To Date or Not To Date (Your Blog Posts)

January 23, 2012 - Last Modified: March 29, 2014 by Vernessa Taylor 1,964

All around the blogosphere we read stacks of articles on how to make WordPress better, from heading off fatal problems that could break our baby to enticing it to make our money-making dreams come true. Somewhere in the middle of that spectrum sits your date, virtually ignored. To date or not to date, that is the question!

The Dating Game

What if you woke up, looked at the calendar on the wall, and all the blocks were blank? Or you glanced at your smartphone, only to discover everything date-related had disappeared? You wouldn’t think that little handheld was so smart, would you?

We know why knowing the date is important: appointments, deadlines, doctor visits, payday . . . So why do we think hiding the date on articles and blog posts is such a great idea?

I think the reason most people leave the date off is so that their content won’t appear “dated.” Dated is synomymous with “old,” and who wants their content to appear old when someone arrives for the first time? ”Old” online is a faulty anachronism: it’s the difference between ancient and antique. An antique is a desirable form of something from another time. It might be old, but it’s valuable and considered priceless by some.

Keeping That Date

The choice is always yours. Let’s look at some reasons to keep the date and make sure it is readily visible when someone drops in.

Being Relevant

Imagine stumbling across a news story that said something like “breaking news!” … You read the story and don’t realize this was something that happened over 2 years ago. — DialMe

“DialMe” makes a solid point in Timestamping Articles and Posts. Since your About Me or Contact pages are more or less static content, they don’t necessarily need to show when they were published. But adding a date to blog posts and articles will give readers an opportunity to decide for themselves if your content is relevant to their needs. It could also be the deciding factor in whether your visitor leaves a comment or asks an important question.

Being A Standup Kinda Guy (or Gal)

Content that has been around for a while could be considered anchor, pillar, or evergreen content — the kind of content that stands up to the passing of time. It provides information that is as relevant to the current time as it was when it was first written. A first-timer who lands on your article will be grateful to you — if you provide the answer she was seeking — no matter when it was written.

Examples of evergreen content include articles on how to increase customer referrals, hurricane survival tips, or how to leave a positive blogging legacy. Because this type of content is timely (and priceless), showing the date is less important than adding a date to blog posts where timestamping matters more.

Being on Time

I recently did a roundup of the best blog monetizing strategies over the past year. What if none of the articles had dates? My research would be screwed and my results would have been skewed! In fact, one of the strategies is about traffic generating contests and contests always have a start date and finite ending — so if the date of the post is left off, it could confuse would-be contestants.

Hey, Where’s My Date?

Blame it on the theme

Some themes don’t make it easy to add the date. Either the complexity of navigating options or the sheer number of options could effectively hide the feature. At the time of writing, I’m using the comprehensive Suffusion Theme by Sayontan Sinha. When I first installed it, it took me forever to locate the “show date” feature! However, once found, I was delighted to see a number of options for both displaying the date and leaving it hidden.

Lots of places to stash your date …

Your theme might allow you the freedom of displaying the date in lots of different ways or it might constrain you to only one or two locations. Here are some possible locations:

above the blog post
directly under the article title
a small icon on the left side
a small icon on the right side

Are you the one looking for a date?

What if you’re doing research for a topic and find an article you’d like to reference but it doesn’t have a date in one of the usual places? If you don’t see the date at first glance, try peeking in these unusual places.

in the sidebar
at the very bottom of the post
in the footer

Lastly, check the comments . . .

Why would you check the comments? They might have a clue! Check the date of the first comment as well as the last comment. The first one will give you an idea of when the post was written. The last one will give an idea of whether or not the content is still relevant.

This almost brings us to the end of our time together …

Ditching Your Date

Like most stories in life, there are two sides to this one, too. In the dating game, the case can also be made against showing the date or timestamp on your blog posts, articles, and tutorials.

Are you hiding something from me?

I already mentioned how certain pages don’t really need a date. That’s not so much about hiding the date as it is about making a practical decision. We also covered evergreen or pillar content, so you could turn the date off on those, too, if you want. But next up is a case in which these fellows really do have something to hide! Read on …

Uh, Google made me do it!

