Can Refreshing Your "Post Date" Get You Penalized by Google?!

Cool Hand Luke · 07-19-2011, 09:15 PM

I have a site which was #5 on page 1 of Google for a competitive term. The site is highly SEO-optimized, and full of ONLY original content.

On this site I had a post dated in March, and just to make it look "newer" and attract more viewers, I changed the "date posted" to June. A day later, my site got knocked down to pages 5-7 for ALL of my keywords. It's obviously an issue which got the entire site penalized.

So my question is this: Even with original content, if you update your "post date" in a wordpress post, will Google penalize your site for it?

EDIT: Nevermind, it was just a weird "Google Dance" apparently. All of my keywords are either around where they were previously or ranked HIGHER now.

BarryWheeler · 07-19-2011, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cool Hand Luke

I have a site which was #5 on page 1 of Google for a competitive term. The site is highly SEO-optimized, and full of ONLY original content.

On this site I had a post dated in March, and just to make it look "newer" and attract more viewers, I changed the "date posted" to June. A day later, my site got knocked down to pages 5-7 for ALL of my keywords. It's obviously an issue which got the entire site penalized.

So my question is this: Even with original content, if you update your "post date" in a wordpress post, will Google penalize your site for it?

Any ideas?

I think there's other things at play here.

Just changing the "Post Date" should not have affected this, unless you've changed the URL.

What else did you do? Ping the site?

Mike Anthony · 07-19-2011, 09:39 PM

I'm with barry I really don't think that could be it

Valera · 07-19-2011, 10:41 PM

I agree also, changing the post date should not make any difference, neither should the pinging of the post because the whole site was affected. If only that particular post was affected then I would be more likely to think that it was the cause.

Is it a static blog post on your front page of your root domain?

If so, and you have moved it back up to the top of your blog, that could have changed some on page SEO factors, which caused reindexing and possible rank slippage after re caching by google, but that is not likely in your case is it?

It has something to do with maybe some backlinks you have built at some stage, or, it could be adverse effects of Panda, but I am not so sure...

Maybe it could even be some of your "stronger" backlinks pointing to your root domain have being dropped or went off front page of blogs, there are so many reasons this happens, I cannot put them all down in one post.

I hope this helps you somehow, but I really dont believe that the changing of post date has caused your site a penalty, don't panic so much about that as a cause

UMS · 07-19-2011, 10:44 PM

I quite often update the dates on my posts when I have added new information to them. That certainly hasn't affected rankings for me.

Changing a post date without changing the content shouldn't negatively affect you, but who knows what Google does.

I'd wait a week or so to see if it goes back to its original ranking.

retsek · 07-20-2011, 12:10 AM

By changing the post date, you also changed your internal linking -- since a post may appear on page 3 of the archive pages (date, categories, tags), or page 1 depending on the date of the post.

Just give it time, you should return to your spot.

Next time, use a seo plugin that will update the last modification time in your sitemap. So you just go to the post and hit update ..rather than changing the date.

07-19-2011, 09:15 PM	#1
Cool Hand Luke Expert Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Las Vegas, NV < > Pacific Beach, CA Posts: 510 Thanks: 388 Thanked 454 Times in 126 Posts	Can Refreshing Your "Post Date" Get You Penalized by Google?! I have a site which was #5 on page 1 of Google for a competitive term. The site is highly SEO-optimized, and full of ONLY original content. On this site I had a post dated in March, and just to make it look "newer" and attract more viewers, I changed the "date posted" to June. A day later, my site got knocked down to pages 5-7 for ALL of my keywords. It's obviously an issue which got the entire site penalized. So my question is this: Even with original content, if you update your "post date" in a wordpress post, will Google penalize your site for it? EDIT: Nevermind, it was just a weird "Google Dance" apparently. All of my keywords are either around where they were previously or ranked HIGHER now.

07-19-2011, 09:39 PM	#3
Mike Anthony SEO D'Artagnan War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 4,980 Thanks: 476 Thanked 1,090 Times in 701 Posts	Re: Can Refreshing Your "Post Date" Get You Penalized by Google?! I'm with barry I really don't think that could be it
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07-19-2011, 10:41 PM	#4
Valera SEO Menace War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Australia Posts: 149 Thanks: 1 Thanked 14 Times in 13 Posts Social Networking	Re: Can Refreshing Your "Post Date" Get You Penalized by Google?! I agree also, changing the post date should not make any difference, neither should the pinging of the post because the whole site was affected. If only that particular post was affected then I would be more likely to think that it was the cause. Is it a static blog post on your front page of your root domain? If so, and you have moved it back up to the top of your blog, that could have changed some on page SEO factors, which caused reindexing and possible rank slippage after re caching by google, but that is not likely in your case is it? It has something to do with maybe some backlinks you have built at some stage, or, it could be adverse effects of Panda, but I am not so sure... Maybe it could even be some of your "stronger" backlinks pointing to your root domain have being dropped or went off front page of blogs, there are so many reasons this happens, I cannot put them all down in one post. I hope this helps you somehow, but I really dont believe that the changing of post date has caused your site a penalty, don't panic so much about that as a cause

07-19-2011, 10:44 PM	#5
UMS Peter Sundstrom War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: New Zealand Posts: 1,854 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 177 Thanked 503 Times in 370 Posts Social Networking	Re: Can Refreshing Your "Post Date" Get You Penalized by Google?! I quite often update the dates on my posts when I have added new information to them. That certainly hasn't affected rankings for me. Changing a post date without changing the content shouldn't negatively affect you, but who knows what Google does. I'd wait a week or so to see if it goes back to its original ranking.
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07-20-2011, 12:10 AM	#6
retsek Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1,017 Thanks: 6 Thanked 294 Times in 172 Posts	Re: Can Refreshing Your "Post Date" Get You Penalized by Google?! By changing the post date, you also changed your internal linking -- since a post may appear on page 3 of the archive pages (date, categories, tags), or page 1 depending on the date of the post. Just give it time, you should return to your spot. Next time, use a seo plugin that will update the last modification time in your sitemap. So you just go to the post and hit update ..rather than changing the date.