Updating and improving existing content

Creating new pages is not the only way to grow. Pages that already appear in search often need less work to perform better, because Google already considers them relevant.

Finding pages worth updating

In Search Console's Performance report, open the Pages tab for the last 3 months and look for:

Pattern	What it suggests	First thing to try
Many impressions, low CTR	The page appears but the result does not attract clicks	Rewrite the title and meta description to match the main queries
Average position about 5–20	Relevant but not quite competitive	Answer missing questions, improve structure, add internal links
Queries the page does not answer	Searchers want something the page lacks	Add a section, or create a separate page if the intent differs
Falling clicks over months	Outdated, or outcompeted	Update facts, examples, prices and screenshots

Click a page, then switch to the Queries tab to see what people searched to find it.

Update, merge, redirect or remove

• Update when the topic is still relevant and the page has value. This is the most common case.
• Merge when several pages cover the same topic and intent. Redirect the merged URLs to the stronger page.
• Redirect a removed page to its genuinely closest replacement, if one exists.
• Remove, returning 404 or 410, only for pages with no value and no good replacement.

Dates

Google's people-first guidance names changing dates without substantially changing the content as a sign of search engine-first content. When you do update a page:

• Show a visible, labelled date, such as "Atnaujinta 2026-11-05".
• Use matching datePublished and dateModified in structured data (Article or BlogPosting).
• Never use a future date, or the date of an event the page describes.

Measuring the effect honestly

1. Record the baseline before changing anything: clicks, impressions, CTR, average position and the date range.
2. Record the publish date of the change. The Pages tab in your Workspace does this when you mark a page as published.
3. Wait for the page to be recrawled. URL Inspection shows the last crawl date.
4. Compare equal periods, for example four weeks before against four weeks after.
5. Note other explanations: seasonality, core updates, changes on competitors' sites, or ads campaigns.