Dating Blog Posts & How Fast Google Picks up on New Pages
-
I had until a few months ago included the original post date of a new blog post on the site. I then removed it and none of my results in Google now include the blog post date, although for some (for articles written about events) Google includes the date of the event where you would usually see the post date. Since I did this, it seems like new blog posts are taking longer to rank on Google, some results are ranking well, and others declined relative to what I would have previously expected.
What's the best thing to be doing? To include a date (considering a lot of my content is not time-relevant) or to keep it as it is now?
The second thing, is I often go through and update my articles with new information and re-post it in my rss feed etc - ie the date becomes new again. How does Google treat this?
Any ideas or comments would be great!
Thanks
-
It is unlikely but for some things possible especially when people are planning trips far in advance (before the info on this years events is available which can sometimes only be a few weeks in advance).
You mean basically copy the content, update it, and put in a redirect?
Thanks
-
How likely is it for users to desire to see the pages on past years?
If not at all, then remove the old pages from your site. Issue solved.
If you feel users may still want to see the old pages, you can canonicalize them to the new page. Google will then not view the old pages as duplicate content.
-
Mm yeah maybe with a link at the top of old ones to say - this applies to 2011, see here for 4th of July 2012?
Then I'd end up with lots of pages with similar competing titles?
It is a difficult one, no?
-
If it was my site, there would likely be a new article each year.
4th of July Celebration!
When: July 4th, 2012
Where: Central Park, NY
Performing Artists will be: Pink, Fleetwood Mac, ....
Tickets are $20
[Insert as many relevant details about the event as possible such as: where to park, how much parking will cost, the time it starts / ends, ?jobs, ?handicap accessibility, etc]
The past year pages would likely 301 redirect to the current year's page. If you felt the need to keep the pages from prior years, then they could possibly canonical to the current year.
-
I'll give you an example and you'll understand what I mean
For instance - I have articles about events which take place every year. Obviously each year there are new details, new elements, new performers etc and the article is totally relevant for the homepage and for the feeds etc again.
I have just been updating and re-posting the pages for the new year (to stop having duplicate pages on the site...)
-
I don't care for the manner in which the articles are being recycled. If the articles are 90% the same and you are just adding a snippet of new info, there is no reason to re-post them at all.
Unless you are posting fresh, new articles then it makes sense that a category page would be crawled faster if your site's navigation is structured with a drill-down style where you click on a category from the home page, then the article.
-
Thanks. It's kind of weird what's happening because my category pages are showing up with the new content faster than the actual article.
I'm not 'manipulating' the date - I'm just not including it. The issue with 'recycling old articles' is that I am updating articles regularly with new information - to add a new article isn't good for the site because it's 90% repetition. Then, when I update them, I re-post them because what's new is important for readers, followers etc, to see. What do you think?
Thanks
-
Dating Blog Posts & How Fast Google Picks up on New Pages
This Q&A post shows as 4 hours old and it is already in Google search results: goo.gl/QHjXb. Google has the ability to pick up new pages in minutes for sites they deem important.
With respect to dates on articles, there are many attempts at manipulation and Google is pretty darn good at detecting them. Some examples:
-
sites which offer a date on their home page or articles that always updates to the current date
-
sites which recycle old articles by updating the date, or republish older articles with a new date
-
sites which do not offer any date for articles in an attempt to hide the age of the information
In brief, I would recommend including the date on all published information. The date provides a critical perspective on information. An example: when I was in school I learned there was 9 planets in our solar system. If I write that "fact" down, the date of the information is important. It seems Pluto has been demoted and there are now only 8 planets in our solar system.
Google looks at some keywords as being more time sensitive and the results of searches are affected by the dates involved.
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
List all keywords from a website per page in a table??
Hi all, Very basic question I know but strangely cannot find a solution to it? (its 20:40 on a Fri-night! 😉 ) I am working on a website that has over 100 pages and would like to see all the keywords associated with each page maybe in a table report of some kind? Is this at all possible? Heres an example URL KEYWORDS /index.html Moz, Moz local, London /aboutmoz.html Moz. Moz SEO, London and so on....