We decided that more often than not, we would want to hide the date . . . But . . . we wanted an option to keep the date on a post if we felt readers would benefit from knowing the date of publication. — Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson and his buddy Ben Hunt claimed that Google slapped them for having old content, until they realized their clickthrough rates were actually suffering because they had dates on the older articles. The gist of it is that Google now displays a date alongside search results (SERPs); thus, someone encountering your relevant (evergreen) article that is dated several years ago will be less inclined to visit your post if they assume your information is outdated.

Once they figured out why the SERPs were causing them pain, they created a tutorial on how to remove the dates from SERP Snippets.

Time to Pop the Question!

Adding dates to blog posts and articles assures visitors that your content is relevant to their needs. Yet, sometimes it might be appropriate to hide the dates.

Well, it’s time to say goodbye, but before you go, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this dating game . . . (and thanks for reading!)

Do you include dates on your blog posts or do you leave them off? Why?
Have you ever thought about it one way or the other?
What are other reasons to add a date or skip including them?

About Vernessa Taylor

Follow @CoachNotesBlog

Vernessa Taylor is a micro and small business champion -- helping professionals, solopreneurs and consultants choose and use automation and smart technologies to build and manage their businesses. A techie with a quirky sense of humor, she writes serious stuff at CoachNotes Blog.

{ 53 Responses }

Askme Queryblog says:

I should concede I am one of those individuals that gives less consideration regarding articles composed 4 or 5 years prior, however I see those with no date with suspicion since I have no chance to get of knowing how relavent the data is.
Crotilda says:

Thank you for this article. I believe dates are crucial in all one does. Sometimes you could be needing current state of affairs on some subject, you come across an article but no date. This really makes one wonder for what reasons the writer did not leave a date. Dating reminds us of important occasions that we cannot afford to miss.
Ephantus Murimi says:

Dates are important for future reference and so i don’t see any reason why they should be hidden. Thanks a lot for sharing this useful article.
Abby says:

Date is very crucial to any form of communication. Its through the date of publication that one can trace how recent information is. In this matter I suggest all bloggers should ensure their content are well addressed to the target audience and for sure include dates. In this we can be able to see the serious and how the information is vital to the reader
Lelala says:

Hey Vernessa, Great insights presented here! Thanks for that Post! Regards, Lelala
Martin Cooney says:

Came here on a Google search and read the post and comments. I was looking for opinion but at the end of the day, I switched off dates and looked at my blog as if I was a one of my readers. My immediate thought was a feeling of dishonesty and that's certainly never going to be the type of relationship I want to have with visitors to my site. Though I think the 'refresh of old posts' is certainly a great thought. Thank you for everyone's opinion and comments too.
Allan says:

I bounce off a blog immediately when there is no date. Frankly, it annoys me as it's standard protocol for blogs. You won't find a major media property omit dates, and most, if not all, top tier bloggers date their posts. Failure to date a blog post is simply bad blog decorum. Period.
Samuel says:

I guess it is always a preference. I prefer to see dates, and to put it up there sees that is updated or plain old. On evergreen content, I think it doesn't matter. I think on those articles it doesn't necessarily need to be there. Great article!
Sagar says:

After Google introduced the freshness algorithm which affected nearly 35% of searches has put me into a dilemma whether I should add dates to blog or remove them, also someone suggested me as I have a tech blog, to remove dates from SERPs to increase CTR. But for now I go with the option of dating posts.
GS says:

I am running a test on dates. Removed them all. Just trying to find out whether they influence traffic and bounce rate. I am guessing that the bounce rate will be hurt.
Abhi Balani says:

Sometimes I search for the date on which the article is published, on other blogs, when I'm read some stats or counts post. But never thought about it for my blog. I have date on one blog and not on my second blog. Reason? Default. :D
David says:

In the company where I worked, all documents had to be dated along with revision dates for any changes to the document. There is no debate with the company policy. On the Internet, it is a free choice and there is often confusion where dates are omitted.
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hi David - Isn't it strange how the internet has made publishing to a widespread audience so much easier but also changes "business as usual"? I'd rather avoid the confusion so I still add a date to my articles. Thanks for your comment.
Gera says:

Hi Vernessa, I understand both sides of the coin about dates, but really I don't like not having a date in a normal blog. Perhaps you're reading a post with sensitive material and it's outdated, but you don't know. In some cases, even the comments have no date at all. Therefore there is no clue of when the post was published. I understand in evergreen posts that maybe a date isn’t necessary and it's better for SEO. Cheers, Gera
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hey Gera! That's something I've wondered about: why comments would not have a date? I've seen that on some of the blogs I read on a regular basis, even some business-related blogs. Maybe we ought to raise the question whenever we encounter them, eh?
DiTesco says:

