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Removing Postdates From Your Blog – Bad or

Good Practice?

After so many worries, considerations, meditation and research – and looking at it

from both users and marketers points of view, I decided to write about it -

removing posts dates from your blog and or, search engine results pages.

If you’ve noticed lately on this blog, I have removed postdates on it – though not

yet permanent, still testing to see what really works better and what doesn’t.

But before anything, I have a question for you and this directly applies to

webmasters – why removing postdates (in the case of those who have already done

this on their blog) or would you want to remove dates on your blog?

Put yourself in reader’s shoe. Have you been searching for an information and you visit a certain blog where you

were directed through search engine and after going through with the whole

article, putting to practice every advice given – implementing every detail guide of

it to the latter, only to find out that the information you were giving became

obsolete after the year 2005?

I know most us – content marketers – wants our articles to be evergreen, but the

truth is, there is no 100% of evergreen information. Even if the fundamentals

remain the same….just as buying and selling would ever be; the application or its

execution wouldn’t and never will remain the same.

What works today, might not work tomorrow and even in the years coming.

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From reader’s points of view, am writing this article. So, I put myself in their

shoes; and believe is an unethical practices to intentionally remove postdates on

your blog posts. So each reader that visit your blog the first time never knew when

last the blog was updated.

And this could also give a false impression that your blog is been constantly

updated; and another way to hide your failure to regularly update your blog post.

Reader’s False Assumptions……

Although, also from users point of view – readers are full of assumption upon

seeing a dates on blog post, that it either the information is obsolete or relevant to

their query.

But in reality, an older date on a post doesn’t translate to old or out-dated

information – it only mean and give clearly when the information was lastly

updated.

Before Google’s first algorithms updates, the SEO industry was full of great and

workable advices on how you can build gazillion back-links in a very simple and

quick ways.

And this information is still on the pages of the internet.

Now things have changed a lot and done differently. The way link building is done

now, especially after Matts Cutt blew his whistles on guest posting is completely

getting new approaches and fundamentals.

Now, here is the problem; when you run a Google search on how to build back-

links, the search results pages are full of combine pages of both older and newer

information that provide answers to your query.

If published dates or in some exceptional cases, last updated dates is not clearly

visible on the blog post, then the reader is in a very deep problem. He might ended

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up taking away an information that only has been put to death by one of those

Google algorithms updates – penguin, panda or hummingbird.

Bigger problem, if this information was giving on an authority blog and this reader

hold it closely to the heart and follow it religiously.

We’re here to Help, Not To Deceive….

We should be conversant of our reason being here – to serve the needs of the

readers – if we’re to lure readers into engaging with our content in a way that is

unethical, then we have intentionally defeat the primary reason we’re here – to

provide valuable information that solves users problems and consequently,

improve the standards of their living.

I see so many authorities’ blogs doing this on their websites – CopyBlogger,

Wikipedia, WordPress codec etc. But I believe this is not the best if they truly care

about their followers, and understand the detriment in which this could cause

reader if the advice taking from their blog happens to be outdated.

Think, if you’re about to download a software, and four different version of it was

display and with no dates as to when each one was release.

Going by the fast pace of changes in the world of technology; I guess you’re about

to crash your system if the latest version is not installed and you might even expose

yourself to cyber risk.

Two sides to a coin: The benefits of removing postdates in SERP.

While I was Goggling to know more on why do bloggers do this -removing posts

dates – I stumbled upon an article written by Harsh Agrawal of shoutmeloud, and

this very one written by Mack Collier.

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While these two posts are far from decisive or giving a clear stands on this topic,

you’ll want to read more insightful case study blog post written by wpbeginner.

This topic is more of an individual decision, it depend on what you want and what

you intend to give back to your readers.

But based on what I “assume” and would agree with Harsh Agrawal on – removing

post dates from “search engine” results pages could lead to higher CTR – Note, not

removing postdates on your blog.

Often, when I run a search query and results shows up, and presented both with

pages with dates and no dates on them. From reader’s stands, I will rather click on

page with the most recent dates or click on the one with no dates.

But click on an older dates of more than a year or so?

You might also want to click on either the link with no date attached to it – benefits

of doubt – or, the link with a more recent date to it, but click on the link with the

year 2009 to it?

I don’t think I would do that, and only if the author is an authority blogger and he

is well considered an expert in such topic, then I might consider taking a look.

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My take from all these – till the end of the month, I want to experiment with

removing dates from search results pages and see if my assumption on increasing

CTR would be right, I strongly believe it will.

But for the time being, I have to remove dates too on this blog due to fact that am

not a coder, I use a plugin recommended by Harsh Agrawal – this plugin can only

take out dates both on the blog and search result pages. Until then, am finding

ways to leave blog postdate and only take it out on SERP.

Till then, I keep my finger cross and will report back here how everything goes.