Dates on a blog?

by madelyndon

Posted: 12 years ago 22 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Are they really necessary? For my niche, the blog entries I will be making, will always apply and so I don't see why dates are important. I don't want readers to see old posts and not look at them because they only want to read what is new. I also don't like how they can see the space between the times I made the entries. I know, I can change all the dates but I don't want to keep up with that. Thanks for your advice!

#blog #dates

Alexa Smith Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by madelyndon

Are they really necessary?

I don't know. It's a good question.

I often wonder what people think/expect, in this regard - and will be interested to see others' replies, here.

I have no dates at all on any of my blogs, though.

Originally Posted by madelyndon

I know, I can change all the dates but I don't want to keep up with that.

Exactly so - to me, it's never seemed worth it.
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- Elle Holder 12 years ago
  
  For me, it depends.
  
  Is the information timeless? Then I don't worry so much about dating my posts. If it's something that readers might ignore at some time in the future, feeling the info could be dated, then I'll leave it off.
  
  But you know, it's a two edged sword. Some things change very quickly. Take SEO for an example. If I'm reading a post that doesn't have a date, I will ignore any advice given. Because from year to year there are differences in what's recommended as good practices. I'd be a fool to find some undated info and follow it blindly. Doing so could kill my sites. NB & CMA. I am not saying there aren't some core SEO principals the remain overtime. I'm just using this as an example.
  
  So there you have a case of a blogger that might not have used a date to avoid the "dated" situation. But I ignored it because it DIDN'T have a date and I don't want to take the time to weed out what might be old info. I'll head off to some other site that has dated posts.
  
  Which still leaves the issue clear as mud!
  
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  force5 12 years ago
  
  It depends..
  
  If you run a blog about a subject that changes, taxes or seo for example you may want to leave dates on.. Or you could turn them off and then on posts you feel need dates on, you just put the date at the top of the post manually
  
  Generally I turn them off though (but that is just me)
  
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retsced 12 years ago

Just turn them off. I never have dates showing on my posts.
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- DMCAPROS 12 years ago
  
  I never show dates, unless it's a site I add content to on a regular basis. If a user visits your site and you haven't posted in 2-3 weeks, then your site can look stagnant.
  
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travlinguy 12 years ago

I've removed the date feature from my blogs for the simple reason that older dates mean old, irrelevant information to some people. Sometimes that's true but most often it isn't.
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majes 12 years ago

Of course your can turn them off.
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Nics 12 years ago

Unless you need it for a specific reason (Can't see why) Turn them off. If I come acrosss a blog posting and see the date is more than a few months old, I automatically think it's oudated. Just my natural reaction even though it may not be. I bet many others have the same feeling.
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mominternet 12 years ago

Get rid of the dates, especially if you have what is called evergreen content.

You may also think about mailing your list and encourage them to visit your post, even if it is an old blog post. My mentor does this and I went to read the post and was about to comment, when I realized I had already commented! I had forgotten the valuable information and now was excited to read it again.

Now, that can work both ways, especially if you wrote something where you got negative comments so think about what you remind your readers of.

Elle is correct information has no time limits and with so much of it to process these days it helps to see it again and not think that just because it dates back a few years that it is not useful.

To your success!
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Jeff Burritt Banned 12 years ago

What's your method to remove the dates from blog posts?
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- madelyndon 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Jeff Burritt
  
  What's your method to remove the dates from blog posts?
  
  I googled how to remove dates from blog wordpress and got the code. It was actually not that hard. Between this site and youtube videos, you can pretty much figure it all out.
  
