Updating/revising blog posts – change date on post or?

  • Hello

    I was wondering..
    Should I change the date on a blog post, if I update it. Say, I update a two year old blog post. E.g. delete a paragraph or add new information to improve it.

    What would you do in this case?
    1. Would you simply make a new blog post
    2. Update the date on the old one?
    3. Make a “revised on date” notice at the end of the blog post? (is it possible to get the revised date from db and make wordpress display it automatically?)

    I choose option 3, when I updated a post yesterday.

    But is this the best way in terms of SEO. Could it impact my SEO ranking on google, if I update an old blog post without changing the post date?

    • This topic was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Jan Dembowski. Reason: Moved to Fixing WordPress, this is not an Everything else WordPress topic

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    I wouldn’t update a post. I’d write a new one that references the old one and adds the new information. That preserves the SEO of the old post and both benefit from the new one. If you prefer to update an old one, you can tweak your theme to show “and updated on…” on the post meta line.

    Thread Starter jimmythetulip

    (@jimmythetulip)

    Thanks for the answer.
    I would consider to use your strategy in future blog posts!

    I wouldn’t update a post. I’d write a new one that references the old one and adds the new information. That preserves the SEO of the old post and both benefit from the new one. If you prefer to update an old one, you can tweak your theme to show “and updated on…” on the post meta line.

    But say you found out that the provided information in an old blog post is wrong. Would you then go and delete the old one and create a new one with correct info?
    Or would you still make a new one and reference the old one with new info?
    For instance, I have a lot of recipes on my blog.
    If I found out that an old blog post was wrong, it would be a whole lot easier to correct the old one than making a new one.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by jimmythetulip.
    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    Edit the old one to put a link to the new, corrected entry. Or update it. It really is a matter of how you prefer to handle. Care more about your visitors than Google.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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