Dealing with updating blog posts
-
I run a travel and culture blog which means that I write about a lot of upcoming events which recur each year. Usually I title (and slug) the page with the event name and date.
When it comes to update the article the next year, sometimes it's as little as changing the date, other times more has changed and it needs to be substantially re-written.
Until now, what I've done is update the title, content, and then re-posted (sometimes altering the slug where it's needed to be done). Sometimes it works fine and Google keeps me ranking well, but other times the changes dont get such a great response.
I have these options (as far as I can see). Which do you think is best?
1. To create a new article each year and put a message at the start of the previous one to say, click here to read about the 2012 event
2. To continue what I'm doing updating, changing the slug, and re-posting (ie changing the date).
3. To write a new article and insert a 301 redirect.
I need to make sure the article appears as a new article in my RSS feed and also on the homepage.
Look forward to your ideas!
Thanks
-
Wow - now I feel like my idea has been blessed by a god (Lead SEO at SEOMoz).....feeling quite chuffed actually!
-
That sounds like a great idea. I'll try it. I have a fair number of readers coming through the RSS feed so don't really want to lose that.
I'll try it and let you guys know!
-
I like Gary's suggestion - having one page for the event over multiple years means that you're not creating a new page every time, so the page can continue to benefit from the links it accrues year over year (changing the slug means the post loses its link equity every time).
I can't find any statement from Google saying that changing the publish date of a piece of content isn't allowed when the content is updated. I think in this case it should be fine since your intent isn't to manipulate - it's an update page and a new post.
The other solutions would be to redirect all of your past event pages to the new one every time you make a new one - this would preserve a portion of your link equity - or not to update the publish date (I don't know how much traffic you get from RSS readers so that would be your call).
-
Ok. Thanks anyway!
Anyone?
-
I wasn't aware the Google didn't like a modified "published date" perhaps someone with more knowledge on that than me can help? Sorry, I believe in "knowing your limits" and I have no personal experience with that being a problem (I am not saying it is not, just that I don't know!).
-
Thanks for the reply
I dont necessarily need to keep previous years content - the issue with that way is that to get the updated post to go into the RSS I'd need to play with the publish date and that isn't something Google likes, right?
Thanks
-
How about you maintain a single "page", i.e. a consistent URL for the "current year", so a slug of something like
-my-event-event-name (no dates or anything like that in the slug) then each year
1.) Put the new/revised content on that URL. Include the year in title, content, description etc.
2.) Create a new post and copy the last year's content to that one including the historic date and link to it (if you want) so a URL a bit like -my-event-event-name-2011
That way, you always have the latest content on a consistent URL. You can then maintain all the links you accrue over time to a single URL, just update content each year and store all of the past posts on "newly created" URLS each year. No matter whether they rank or not, presumably....
Gary
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
-
Is this blog running on the Genesis Framework?
Hi all, WordPress isn't my area of specialty in terms of themes and identifying what a blog might currently be using. Here's the link: http://www.pens.com/blog I've had one developer tell me this blog is on the Genesis framework and another one told me it is not. Can someone weigh in here and also give me some tips on how to know one way or the other? If it is not on the Genesis Framework, can you provide any helpful links/tutorials on how to get this blog onto the Genesis Framework? We want to be able to use Yoast SEO and apparently our current theme will not allow us to do so. Thanks in advance! Dana
On-Page Optimization | | danatanseo0 -
To change or not to change. DO we update our HTTP page to HTTPS? especially those with basic forms (phone, email, name)??
I recently went to a conference where a speaker strongly urged us to migrate to HTTPS before January 2017. I don't see any other sites referencing to make the switch before January 2017. whats the deal? 😉
On-Page Optimization | | millenniumsi0 -
How to transfer old WP blog to new URL
I have a 9 year old WP website with a WP blog which is still getting 300+ new visitors a day even though I have not written a blog for 5 years and have not updated content. Some posts have over 25,000 links. However the Moz analytics is fraught with significant errors-404 redirects, page not found, dup content, no metatags, title too long etc. I was totally inexperienced 5 years ago and made many errors. However the basic content was sound and still is producing new visitors. I am starting a new ecommerce website using the same name but the URL and server will be different. I want to transfer my WP blog to the new site. I am concerned however that bringing the posts over can create the same errors on the new site. If I update all of the blogs on the old site using Yoast before transferring the blog to the new site will that help. I suppose I could check those flagged dup content and only transfer one of that category?
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680 -
Best way to separate blogs, media coverage, and press releases on WordPress?
I'm curious what some of your thoughts are on the best way to handle the separation of blog posts, from press releases stories, from media coverage. With 1 WordPress installation, we're obviously utilizing the Posts for these types of content. It seems obvious to put press releases into a "press release" category and media coverage into a "media coverage" category.... but then what about blog posts? We could put blog posts into a "blog" category, but I hate that. And what about actual blog categories? I tried making sub-categories for the blog category which seemed like it was going to work, until the breadcrumbs looked all crazy. Example: Homepage > Blog > Blog > Sub-Category Homepage = http://www.example.com First 'Blog' = http://www.example.com/blog Second 'Blog' = http://www.example.com/category/blog Sub-Category = http://www.example.com/category/blog/sub-category This just doesn't seem very clean and I feel like there has to be a better solution to this. What about post types? I've never really worked with them. Is that the solution to my woes? All suggestions are welcome! EDIT: I should add that we would like the URL to contain /blog/ for blog posts /media-coverage/ for media coverage, and /press-releases/ for press releases. For blog posts, we don't want the sub-category to be in the URL.
On-Page Optimization | | Philip-DiPatrizio0 -
Do I need a unique post meta description
Just wondering what the best practise is for unique meta desriptions on blogs. When I post a blog on my wordpress, clicking the title takes you to an individual page with that blog on it. I understand how important the title tag is on this page but when I create a meta description: a) is it useful? b) Should it be unique or is it ok to copy part of the post and insert that as the meta tag? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | acs1111 -
Panda Update and Website Content
According to the Panda Update information, website content that is or was written to help with SEO is now not the best idea, but content that is very informative and interesting is the way to go. But if you have an Ecommerce Website how can you write informative bookmarking content, if each product you sell is very similar, and the information for the product is just details about the product. Its hard to write good content for an eCommerce website. We have 300+ products that are all similar, but if we would write content about each product, it would be similar and not interesting to read. People just want to purchase the product, not read a bunch of content. How do websites that sell many products and not content driven websites rank well in search?
On-Page Optimization | | hfranz0 -
Strategy for dealing with keyword variants
I'd like your opinion on the strategy of dealing with key phrase variants: I've got a page that is ranking in the top 10 and top 3 for about 10 different variations of the same phrase. Seomoz gives it terrible grades for all but one of the keyphrases. Which course of action do you recommend : ----------- create new pages ------------ Create new pages for each variant and get them to grade A. If I go this route what sort of cross linking scheme should I use between this pages? ---------- improve existing page ----------- Try to make my single page rank better for all the phrases by doing extra on-page work so the page has a better grade for all of the variants? Many thanks for your ideas and opinions.
On-Page Optimization | | PillarMarketing0 -
Blog content on homepage - Dupe Content Penalty?
Hi All, I am working on a website which has a blog at domain.com/blog/ On the homepage they are currently looping the latest 5 blog posts in a 'Latest News' tab. Is this therefore classed as dupe content, and would this be penalized by Google? Should I recommend they use the excerpts instead of full articles and simply loop the excerpts on the homepage? The website is built on WordPress. Thanks, Woody
On-Page Optimization | | seowoody1