?).