Revamping Old Blog Posts

I started blogging in 2010. I was a fresh, new, born again Christian who had spent years searching for faith while being repeatedly battered by Christians. The healing narrative was always pushed. I was trying to justify why I had a horrible health diagnosis. If I ventured into churches I was stopped, prayed for, and turned into a healing story for God’s magnificent miracles. When I wasn’t healed, I was blamed. I hadn’t believed enough. I wasn’t giving myself over to God and Jesus. Typical institutional harm that many disabled people endure. I tried several Alpha Courses. I was theologically minded even then, so I asked complex questions. No one likes being challenged, especially those who valued Scripture over theology. I was kicked out and blamed for my attitude. When I finally connected with God I wanted to document the journey. A friend suggested I start a blog.

My world collapsed in 2011. I was made redundant, my marriage ended, my mum died, and my mental health declined. I found myself seeking answers and relief through alcohol. I slowly built myself up and sobered up, but my access to the boys was limited. My solicitor suggested documenting everything, and, as blogs keep digital records, I wrote it all down. In 2014, Inside Martyn’s Thoughts became a parenting, homeschooling, disability, health, and lifestyle blog.

Between 2014 and 2020 I maintained it well. I wrote 3 to 4 times a week, was a top blogger, and nominated for various awards. Then 2019 hit. It was rough for us as a family. Then Covid followed in 2020. I ended up writing less and less until I was only writing 3 to 4 posts a year.

Something changed in December 2025. James was struggling in school and he was spiralling downwards. I was frustrated and needed to express myself. I came back to this dusty old thing and started typing.

I thought the best idea was to start with an update before writing about James. The more I typed the more I realised I had a lot more to say. It all clicked back into place. 9 months later and I’m back to writing 3 to 4 posts a week. Back to being a persistent blogger.

Everything has changed though. My domain and page authority died in those inactive years. My Google analytics were terrible. Despite having over 900 published posts, under 100 were indexed. The inactivity caused significant damage. I was still getting thousands of daily views on old posts, but there were broken links, missing images, and poor writing. My friend Nat always said she loved my writing, but I was lazy. Hannah agreed. I didn’t proof read, edit, or care about presentation. My posts were littered with errors. Having spent 3 years at college in my absence, I proved my academic knowledge and writing ability and ended my lazy writing style. The damage, however, was done. If I was going to return to blogging I needed to fix everything.

I spent time researching and realised I needed to do a lot more to fix sixteen years of blogging.

I needed to:

Fix broken links.  

Google hates broken links as they stop crawlers and damage rankings. Fixing them helps Google move through my blog properly.

Add forward links.  

I was great at linking backwards, but forward links strengthen crawl paths and help Google understand what’s new and relevant.

Improve SEO.  

Searchable questions, phrases, and keywords help Google understand the topic. Better SEO means better indexing.

Update meta titles and descriptions.  

These tell Google exactly what each post is about and improve click through rates and ranking.

Add thumbnails, alt text, and descriptions.  

Images without alt text are invisible to Google. Alt text improves accessibility and indexing.

Rewrite old posts for clarity and flow.  

Google rewards high quality writing. Clean grammar, good structure, and readable paragraphs improve ranking.

Add reflections to older posts.  

Fresh updates show Google the content is still relevant and treat old posts like new posts.

Improve accessibility.  

Readable fonts, clear spacing, and mobile friendly layouts keep readers on the page longer. Longer engagement improves ranking.

Create hub pages.  

Google loves organised content. Hubs help it understand themes and clusters that help readers find top posts easily.

Submit updated posts to Google Search Console.  

This triggers reindexing and speeds up ranking improvements.

It’s slow progress. Writing new posts again is time consuming, especially the editing process. Finding time to fix old posts is difficult. I have 1,034 published posts, making the task daunting. It’s working though. My indexing has been moving between 126 and 139. New posts and revamped posts are being crawled. I haven’t checked my DA and PA yet but my efforts won’t impact it yet. I spent years being inconsistent. That caused a lot of damage, but, as the saying goes, it takes 10 times longer to fix something than it does to break it.

For now, I’ll keep revamping and doing what I can. 

If you would like to read my revamped posts, please click here and start with the first one. I have moved my early Christian posts to drafts, so my blog starts with James' Birth.