Wordpress Old Articles date - Update or Not
-
Hey there!
Been reading around and I believe that there isn't a perfect answer to this question, but I surely want to know your opinion.
It's a fact that google likes new content but also updated content, so whats your position concerning the wordpress articles. Meaning, when I decide to update articles from 2011 on its content, should I also update the date?
If I make a search and an article from 2011 will be shown, its unlikely that I will click on it...
So that you can understand my point.
-
Maybe I will leave the date as it was then...
Based on minimal changes, I would do this. A minimal update doesn't need to sit in the background though. Remember to get busy and let everyone know when you update something
-Andy
-
Yes, my only point is to tell user that it was updated and not being penalized by google.
Sometimes the changes are minimal, like in 2011 we recommended X and Y products and now we recommend the Z product because X and Y were discontinued.
Maybe I will leave the date as it was then...
-
I would be tempted to add an 'updated' date and leave the original posted date in place. This way you satisfy both readers and Google.
The only time I would update the actual posted date, is if the article was very significantly different - to the point it wasn't that recognisable as what it used to be.
Get busy sharing the post socially again and make sure you advise people that it has been updated to reflect new data.
-Andy
-
If you do this - do it for the reader, not Google.
If the article has been refreshed with some great value and you think your audience would benefit from seeing it again, then I would update the date. However, if you're trying to game Google by making out that the content/URL is new and fresh (by trying to take advantage of its freshness algorithm), not only would that be frowned upon, but I think I'm right in saying Google has clamped down on that effectiveness quite a lot since 2013.
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
-
I allow authority sites to republish my blog articles, which then outrank me
Hey everyone. This is my first question here, I apologize if it has been covered before. I have a health and nutrition blog [authority nutrition] that has been up since December 1st, 2012. I've managed to write quite a few viral articles which have given me a bunch of natural links and a domain authority of 49, which I think is pretty great for such a new site. Haven't done any link building and everything is 100% white hat. Getting good rankings and good traffic already, so I can't complain. My only (1st world) problem is that sometimes major authority sites (DA of 70-95) republish my content. I always say yes if they ask me first, but some of them just republish without even asking. My articles are always indexed on my blog before they get republished, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. These sites always clearly link to the original URL, but they often tend to outrank me for the keywords I was targeting in the articles. They tend to rank in the top 5, but my original article is nowhere to be found. I plan on continuing to allow these sites to republish as I get powerful links and good traffic from them, but it's a bit frustrating that I don't seem to get the credit as the original source. I've already set up Google Authorship, but it doesn't seem to help. Is there anything I can do to make sure Google recognizes my article as the original and chooses to rank my site instead of the authority site that simply republished my article?
Content Development | | kriistjanm1 -
How can I influence my colleagues to write blog articles for my company?
Hi, I am trying to get my colleagues work in different department to write an article about their expertise area. They are not aware that what type of benefits they would get if they become an online author. I am trying to make a list of reason why they should participate. I was wondering anyone else would also make any recommendation what i should tell them. So far, my points are: Wider your online presence beyond Facebook and LinkedIn Go extra mile and share your thoughts **Show your expertise ** Reach nationwide readers Thanks!
Content Development | | Rubix0 -
Is joomla better than wordpress let me know your thoughts
Hi, i am wondering if wordpress is better than joomla. We have been having a talk and been wondering if our main site www.in2town.co.uk should stay in joomla or if we should think about moving it over to wordpress. I would like to hear what people think, if wordpress is better than joomla for a magazine or if we should stick with joomla and forget about moving over to wordpress. It would be great to hear people's opinion and maybe some examples of popular magazines or newspaper sites that are using wordpress instead of joomla. It would also be interesting to know how hard or how easy it is to move across to wordpress from joomla. Would value your thoughts on this issue and find out which is better for seo. many thanks
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Wordpress Security and Alternatives
No matter how secure we try to make our wordpress blogs they still got hacked. We recently got hacked(server level hacking, javascript insertion that took our server down, through the askimet plugin), anyway there was nothing really showing in the front end, no inserted links and nothing suspicious looking code. Oh well we are changing the passwords now and going through and deleting the javascript. The problem im facing is that i am handling over 100 blogs, so its very time consuming to do this. I know that once or twice a year everyone goes through a wordpress crisis but we really cant afford nor have the resources to fix it all the time. Are there any alternatives to wordpress blogs(as good as wordpress). Wordpress has been showing good results so far so it works as far as SEO goes, but we are trying to figure out what to do in order to not get hacked. Besides alternatives id like to know if there are any work arrounds to not get hacked with little maintenance needed. Any tips?
Content Development | | CMTM0 -
Best way to advertise an article jam
What is the best way to post an article jam - i think it will appeal to article writing people who are kinda bored with, well, writing content?
Content Development | | GardenBeet0 -
Fixing Wordpress URLs
I just redid our blog and I am using permalinks. I have the custom structure set to /%year%/%postname%/ and catagory - blank. When I run the XENU Link Slueth, it shows all my blog urls as broken, but the links work fine. However the url structure is www.example.com/2010/10/20/ and so on. I am worried about duplicate content too. Do you know how I can fix the url structure so only 1 or 2 urls are used?
Content Development | | hfranz0 -
Please help me stop google indexing https pages on my wordpress site
I added SSL to my wordpress blog because that was the only way to get a dedicated IP address for my site at my host. Now I am noticing Google has started indexing posts both as http and https. Can some one please help how to force google not to index https as I am sure its like having duplicate content. All help is appreciated. So far I have added this to top of htaccess file: RewriteEngine on Options +FollowSymlinks RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^443$ RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ robots_ssl.txt And added robots_ssl.txt with following: User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: / User-agent: * Disallow: / But https pages are still being indexed. Please help.
Content Development | | rookie1230 -
Transfer existing blog to wordpress.org or start a new blog
My blog sits on the wordpress domain http://gardenbeet.wordpress.com/ - it has good page rank and has around 300-400 visits per day - should i move it to my website or Should I start a new blog? i have a page set up for it on my website but it now has good rank http://www.gardenbeet.com/content/design-blog.html - and now want to keep this URL am a bit confused - what is the best strategy in terms of SEO?
Content Development | | GardenBeet1