IMO, dates are important, and quite frankly I really don't see any reason why they should be hidden, unless they are in fact "static" or some sort of "Evergreen Content", which in my opinion at a certain point and time would probably require some bit of updating.. The trick you mentioned is actually the one I found to be best when looking for dates - in the comment section. Worst is when there are no comments at all :)
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hi DiTesco, You brought up something I don't think anyone else has mentioned: updating evergreen content. Even time-sensitive articles sometimes need updating, and the update could use a date! (Remember the crazy CommentLuv Premium launch?) Yep, no date and no comments? We'll have to resort to using Ileane's trick with the Twitter search! ;)
Tushar says:

I believe in putting the dates in my post. There is no harm in telling your readers how often you post and how regular you are at blogging
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hi Tushar, Numerous commenters have mentioned being "suspicious" when there is no date. Depending on why there isn't a date, it could be a matter of ethics, of trying to hide something. (Of course, that's not always the case.) I agree with you about doing it for the comfort of our readers.
Nick says:

Hi Vernessa, The date issue is a very big debate. Personally I give less attention to articles written many years ago, especially when I'm looking for product reviews. However I'm pretty suspicious too for the posts with no date on, due to full ignorance of how fresh and relevant is the information I'm getting. That's tricky isn't it :-) Thanks Vernessa for sharing your insight.
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hey Nicky, You're right, it is kinda tricky. Product reviews absolutely need a date, at least in my opinion. Features change and without knowing the time-frame, people can be led astray (either positively or negatively). +1 for "suspicion" ... Thanks for your comment!
Mitz Pantic says:

It annoys me when I cannot find a date on an article! Only on current news blogs. Maybe I have a problem though. But on my own blogs dates are not shown on the article because I have timeless information. Some articles are 5 years old and still are valid but showing the date in these cases lessens the impact of the article.
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hi Mitz, Nice to see you here! You make a good case for not showing the date on evergreen or pillar content. Still, I'd be one of those persons looking high and low for the date, especially if it was an article I wanted to cite. (In fact, I cited one of your articles recently! :) )
Hooker says:

I must admit I am one of those people that gives less attention to articles written 4 or 5 years ago, but I view those with no date with suspicion because I have no way of knowing how relavent the information is. I for one would like the choice of deciding for myself.
- Vernessa Taylor says:
  
  Hi Hooker, Relevance is probably the bottom. But like you say, you view articles with suspicion if they don't have a date, even if the date isn't important to you at that time.
Jeevan Jacob John says:

Hey Vernessa, Great ideas presented here! I have always included date in my blog (helps me to keep up on schedule and also motivate me to write a post - if I am behind schedule) and like you said in the article, helps my readers too :-) I think it is important to include date in blogs about blogging. Because, often in blogging, we write time specific things like reports, contest related posts etc. :-) But, I never realized that there was a SEO disadvantage to it. Thanks for informing!
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Hey Jeevan, Isn't it amazing how SEO has invaded (I mean, is a part of) everything we do online with respect to our blogs? If this is still holding true, I hope we'll see more "case studies" or tutorials on it. Thanks for dropping by! :)
  - Jeevan Jacob John says:
    
    Yes, that is true. When I started blogging, I didn't care much about SEO. But, right now, I have to. If I want my blog to get more traffic (And Search engines do play a big role). No problem! Thanks for the reply :D
Mark says:

I recycle my old posts and re-post them. I re-date them and give them a new date and totally revise the information and make sure that it is up to date and relevant. This way they never get classified as digital garbage. Additionally, the URL remains the same. Mark
- Trish Jones says:
  
  I agree with you Mark. This is the best way to keep content updated whilst still keeping your relationship with your clients.
doug_eike says:

