#general

Thread

Yasemin Salman January 06, 2022 at 08:35 AM

Hey folks, when do you advise to update the date of an article and when not?

My CMO would like to to update the date of an article every time we push an article in the newsletter. I am of the opinion to only do this when an article is:
- updated / edited for the majority
- is fully SEO optimised

I'm interested in your thoughts and how you handle this. Thanks in advance! 🙂

Aparna Seshadri January 06, 2022 at 08:44 AM

@Yasemin Salman as far as I know dated articles establish credibility to those who read that it's the recent one and we can very well trust it that's how we function right?
So , we could also eventually update
Date if needed
When we have it fully optimised as per seo.

I have heard dates are also vital when they rank.

Nneka Otika January 06, 2022 at 10:33 AM

I only update dates of articles in the new year for articles that are titled similar to: How to be awesome in 2021. In January, I take all those type of articles and update them all to something like: How to be awesome in 2022.
And do my main content updates for other articles in the 2nd/3rd quarter of the year.

Iliya Valchanov January 06, 2022 at 10:48 AM

There are two types of dates when it comes to blog posts:
• Date created
• Date modified
Both of these could be a part of the metadata for the article, including the sitemap.

I highly advise against changing the date created. I have experimented with this and the results were awful.

If you want to show a newer date (for UX purposes), feel free to show the last modified date on the blog as the main date. Then you simply edit the article and automatically have a newer date.

Aparna Seshadri January 06, 2022 at 05:05 PM

Yes @Iliya Valchanov this is so perfect . This is so crisp, clear and insightful at that. 😊🙌

Ronnie Higgins January 07, 2022 at 04:42 PM

I second what @Iliya Valchanov says about keeping a record of the original publish date, whether that’s in your editorial metadata or a content inventory management system/repository.

I’m not a fan of displaying the date modified. And, contrary to Lliya’s experience, I’ve not seen negative results but I’ve also worked with high-domain authority sites.

Callahan Peel January 07, 2022 at 10:40 PM

I have a high authority site and update the date whenever I make a change. I have only seen extremely positive results from doing this. Our team also sets a goal of updating a piece at least every six months.

Note that if your URL contains the date and you change the date, it will probably change the URL (this is a definite when using Wordpress). In that case, you may need to set up a 301 from the old URL to the new URL. If this is your situation, I would recommend moving away from the date in the URL altogether!

Ronnie Higgins January 07, 2022 at 10:41 PM

+1 to avoiding dates in the URL

Iliya Valchanov January 08, 2022 at 05:18 PM

@Ronnie Higgins I tried to figure out what you are doing right now at Hopin. Went to the site and saw that you show the original publish date. Then in the code of all pages you've got 'Last Published XX (basically yesterday)'. Is this the best approach you have found?

Ronnie Higgins January 08, 2022 at 05:27 PM

The current blog was thrown together when the Hopin marketing team was five people (now about 50) and long before I joined.

Since starting, I've been rebuilding the content operation from scratch and haven't begun to think about the blog until now. I'll be diving into the audit and laying the groundwork for a complete overhaul next week.