Should I Include The Date On A Blog Post?

Date First Published: 18th April 2023

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Article Type: Computer Questions & Answers

Difficulty Level: 4/10

Learn about whether you should include the date on a blog post in this article.

The short answer to this question is that it is always recommended to include the date. On a blog post, the date the post is published is a useful piece of information. But, there are also some places where you shouldn't include it. This article explains why it is important to include the date on a blog post and where you should include it if you decide to add it to your blog posts.

Why Is It Important To Include The Date?

There are three main reasons why it is important to include the date on a blog post, including:

It will tell your readers how long ago you published that post

It is important to include the date published on a blog post because it will tell your readers how long ago you published that post and whether it will still be up to date and relevant today. Without a date, there is no way for readers to know this. Especially if it is time-sensitive information, like news or an event, they won't be able to know whether it is up to date or outdated. Even on basic pages that nearly all websites have, like the privacy policy page, you should still add the date you last updated it as this will allow visitors to know the last time you made a change to that page.

It can help you keep track of your blogging

It can also be used to help you keep track of how often you are blogging and create a timeline of your content. Without adding the date, you might forget when you published your posts and lose track of how often you have been posting.

You can consider including two dates in a blog post. The two dates are a 'date published' and a 'last updated' date. The 'date published' date is the date you first published your blog post and the 'last updated' date is the date you last updated your page. You don't have to include both dates, but if you only decide to include one, it is best to include the date you first published it and say that it might have been updated since then.

It can be used by search engines in the description of your page

Search engines, like Google, can recognise the date on a page and it can show up in the search results, so searchers can see the date you published a post before they click through the result. The date is shown next to the search result description (snippet).

This will help searchers to determine whether the information is still up to date and relevant today. The date is not always a factor that will influence a searcher's decision to click through a result because not all types of content become outdated and irrelevant after a certain period of time and still remain relevant well into the future. This is known as "evergreen content". Even on blog posts where the content will not get outdated over time, like definition pages, it is still recommended to include the date on your post as this is useful information for you and your readers.

Where Should I Include The Date?

We recommend that you include the date somewhere in your blog post, ideally near the top of the page, but below the title. This is the best place to include the date on your blog post because it will be more noticeable near the top of the page instead of the bottom of the page, which would require visitors to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the date.

A place where you shouldn't include a date is in the title or the URL. Unless your blog post relates to a specific event or day and it is absolutely necessary to add it, there's no need to add the date or year to the URL or title as this could lead to a decline in click-through rate when your post gets indexed and listed in the search results. For example, if someone performs a search and your blog post comes up with the year 2012 in the URL or title, they are less likely to click through it. In addition, the date in the URL or the title will have to be updated every time the page is updated, so it is best not to include a date or year in the URL or the title.

When using a CMS, like WordPress, it may automatically add the date in the URL (e.g. https://example.com/2023/04-18/blogpost) or the year in the title (e.g. how to increase website traffic in 2023). As stated above, we recommend that you remove the date in the URL and the year in the title, because in 10 years, if your page still appears in Google, searchers are going to notice the date and are much less likely to click through it. Also, this will unnecessarily increase the length of the URL or the title.

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