When I started blogging, I put the dates on all of my posts. Then I decided that all of my articles would be as evergreen as possible, so I now leave the dates off. I do find it irritating, though, when I go to other blogs and find obviously time-sensitive material without dates. In the future, if I write something that is likely to become dated, I'll include the date in an obvious spot. Thanks for the insights!
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Doug, it can be a bit of a balancing act. When writing content with an eye to it being timeless, as you do, leaving the date off seems reasonable. I struggled with that at some point but found a satisfactory compromise: I put the date in an easily accessible location at the bottom of the post. That way, for articles that didn't appear to need it prominently displayed, it was (is) unobtrusive. But for anyone who needs the date for reference, they won't have to look too hard to see it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
David says:

This is always a big debate, and it is easy to see it from both angles, but I prefer dating for two reasons. First of all "blog" stands for "web log". Let's not lose site of that. It is a chronological diary of sorts. If it is not, it is not a blog, it is just a website with pages of content (which is fine, too). But why run a blog that isn't a blog. The timeliness of the information is what makes it a blog, and that timeliness needs to be identified. Which brings me to my second reason. As a reader, if I don't see a date, I have no idea whether the information is current. No date, no trust. Period.
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Hi David, I just read your excellent article on social survival over on ProBlogger. Thorough and extremely useful. :) Thanks for the reminder of a blog being a chronology of sorts (and chronologies are generally date-based). It seems that "trust" and "credibility" are reverberating themes here in the comments.
Stan says:

On a normal blog it's always better to have dates. I'm thinking this strictly as a blog reader, i like to see the dates. But it's true that on some types of blogs the dates are better left off for higher conversions.
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Stan, you know the first time I ever heard about dates relating to conversions was when reading the articles by Dan and Ben. Have you had the opportunity to test how this affects your blog? (Maybe I'll dig around in this a bit further.)
  - Stan says:
    
    I haven't really done any tests, first time i went into business i read a lot on the forums and made a sort of rules book i decided to follow. I noticed a lot of marketers said it's better to remove the dates, so i put this one in my book to follow. Basically i took it for granted, but i don't believe it was a mistake.
Sharon says:

Great topic, Vernessa. Since I do a lot of research online, I always look for the date. I get worried when people try to hide it and I'm less likely to use the site as a resource. Like Gail, I usually look for comments or check the Twitter button stats for the date of first tweet. [PS. Completely unrelated, so please delete when resolved], but my name has three words and the CLP settings are obviously set to allow two, triggering a warning.]
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Hey Sharon, Maybe Hesham will see your comment about CommentLuv Premium and make the adjustment. I saw your comment about that somewhere else recently. I'm making a mental note to check my own CLP settings. Research is definitely one of the biggest reasons to display the date. I think you introduce another factor to consider: credibility. This becomes especially important in the face of content scraping, and to a lesser extent, re-purposed content (like using articles from a directory like EzineArticles).
  - Sharon says:
    
    Credibility is a biggie, Vernessa. Sometimes those scrapers are so good that you have to read the whole article to find out that something is off. And if you're using a post with facts and figures as a resource, you want to know when those figures were current, otherwise as a writer you risk putting incorrect information out there.
Dave Lucas says:

You just shot yourself in the foot, Vernessa, An oldm blog post is not an "antique" - it is an outdated piece of digital garbage - unless it is a scientific document or research paper. There are two blogs I view only via Google Reader. One is by a very popular and influential blogger (who recently has been wondering why his visitors numbers are down and why people rarely leave comments, but these are not important here...) The Other is a minor-league C-List blog. If you try to visit either the conventional way of typing in the URL, you'll have no idea what's going on when you get there. A mishmash of articles, some as old as three or more years. The only way to get the latest article is via RSS. To not display a date on a blog post is tantamount to a newspaper not displaying the date on an article. It will ensure that readers will shun you rblog and those who otherwise may have used a post as a reference won't - because there is no clue as to how old (and possibly inaccurate) the information may be.
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Hi Dave, I beg to differ. Certainly you can agree that every blog post is not about breaking news or the latest gadget. Some may not be about anything that is time-sensitive at all. That doesn't necessarily relegate them to the garbage heap (unless they truly are garbage, but that doesn't have much to do with the date). Here's an example from yesterday. In searching for help on how to properly setup a "301 Redirect," I came across numerous "old" tutorials and examples for how to create a .htaccess file. From the oldest to the newest, the information was absolutely correct, had not changed in 5-6 years, and was as relevant today as it was when it was first written. The older tutorials came up because they were anchors, evergreen. We're really in agreement about having a date - your newspaper example is on point. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Ileane says:

