Would it not be better to just update the original article as compared to creating a new article and then redirect it to that?
The answer will be Yes and No.
If you publish the original article 10 years ago, even if you update it and put lastmod date to current, it will still be published 10 years ago. Sometimes it’s not worth to did that if you can use a power of 301 redirect for a new article with similar content.
301 redirect will move power (link ranking) to the new article and this could have better benefits than refreshing old content.
In some articles, when updates require just minor changes this will be better than creating a new article for sure. It’s a subjective approach and a decision needs to be taken at the time to see, whether are updated article really will be better than the newly created.
Yes, search engines recognise modified dates, but again, you need to decide what will be better for you. I got a couple of old articles that I feel better just updating rather than creating new ones, but there are some that when creating from scratch (even based on old ones) are much richer in content and are more up to date.
We need to put ourselves in user/reader’s shoes. Sometimes, like on my page, you show both dates (published and updated), the fact that the article was published over 10 years ago may not sound good for the first visit even though that updated date states a different way, but that’s strictly based which what type of user we are dealing with.
- Create a new article and add note “this is an update of {old article}”; and in the old article add note “{new and updated version is available at: }” (probably with ‘Expiry/expires’ meta in the old too)
This example is exactly why I finally put my main article about removing old content. It’s not always working. Users are prompted on old articles that this has been updated and to follow new articles, but it’s like 50/50 that they will do that. Sometimes you will benefit more from removing and redirecting. I noticed that my old articles, despite describing to users that there is a new one - updated, are performing (gaining users) better than new ones. After removing and redirecting, finally, I have been putting users into the article that I want them to read, rather than the old one, and as a power of the old link goes with 301 redirects, this works better at promoting the new article and gaining new users.
The 1st and 3rd shall be, in my opinion, considered in first place over the 2nd option.