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OPTIMUSMKTG 12 years ago

Removing dates is all a matter of editing your theme's code. Most theme sellers provide this info through customer support.
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DannyFikes 12 years ago

Yea, I'd say that 'no dates' is actually a better way to go. Even when you have great content, if it's from a month ago people sometimes just skim over it thinking it's already outdates. Without dates, they've gotta actually read the content to see if it's valuable. Kind forces them to be a little more engaged in the content.
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Bob Sims 12 years ago

Dates.....Phew, I was thinking of someone asking you out when I first read the subject line :-)

Anyway, as far as having time/date of entry on your blog that depends on your content.
There are bloggers that have listings in archive form for their readers to refer to.
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Charley Brown 12 years ago

+1 for removing the dates from your blog.

It gives the reader TMI, which can come back to hurt you - makes some posts irrelevant IMO.
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- Mark Alan 12 years ago
  
  I agree with a what a lot of others said in that dating your blog posts is a sure way to kill your conversions by making your content appear old and irrelevant. However, there is an exception you can use to your advantage to gain credibility.
  
  For example if you find yourself in a niche where the listings are dominated by review sites with dated content (very common) adding the year to your post can add a lot of credibility to your post. For example nobody buying a computer today wants to know what the top rated laptop computers of 2008 were and even if the 2008 results were disguised by removing the date if you simply put Top rated laptop computers 2012 in your post title (don't use the blog date) you will get a lot more clicks because people searching via organic search are used to getting very stale content and your 2012 will stick out and attract them, and there are ton of people that search with the year in the keyword string to avoid stale content.
  
  Plus it is much easier to rank for "Top Rated Laptops 2012" than it is "Top Rated Laptops".
  
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  Dan C. Rinnert 12 years ago
  
  As a reader, when I don't see dates, I have no idea whether that article was posted ten hours ago or ten years ago.
  
  So, as far as dates go, this is how I rank content...
  
  1) Time-appropriate content. Generally, this is the newest content. Even if something is "evergreen" content, the fact that it was written more recently gives it a little extra value. Also, I can weigh one article against others on the site. For example, if an article was written ten years ago and more recent articles still reference that topic or method, then that gives it extra value because I know that, not only is the person still using that method (or whatever it is) but also that it likely works well if that person has been doing it for the past ten years.
  
  And, sometimes I may be looking for older content. If I want to read people's thoughts about the Internet in the 1990s, finding an article written in the 1990s may have more value to me than finding an article written a week ago by someone reflecting on what they think they thought back then. So, in that case, the older content is more relevant to what I am looking for because the new content may be less accurate.
  
  2) Time-challenged content. Generally, this will be older content. If I want to know how to do round corner design on my website, finding an article written ten years ago is going to be less relevant than fresher content. However, the techniques will still likely get the job done, just not as efficiently as they might today. But, seeing a date gives me some indication.
  
  3) Undated content. With this type of content, I really have no idea as to the time-appropriateness of the content. I don't really know if it's fresh or outdated. And the fact that the website owner seems to want to hide that from me damages credibility. As a result, unless undated content is the only content I can find (unlikely), I will go elsewhere to look for information.
  
  So, the lack of a date turns me off more than the presence of a date. Exceptions would be stuff like generic information, such as the about me page and stuff like that. Dates can be helpful there, but odds are good that, if you were a child that was heavily into hot rods, you will still have been a child heavily into hot rods ten years from now. That kind of stuff doesn't change.
  
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Lightlysalted 12 years ago

I don't like dates on a blog. Content should appear evergreen. If it a date is on it then it might put visitors off, even though the content within the article/blog post is excellent.
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moneymakerdude 12 years ago

try to find a goo theme and install a plugin that might help you out
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Anonymous Affiliate 12 years ago

Depends on whether you're blogging about timeless topics (how to lose weight) or current topics (technology blog).
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matthewtc 12 years ago

Hmm good points. I will have to think on it for a bit on my site. Does that date matter in my case? Does it not? Thanks for the process on figuring it out though guys.
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easternodyssey 12 years ago

It purely depends on you subject matter. If you have a site which shows breaking news then yes you need it on. However, if your website is releasing articles which are open ended, meaning can be read now or 20 years from now, then keep it on.
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