Updating Publishing Date on Blog Posts
-
Hi,
We have been optimising and re-sharing old blogs posts from our feed. If we were to change the date of publishing on the posts in order to bring them to the top of our feed, would this have any negative impacts on the posts' metadata?
Thanks!
-
Short answer is no, it would not have a negative effect.
The big issue is this: WILL THE URL CHANGE if you update and republish? Hopefully, you have a FLAT URL STRUCTURE that doesn't have dates in the URL. That way you can update your best content (maybe you change the pictures, maybe you research and update the post with new information, maybe the UX has been improved) but publish at the SAME URL.
Doing this is clearly very important for SEO purposes -- you don't "break" URLs and you allow the earned authority of the post to stay intact while also republishing and generating new "pings" to Google to take advantage of Freshness boosts.
Google wants you to update and republish. But you need to update and republish WHEN YOU HAVE IMPROVED the content for the reader. And that's what is important here. That's what we are talking about when you hear about the topic of "Evergreen Content." It's not that the content itself never expires, it's that you have been a good gatekeeper of the content and when it can be updated with fresher, more current information, you have done so with the clear interests of the user in mind.
So with regards to your question, the important point is this: are you updating the date just to keep re-featuring content that you haven't actually made UX changes too? Or are you updating and republishing when you've actually IMPROVED the original content for the reader? If it's the former, personally, this is really a waste of time. But if it's the latter and you have monitored the content and made improvements, then republishing is absolutely the way to go.
Within your Google Search Console make sure to avail yourself of the "Search Queries" report. Sort that by both impressions and clicks. If you see content from the last 28 days or longer that has not accumulated any clicks that's a clear sign that Google "didn't like that content" much. Once you sort for seasonal shifts, use that report to spot the content that didn't connect the first time and then update and republish. That's where you will get the most "bang for the buck" in this area.
Pro Tip: use the tool www.answerthepublic.com to find questions users are asking around the root keywords of your posts and then seek to ask and answer some of those questions in your content. Doing this will promote more "complete" content pieces that Google will eat up and rank accordingly.
Good luck! Hope this was helpful.
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
-
Knowledge base for seo, announcing new articles on blog (dupe content)
Hi all, Im thinking of creating a knowledge base with all many asked questions in my company. This could be a great Link-bait source but also nice ranking opportunities i think. But sometimes some new articles are so actual that i also want to blog them.
Content Development | | mdkay
Can i for example double post them (or post a big excerpt) on the blog and canonicalise it to the KB article?
Will links to the blog have equal value to KB links? And will this work?0 -
Blog.website.com or website.com/blog
Hello, I have a question, in some moz guidelines you can read website.com/blog is better/more recommended than blog.website.com. But when you look at the domain authority you see no difference. blog.website.com gets exact the same domain authority as website.com. So can somebody explain why website.com/blog is really better than blog.website.com? Or is there no difference? Thank you verry much
Content Development | | mystorenl0 -
Can I post my MailChimp articles on my blog without getting hit for duplicate content?
I would like to post my newsletters on my blog, but am afraid of duplicate content since you can click a link on the MailChimp email blast to view the Newsletter online. Is this considered dup content?
Content Development | | RoxBrock0 -
Is Publishing Content from a Book to your Site Considered Duplicate Content?
It is a book we don't own, either. Would you need to somehow find the original and rel=canonical it? Or is this just all around bad to do? Thanks.
Content Development | | ThridHour0 -
What is the BEST way to find guest blog? Use Google under the blog tab??
I want to post articles and get backlink. What is the best practice for finding guest blog? Thank you, BigBlaze
Content Development | | BigBlaze2050 -
Google Blogger Vs. Sub Domain Blog - Authority building.
We are looking into offering blogs for our customers on their current sites that we have built & host for them. My developers have given me 2 options. 1. Sub domain with a hosted blog. 2. A Google Blogger blog with our customers sub-domain pointed to it. In my opinion I feel that a blog hosted on the sub domain is a better option as it is more authority then a Google Blogger blog. What does everyone think? Having a blog hosted on the subdomain would help with authority building vs. a Google Blogger site? Thanks for any help!
Content Development | | DCochrane0 -
What's the best way to include a pdf in your post?
I have some posts where I'd like to include a downloadable pdf....what is the best way seo wise to do this? I was thinking of just putting the file on my server and than just including a link to download it, but I'm thinking there's probably a better way. Any thoughts?
Content Development | | NoahsDad0 -
Promoting external blogs on our own
From time to time we're promoting blog posts written by our employees on their external blogs (separate domains) to our official company blog. This happens when the content is valuable for our visitors and it's worth to be shared. The post is copied in its entirety and we add the sentence This post was originally published on <external blog="" post="" link="">at the top. Will this be considered duplicate content? Should we add anything else to the republished blog post? Thanks!</external>
Content Development | | lgrozeva0