How to Properly Update the Publication Date of Content So That Search Engines Accurately Recognize the Site

If the search engine successfully “crawls” the date of the latest publication on the site, it immediately updates this information, treating it as important, and boosts the site’s ranking in search results. The most valuable are those web resources whose content is regularly updated. This is due to the fact that search engines track themes by the publication date, determining the relevance of that or another post on the page in order to provide the user with the most relevant answer to their query.

Experienced SEO specialists have gathered the most effective recommendations, thanks to which you can correctly and quickly update the publication date of old content.

What motivates updating the publication date?

To explain why it is necessary to update the publication date of content, it is better to use a concrete example. Suppose you have been running a blog dedicated to digital marketing for a while. Among your early publications is an article on SEO optimization of sites for transactional queries. Factually, this information has not lost its relevance and still today, but to the search engine, it may appear “outdated”. As a result, the system will start to decrease the ranking where the old date is indicated in search results, and the site will simultaneously lose traffic.

It would seem that the problem is fully solvable; you just need to sit down and write a new article. However, before that, it is necessary to ensure that the old material has exhausted its resource (lost citation weight, does not correspond to basic behavioral factors, etc.). Losing accumulated “bonuses” would be a bigger loss, as they can be used for more effective promotion of the media platform. The optimal solution is to supplement the article with fresh data and update the date of its publication.

Systematic updates of page content can:

• Increase the level of loyalty and trust from the audience;
• Determine whether visitors to the site are satisfied with the quality of information received through the clickability metric. You will undoubtedly notice how after the update, the site’s CTR will start to increase.
• Increase the “value” of the page in the eyes of the search engine;

The publication date is one of the key factors in the implementation of the ranking process. You will undoubtedly notice how after the update the site rises in the ranking of search engines.

Some SEO analysts adhere to the principle of “the simpler, the better” and advise website owners to change the publication date of the content without making direct changes to the material itself. Nevertheless, trusting such recommendations is not advisable; the date needs to be updated properly. In the opposite case, the search engine will create other obstacles in promotion.

When does updating the publication date not make sense?

A review of the outdated information takes a fair amount of time and requires the involvement of such specialists as copywriters, editors, etc. Expanding the expert group entails new costs, which in private cases can be avoided. For example, if the publication date aligns with external factors, among which are the thematic organization of the site.

Specifically for search engine optimization, the themes, the significance of which practically do not change over time – culinary recipes, the composition of specific products, care guides for indoor plants.

Search engines understand when the parameter of categorization of Internet resources correctly takes into account when ranking, and when not. Exactly for this reason, a content manager should evaluate their own materials from the point of view of further usage. If you write about “evergreen” static facts, you free yourself from the need to periodically update the publication date of the content.

How to act when the need arises to update the publication date

At this moment, you can highlight three effective strategies. However, it is important to understand that any action will be irrelevant if the content on the site does not satisfy the needs of the audience.

Change the date, keeping the URL address

In this option, you should turn to this method a little less often, because with its help old posts can be returned to trend.

Instructions:

• Review the text on the page, adjust it in accordance with new data;
• Review graphic images, replace pictures with more current ones if necessary;
• Check links to remove broken and non-functional ones;
• Change the publication date visible on the site or add data about the last update.

Nuances: do not try to deceive the search engine and correct only the date without changing the text material. If the works note the condition, they immediately lower the web resource in ranking. However, if in the future you edit the content of the page piecemeal, changing the date each time is not necessary – it is meaningless for promotion.

Compile all recent updates on one tab

Especially useful method for news resources. By using this tip, you significantly ease the life of the reader, as they will not have to organize news by themselves, all materials will be collected in one place in advance.

Nuances: do not forget to mark the additional publication with the tag “Updated” or “URL”. You can also follow the example of known media platforms and format the reviewed article as self-contained publication, indicating the necessary date.

Create a new page on the site and set up a redirection.

Refer to this method if you have pages that are impossible to edit. For instance, if the site discovers two articles on similar themes, they need to be supplemented and connected to each other without losing the citation weight of each. In such cases, the optimal solution to the problem would be a 301 redirect.

Date replacement algorithm

Let’s consider the main options for methods of replacing:

• Directly on the page – the visible publication date you change so that to attract the user’s attention. You may simply replace the outdated date with a new one, or leave both expressions – the old date and the date of the last update;
• In the semantic markup schema.org – the date of any publication is formatted according to the commonly accepted standard using the scheme “YYYY-MM-DD”. When loading the article on the site for the first time, it is necessary to fill in date published, and during updates last modified date (most CMS do this automatically). Pay attention to the fact that the date visible on the page and the date in the schema.org structure must fully match.
• In the sitemap XML – after modifying the content of the page, update the date in the sitemap under the tag “publication_date”, format W3C. Search engines determine the publication date with maximum accuracy. If Google decides that the date, visible in the snippet, is incorrect, it may change it independently.

Don’t forget to update the date on trending publications

Regular updates of the content of the page and the publication date of the content indicate to search engines that the author of the material keeps track of its relevance. This will not only positively affect the ranking of the site and attract a new audience but also prolong the relevance of the post for some time longer.