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Should you remove the date display from WordPress blog posts?

by Mattk
13 replies
I have a couple of blogs with good original content, but I don't update them everyday. Sometimes it is only once a week or maybe less.

Should I remove the date display from my template so it won't look like it's not updated regularly?

I think sometimes when a visitor comes to a site that is not updated daily they write the whole site off as irrelevant if it's not being constantly posted to with new content. (This is what I think they think.)

Does the date being displayed even matter?
#blog #date #display #posts #remove #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author misterkailo
    If you are planning to write a few articles and then never touching the site again, then I would recommend removing dates. For example, if the blog post has a date in 2007, then I personally would write the site off.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinSkeen
    I have all of my niche blogs set up to NOT display the date. This is insurance for me in case I can't get around to updating some of them for awhile.
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  • Profile picture of the author Oscar D
    I agree with what has been said.

    It depends on the type of site, what the site is about and how often the site will be updated.

    For content based sites and Adsense sites that will be made and left then I recommend removing the dates.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    There is another way to think about it -- what advantage does it give you to use the date? If you can't think of any, then you'd probably be better off removing it.

    If you do update it once a week, that isn't so bad. I don't think that will hurt you. People can see the previous dates and will know it's still an active site, it's just not hyperactive.
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  • Profile picture of the author KristiDaniels
    There is an advantage. When people find a blog through the search engines and read an interesting post, they often look for the date to make sure it is recent and therefore still relevant.

    So it is a balancing act and you have to test to find out if showing it or not showing it is best for your blog. Do the split test and find out.
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  • Profile picture of the author scattermouse
    If you're posting once a week or more, there's really no need to think about it - no readers will think of content less than a week old as irrelevant (unless you're in a constantly changing niche - sports, politics, that sort of thing).

    Having said that, if you're genuinely worried, why not test it? The worst that will happen is it makes no difference and you'll be able to stop worrying about it
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  • Profile picture of the author VegasGreg
    As long as the material is "evergreen" and won't go stale, it is ok to remove dates. But for example if you are posting a certain technique/tool/event and someone reads your post and the technique/tool/event hasn't been around for a few years, it will make your site look bad.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sean Ski
    I don't think the date thing matters that much in smaller niches, but if you're looking to gain RSS readers then yes it would probably matter and in that case I'd say remove the date because you don't just want one and done readers you want return visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Damien Roche
    I'd remove the date. I really don't see any advantage for the average visitor. Maybe if it were a news blog.

    Of course, all depends on the niche - but I don't think I've ever *ever* checked the date on a wordpress post or any blog post for that matter.

    I'd be more concerned about your content.
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  • Profile picture of the author 4freedom
    Yes, we tend to remove the dates on all our sites. Since most of our articles are evergreen - why date them?
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    • Profile picture of the author Mattk
      Thanks for all the excellent replies. I'm going to run out of thanks buttons for the day
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  • Profile picture of the author James Le
    I remove the dates on all my blogs because I don't update them once they're created, however if you was going to update it at least once a month, then I think you would benefit from putting the date their. Maybe just set it to showing the month, not the date.
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  • Profile picture of the author blur
    If it's autoblogged - keep the date. If it's time sensitive - keep the date. If you're not going to update it at least every 10 days - remove the date.

    Just my FYI...
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