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Wordpress Post Publish Date

by awilson3rd
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello,

Hoping for some definitive advice about SEO and Post 'Published' dates when using wordpress.

To cut a long story short the WP theme I have developed a website with does not allow me to change the custom post order, I have tried every plugin on the market and they all work in the backend but not in the frontend. So with this in mind the post published date is really my only option at this time. What I am trying to do is cycle 3 posts from the bottom of the list to the top on a weekly/fortnightly basis. This means the post published date will change roughly once a month (for each post).

The website is doing well ranking wise so I am a bit worried that changing the 'post published date' will cause some negative effects. I have been reading conflicting views on this so I am really looking for some expert opinions about whether the published date is indeed a factor for SEO?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Andrew
#date #post #publish #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    I'm not sure if it does, haven't tested this. But I'd remove it from Google just to be on the safe side. There's plugins for this, but the popular Yoast SEO should have a feature (under the templates for content types).

    I've removed the date in some cases when it makes no sense at all. For example, on one site the article publish date isn't really related to the events that are listed in that article, and the article might be reused for several years. It looks weird if Google search says that the article is published in, say, early 2013 when there's an even upcoming in a few days.
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  • Profile picture of the author awilson3rd
    Hello and thanks for the reply.

    The actual custom post is a business listing (it's a directory style website) so the post published date doesn't really have any relevance to the content of the listings. I just thought that google might take the publish date into account and if I keep changing it regularly this would have adverse side effects.

    Thanks - Andrew
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