{"id":13344,"date":"2010-09-02T22:24:21","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T20:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=13344"},"modified":"2010-09-02T22:24:21","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T20:24:21","slug":"keep-you-blog-posts-dated-always-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/02\/keep-you-blog-posts-dated-always-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep you blog posts dated. Always! Please."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I came across this article<\/a> in Weblog Tools Collection<\/a>, which asks the question of whether you should remove dates from your blog posts.<\/p>\n

If the content on your blog is timeless and you could increase the amount of traffic coming to your blog from search engines, would you remove the post and comment dates?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While I appreciate a good habit of questioning best practices, I have a very strong feeling on this one. \u00a0Never ever ever remove dates from the articles and comments. \u00a0There is no such thing as “timeless content”. \u00a0 Dates are always relevant. \u00a0Content easily outlives the author, the source, and anything that was considered “timeless” at the moment of writing. \u00a0Time is a very important dimension. \u00a0It is a crucial bit of metadata. \u00a0Don’t lose it.<\/p>\n

And on top of that, don’t try to make that kind of decisions for your visitor. \u00a0It might appear rude and offensive. \u00a0Let the visitor decide for himself if he wants to click through to your article from the search engine or not. \u00a0Be transparent. \u00a0Always let the visitor know when the article was written, which times it refers to, and when it was commented. \u00a0Publish the date nearby. \u00a0Also use it in the URLs whenever possible.<\/p>\n

Even structure your text to refer to specific time periods (“March 2010”, “July 4th, 1985”, “Stone Age”, etc). \u00a0Don’t use vague constructs like “yesterday”, “last year”, “when I was a child”. \u00a0You never know how your content will reach its audience. \u00a0Some people will find your article in full and on your site. \u00a0Some will see an excerpt in their RSS feeder. \u00a0Some will get just a quote emailed to them by a friend. \u00a0 The context might change, and the “timeless”-ness can disappear.<\/p>\n

If you are still not convinced, try a practical example. \u00a0Find some “timeless content” from before (last year, last decade, last century) and see how well it stands the test of times. \u00a0Now break it in pieces and look again. \u00a0 Still there? \u00a0Still timeless? \u00a0Share your findings (both positive and negative) in the comments.<\/p>\n

And in the meantime, keep your articles dated.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

I came across this article in Weblog Tools Collection, which asks the question of whether you should remove dates from your blog posts. If the content on your blog is timeless and you could increase the amount of traffic coming to your blog from search engines, would you remove the post and comment dates? While … Continue reading Keep you blog posts dated. Always! Please.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,62,1334,60],"tags":[29,239],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-13344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-technology","category-web-work","category-wordpress","tag-blogging","tag-time"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t