How to update an old article without pretending it is new
Update an article when facts, guidance or customer needs have meaningfully changed.
AI-assisted practical guide · Editorial approach
The useful starting point
Update an article when facts, guidance or customer needs have meaningfully changed. Keep the original publication date and describe substantive revisions where useful. Correct mistakes directly and retain a clear ownership record; a new modified date should reflect actual work.
Understand the decision
Compare the article with current business information and primary references. Review broken links, outdated screenshots, unclear examples and CTAs that no longer match the offer. Decide whether to improve, consolidate or retire the page. A minor formatting change does not justify presenting an old article as newly researched or changing its historical publication record.
A practical approach
Start with an actual conversation or task. Write down what the reader will be able to decide or do after reading. Gather the business facts before drafting and label examples that are illustrative. Edit for usefulness: remove sections that repeat the introduction and add the missing decision, limitation or concrete action. A short complete answer is more useful than a long article assembled only to meet a target word count.
- Check business facts and references.
- Fix broken destinations and outdated actions.
- Record substantive revisions.
- Preserve truthful publication history.
Illustrative example
A guide about enquiry confirmations could be updated after the business changes its receiving system. The revision would explain the new confirmed state and keep the original publication date. Replacing a decorative image alone would not be evidence of a fresh technical review.
A mistake to avoid
Avoid automatically setting every article's modified date to the build date. That removes the distinction between a content update and a deployment.
What to review
Track important corrections, improved usefulness and pages that remain unsupported or outdated after the review.
Turn the guide into a working brief
Give each article a clear owner, source record and next step that matches the subject. Connect it to a relevant service, practical tool or related guide instead of attaching the same urgent sales pitch everywhere. Publish only material you can maintain. Review performance through relevant questions, useful conversations and accepted enquiries, and improve articles where readers still ask the question the page was supposed to answer.
Common questions
What should I prepare before asking for help?
Start with this checklist: Check business facts and references. Fix broken destinations and outdated actions. Record substantive revisions. Preserve truthful publication history. Add your business context, existing materials and the decision you need to make. A useful initial brief can include uncertainty; you do not need to invent answers before discussing scope.
How should I judge whether the work helped?
Track important corrections, improved usefulness and pages that remain unsupported or outdated after the review. Keep the observation period and definitions visible. Use the responsible team's evidence alongside the website journey; do not attribute every change in results to one asset or article.
Sources & scope
AI-assisted practical guide. Examples are illustrative; business-specific facts and sector claims need the responsible owner’s approval.
- Google Search Central: helpful, reliable content
Reference for useful content, truthful authorship and evidence. The business methods and illustrative examples in this guide are original editorial material.
Use this guide to start your brief.
Share your business context, existing materials and what is still unclear. The guide title will be included so the conversation starts with the right problem.
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