Search Behavior | | darrenbooy0 -
Google Index Issue - Indexing pages that don't exhist
Hi All, I have noticed a weird issue when performing a search on Google to show me all the pages it is indexing of our site. site:www.one2create.co.uk It brings up most of our website pages but then is also brings up a few HTTPS urls (our site has not been converted to HTTPS yet) but also the URL path, Title, and Meta Description are from one of our clients websites (an Automotive Job site). When clicked they take you to a generic 404 server error page, not our branded 404 page. The site that it has taken the url, title and meta description from is on a different server completely so I don't see how it has even managed to get that information and linked it to our site? Has anyone seen anything like this before? And what is the best way to fix it? We have asked Google to re-index the site but still no luck.
Search Behavior | | Jvickery0 -
How & What is the best advice on Keyword Cannibalization & get onpage optimized perfectly?
Hi all mozzers, I am having confusion to understand the fact and importance to target a single or related grouped keywords which is quite broader in terms of relevancy being found within our business. Let's explain more in detail:
Search Behavior | | KammySEO
Suppose we have a website: abc.com deal businesses in "Party Supplies, Party Decorations" Where the term "Party Supplies" being used exact or randomly many places, please see below finalized Titles respective to each landing page: abc.com/birthday/
title - Birthday Party Supplies - Kids Birthday Party Decorations Ideas abc.com/wedding/
title - Wedding Favors - Wedding Party Decorations & Centerpieces abc.com/baking/
title - Buy Baking Supplies - Cupcake & Cake Decorating Supplies abc.com/occasions/
title - Special Occasions Parties Supplies & Events - Party Time My main concern is, do our keyword party supplies gets stuck with "Keyword Cannibalization" ? If yes then what is the best advice you folks like to input here in order to safeguard and optimize best our landing pages for the such broader related search terms within the businesses. I am looking for best answer here0 -
Google Analytics: advanced segment for hour of day
Cioa from 17 Degrees C cloudy Wetherby UK 🙂 In Google analytics I want to report specifically on Blackberry Mobile traffic next to hour if the day. Whilst this customised report I ripped off did the job @ http://bit.ly/hourdays I only resorted to this after battling with advanced segments thinking I could do the same thing. So my question is please how can I get this report http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/hrs-day-examplecopy_zps4f15d4a1.jpg by building it via advanced segments and not ripping off via http://bit.ly/hourdays Grazie tanto,
Search Behavior | | Nightwing
David0 -
Hi guys.. post-penguin my website coming in and out of serps every other day... what reason for that? ie. #11 --> #300+
We had one of the pre-penguin "unnatural links " messages in WMT - then Penguin hit April 24th/25th.. wee then set to work on Link profile... since 19th May we have had numerous search phrases come 'back' into rank pre-penguin for a day ie.. #5 - #10 and then drop the next.. ie 300+ this has been happening across a wide range of key phrases.... in fact it may well be that the key phrases are added to the serps 'briefly' or for a set amount of time... but our ranking checker checks daily so while it appears to be every other day in and out there may be another pattern... but the question is What is Google doing here and Why? any suggestions?
Search Behavior | | Geminineil1 -
Forced Page Views and Search Engines?
I have a website that was built for the primary purpose of showing HTML 5 capabilities. With this, we have to create forced page views within analytics in order to receive any data about consumer behavior on the site. Are search engines viewing these forced page views as actual webpages? Does it even effect SEO efforts?
Search Behavior | | HughesDigital0 -
Long page - good or bad?
Our attorney wrote a dozen articles that range from 300 to 700 words on various topics of the certain law area. These articles are all placed on our FAQ page with anchored table of contents. This page does frequently come up on the first page of the google when people search for the questions discussed in these articles. 90% of these visits are not local therefore they are not potential clients. Attorney views it more like a community service then a marketing tool. However, I think there might be a problem. People read though the page and close it because usually they can find what they were looking for right there, however GA counts it as bounce because they did not browse to another page. Would large number of bounces hurt our standing with Google? Would it be better to separate the page into multiple pages for each article to make visitors browse?
Search Behavior | | SirMax0 -
Is there way to pull a report by date a backlink was aquired?
I'm trying to figure out if the lift in our traffic has anything to do with a new backlink. Is there a way to get an alert anytime a new site links back to us our pull a backlink report by date.
Search Behavior | | M.Seals0