Automatic article updates: small, checked edits to the articles we published

How an update works

Articles drift after they go live: Google shows them for searches they don't quite answer, a price on your site changes, a page they link to moves. A content refresh usually means rewriting the post. BlogAmplify does something smaller and easier to trust:

1. 1

   Once a week, a reason from your data

   Each week, from Monday in your time zone, BlogAmplify looks over the articles it published for you and picks the ones with a reason to change, decided in code from Search Console, the weekly rankings, Google's first page, your product pages, the site audit and, on AI visibility plans, your tracked AI questions. An article gets one update at a time, and its price or link fixes ride along with it.
2. 2

   Research for exactly those changes

   A research step with at most 6 web searches asks for 4 to 10 pieces of evidence. Each quoted passage is checked against the text of its page and dropped when it isn't there; a page that blocks automated readers is kept only when the web search itself returned it. The sourcing rules are the ones new articles follow: never competitors, portals, mirror sites or user-generated pages such as forums. To strengthen the main answer, it reads the top 5 Google results and finds up to 3 things they cover that the article lacks.
3. 3

   Small edits in the article's own voice

   The writer proposes at most one edit for each thing the update sets out to do, at most 3 in all, in the article's language and the way it addresses readers. New facts come only from the checked evidence, your business facts and the article itself, and each source is linked the first time it is used.
4. 4

   Code checks every edit

   Code applies an edit only when it passes the checks below, or refuses it with a reason. A refused edit goes back to the writer once with that reason, and what is still refused is dropped.
5. 5

   Live in place, or not at all

   Just before writing, the article is read again, and if it changed since the update began, nothing is written. On Shopify and WordPress the live article is updated in place, along with its FAQ structured data and modified date; a webhook site receives an in-place update with the same article id. Then the change is listed on Site Health.

Price and link fixes need no writing: a changed price is replaced in code, keeping its currency and number style, and a broken link goes through Fix it for me.

What starts an update

Every update starts from a reason found in your data, before any writing. Content updates, in the order they are chosen, then the fact fixes:

Searches that name your business or a competitor, and the article's own main search, are never treated as missing. The AI Overview reads come from Google's first page for articles close to the top; see the AI Overview tracker. Tracked AI questions are part of AI visibility.

What an update can change

A content edit is one of three things, each with its own limits:

An FAQ answer

A question worded like the search and a one-paragraph answer of at most 90 words (the writer aims for 40 or more) that answers in its first sentence, placed inside the article's FAQ (an FAQ is created before the sources when there is none). The FAQ structured data is updated too.

A new section

A heading worded like the search and at most 280 words, placed after a whole section of the article, never after the FAQ, the sources, the disclaimer or the closing section, in the style of the article's own headings.

One rewritten paragraph

One whole paragraph or list item, keeping at least 60% of its words and every link it had, with the link's original settings.

A fact fix changes a product price the article states, or the link Site Health found broken or redirecting. Nothing else in the article moves: not the title, not the address, not the publish date, not the header image.

The checks every edit passes

This is the safety net between a suggested edit and your live article. Every new piece of text is cleaned to plain article HTML, and then:

• ✓Always: Every figure must appear in the checked sources, your business facts or the article itself, in any number style.
• ✓Always: Links go only to the checked sources, to pages of your site that exist, or to pages the article already links.
• ✓Always: No competitor is named unless the article already names it.
• ✓Always: No talk of AI assistants unless the article already uses the term.
• ✓Always: No date stamps and no "updated on" lines.
• ✓Always: No heading or question that repeats one the article already answers.
• ✓Always: No new main heading, images, scripts or embedded frames.
• ✓Always: At most 280 words a section and 90 an FAQ answer, and the article grows by at most 35% and 600 words in all.
• ✓Always: Everything outside the edited spots reaches your site byte for byte as it was, apart from the FAQ structured data and the modified date.

The FAQ structured data inside the article and in its stored copy gains each new question and answer, so search engines read what visitors read.

Caps and waiting times

Caps keep updates rare enough for Google to judge each one, and keep them out of your way while you work on an article:

Content updates a website gets

At most 2 planned a week and 6 a calendar month, in your time zone

Changes in one update

At most 3

Before an article's first content update

Live 28 days

Between two content updates of one article

56 days

After you edit an article in BlogAmplify

Automatic updates wait 7 days

After an update that didn't go through

Automatic updates wait 21 days; Update this article can try again the next day

A search or question an update already tried

Not planned again for 56 days

Price and link fixes

Up to 10 a week. They don't count toward the caps and don't wait for an article's age, its last update or your edits; one that was skipped waits 21 days

An update that didn't go live doesn't use up the month; one you put back does. Updates are on by default with the switch "Keep published articles up to date" in Article Config.

Seeing and undoing changes

Site Health lists the 20 newest updates under Article updates, with the month's count against its cap. Each one says what changed in plain sentences and why, shows the new text with its sources, and how it ended: live, skipped or failed with the reason, or stopped because the article changed meanwhile.

Update this article

On Site Health's Articles losing traffic, Update this article starts an update of that article at once, even with automatic updates switched off or just after you published your own edits. It sets out to strengthen the answer to the article's main search with what the pages above it cover, plus up to 2 searches the article is shown for but doesn't answer.

It passes the same checks on every edit and counts toward the 6 a month. The article must have been live 28 days and be 56 days past its last content change; when the button can't start an update, it says why, and from when it can when the reason is a wait. One that didn't go through can be tried again the next day. The in-app assistant can propose the same update for you to confirm.

What updates never do

• ×Never: Rewrite an article. Title, address and publish date stay exactly as they were; only the structured data's modified date moves.
• ×Never: Touch pages BlogAmplify didn't publish for you.
• ×Never: Change an article while it changes underneath: if the article changed since the update began, nothing is written.
• ×Never: Update articles published to Notion, which can't be updated in place.
• ×Never: Publish edits you saved in BlogAmplify but haven't published: while an article holds them, content updates leave it as it is.

How it fits Site Health

Site Health finds what is wrong across your whole site and tells you how to fix it. Article updates act only on the articles BlogAmplify published for you, using what Site Health measured:

• Articles losing traffic become losing-traffic updates, or start one with Update this article.
• Weekly rankings show which articles sit just off page one.
• Broken or redirecting links the audit found in our articles become link fixes, and the page is checked again afterwards.
• After a content update, with Search Console connected, the next night's Google index check asks about the article again.
• Every update, with its reasons, sources and undo, is listed on the Site Health page.

New articles come from the content planner; updates keep the ones already live in shape. For the wider picture, see what SEO automation can and can't do.

Plans

Article updates are part of every plan, for each website. Answers to tracked AI questions need AI visibility tracking, which comes with Growth + AI Visibility and Extra website + AI Visibility.

Growth, $99/mo

Every trigger except AI questions

Growth + AI Visibility, $199/mo

Every trigger, including AI questions

Extra website, $75/mo

Every trigger except AI questions

Extra website + AI Visibility, $150/mo

Every trigger, including AI questions

Both main plans start with a 3-day trial; a card is required. Content updates start once an article has been live 28 days. Prices are per website, per month, before local tax; see pricing.