Hi Vernessa, I absolutely include the date on my blog posts. I have a couple other tricks up my sleeve for finding the dates when someone tries to hide it. One is an extension that I use for chrome that only shows recent tweets. If I run across a post and I can't find the date in any of the places you mentioned, I'll use the extension and if the post hasn't been tweeted lately, there's a good chance it's old. There are other forms of content to consider as well. Fore example what about YouTube videos and Podcasts? There's not too much chance you can hide the date on those. However, if your content is really evergreen, people won't really care that you posted a video 3 years ago - especially if it has a high view count. It's interesting that you mentioned the plugin that will hide the date in the snippets. When I'm searching Google I use the date range option to make sure I get current results. Do you think the plugin has any impact on those results as well? Let me know what you think. Thanks for the post, this is an excellent topic!
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Ileane, you brought up another entire type of content to consider! How right you are to include podcasts and videos. When you get a chance, will you drop by and leave us a direct link to the Chrome extension? I can see how useful that will be to ferreting out dates. The snippets: Instead of a plugin, that is a small piece of PHP code Ben and Dan put together. In their tutorial, they share the code for removing the date and tell us where to put the code. Thanks for sharing your tips.
  - Ileane says:
    
    Vernessa, the extension is called The Tweet Button and here's the link https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mgijibikknhlgimmfbaldhabkfojkelp Ironically, I never use it to send a Tweet (I have Buffer and Timely for that) I only use it to check for recent tweets. Didn't mean to call it a plugin - do you know what impact the PHP code has (if any) when the date range is selected in Google search?
    - Vernessa Talor says:
      
      Thanks for the link to the extension, Ileane. No, can't say I know the impact the PHP has but maybe someone with a better grasp of PHP than me will chime in.
      - Ileane says:
        
        Ok, no problem. It's not that I want to use it. I just want to make sure that it's "useless" when I'm searching. :)
Gail Gardner says:

I really, really dislike this strategy of hiding the dates on posts. Like you I do a lot of research and am one of the most link happy bloggers around so I need to know when a post was written - especially if I know there have been changes related to the topic. Dates are also important when sharing a blogger's content on social media. Every once in a while I go *oops* when I realize I just shared something that was dated. Sometimes I do share evergreen posts on purpose - but I usually add "Oldie but Goodie" or "Older but still relevant" to my shares so the folks that think only today's posts are important know to skip and not rant at me over it. What I do is look for dated comments - but if the post has no comments or even the comments have no dates then figuring out how old a post is can be really problematic. Message to bloggers: If you don't date your posts they're less likely to get shared and linked to - especially if the topic may be time-sensitive - and we can't tell how old it is. What if it was recent? We wouldn't know! If you only write a post once a month maybe no date can be forgiven - but if you're a serious blogger PLEASE date your posts!
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Gail, the impact on social media is a situation the average person might not consider. (In the same vein, Ileane mentioned using a specific browser extension.) Your strategy of adding “Oldie but Goodie” or “Older but still relevant” to your social media shares, for the express purpose of calling attention to the dates, is another great tip. Thanks for weighing in today.
Ejaz Alam says:

Good idea though. Actually there are two types of blog readers, one like me who see the date first because always lookin for something new and some who don't care for dates. Another suggestion is that if you have a blog which has already lot of pages indexed and having good traffic then its ok if you ditch the date, but for new blogs you needa keep it intact. Vernessa Taylor has really explained from every angle indeed. Thanks for another good post.
- Vernessa Talor says:
  
  Hi Ejaz, yes good point. I had not considered removing the date from older posts (pillar, anchor, evergreen content) on my site. Two things have conditioned me to keep it intact: coming from the business world where documentation is absolutely necessary and returning to college (in my old age) and being reminded to cite sources. So, like both Ileane and Gail mentioned, I always keep the date and I'm always looking for the date. I agree with you though, new blogs probably need it when they first start out, even if they get rid of it later.
  - Gail Gardner says:
    
    Why do you care so much about the date and looking for "something new" Ejaz? Wisdom and quality are timeless and how long it is between when something was published and when you read it irrelevant.
  - Lisa says:
    
    Interesting, I have always dated mine and never thought of removing the old ones. May consider that one.

To Date or Not To Date (Your Blog Posts)

The Dating Game