Updating Content And Dates For SEO
SEO professionals and publishers are always interested in capitalising on ’Fresh content’ every new year. Google says only when you make significant changes to your content you should use updated article dates.
What is the meaning of significant changes and changing a date? This depends on various factors.
Google had recently decided to reward fresh content. The QDF (Query Requires Freshness) model measures, assesses and ranks the content depending on its value for a search query. This means that lower authority and newer content can outrank older high-authority content. This is because some searchers need current results.
For example, when you search for elections in Jan 2023, you want more current results that cover the latest elections. You are searching for the current election results and you are not interested in the results of the past elections though these articles may have earned more links. You want the results of current elections and the article may not get that many links in a short span.
Previously, the article date was used to tell Google that the resource is newer. Some SEOs removed the dates so that they do not look updated while some altered the date automatically.
Google solved this by using the ‘Query Deserves Freshness’ system to find fresher content when required. It uses a freshness index to rank the content.
Meaning of ‘significant’ changes
Google invests in a ‘Helpful content system’ and it goes beyond just seeing the article’s date. You need not continuously write about a topic to produce fresh content. Updating the exciting content may be enough.
Changing the article’s date and showing it as ‘New’ will not work. You should not mislead Google and the visitors.
Rewriting 50% of your article by using AI-generated content or synonyms will not work either because this does not add any value to the existing content. You should check the following:
- Will the changes offer anything new?
- What actually shows the changes?
- Is it just a date change or the content is changed?
You can try writing for different search engines each year, it is one of the best alternatives.
Changing the ‘Date’
The date displayed in the article can be changed in many ways. You can easily change the date of your WordPress article. Many writers even change the dates in other areas like the heading, titles and URLs.
You should avoid changing the dates in the URL if you intend to change it again. Add dates to titles and headlines if you plan to change them next year too otherwise your content will get ignored as outdated next year.
Last updated
One of the safest ways is to add a ‘Last updated’ to your updated article. It can be added at the top or the bottom of the article. In the article, you can just show the date when it was last updated rather than the publish date.
date published
A riskier option is to automatically change the publish date that WordPress displays. WordPress allows you to republish the article as new.
If significant changes have been made to the article then you can change the published date rather than republish it as new.
First published last updated
An article may be a combination of new and old as the foundation is old but it has new insights and newer examples. In such cases, you can add the first published date and the last updated date in the article.
You should not change your article’s date without adding something new. This will help to avoid Google penalties and algorithm fixes. If you just change the article’s date then you also lose your visitor’s trust. SEO content writing can offer many benefits.
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