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How To Display The Date Of Your Latest Update For An Old WordPress Post

Content is king! However, content is also time consuming to produce.

When compared to creating new content, repurposing and updating old content is a lot more economical than creating new content.

Before we get started on discussing how to display the date of your latest WordPress update to any post, I'd like to discuss the necessity to do so.

Why Repurpose and Update Content?

  • Content needs to be fresh. Old, outdated content is not very helpful.
  • Topics central to any niche remain central to the discussion over long periods of time.
  • To add updates and correct previously conceived notions about different aspects of any niche/industry.
  • Previously created content is an asset, but it is a depreciating asset. It loses value over time.
  • Content repurposing and updating as opposed to new content costs less in terms of time/money.

If you are still undecided about the necessity of content repurposing, I'd recommend you read the following two posts:

Updating WordPress Dates – Because Search Engines Rank Pages For Freshness

Dates matter because Google says so and apart from that it is very helpful for your readers too.

Hosting Review- google search
It is less helpful in niches where there is little or no change, but most web based businesses are subject to frequent significant changes.

You need to make sure that Google and other search engines are aware of the fact that changes have been made to articles posted on your website.

Also please note:

  • The greater the change, the greater the content's freshness.
  • Frequency of changes, new pages and changes to important content all affect content's freshness.
  • Freshness is primarily obtained based on when the content was first picked up by Google's crawlers.

Read this article on MOZ which depicts quite clearly what factors affect the freshness of content.

Use WP Last Modified Plugin

A nifty little plugin to inform readers and search engines alike when your WordPress post has last been updated. The plugin makes it possible to add revised metadata to your posts as well.

WP Last Modified
You can display the last modified date on your posts and pages either below or above the published content. Modify the date style and text with the plugin.

The plugin is old and hasn't been updated for two years. So a lot depends on the compatibility of your plugin and theme.

I first tried it with Solon by aThemes. As you can see, the updated date is displayed on the top of the post beneath the first published date.

SolonWorks

Then I tried out the plugin with Quintus and I was successful again.

WorksOnQuintus

Download WP Last Modified here.

If it doesn't work, you can always use the “Published on” date feature which also allows you to schedule posts and to update the dates manually.

Another reason you should try the plugin first resides in the fact that it adds a revised meta tag which tells all the search engine bots that your website has content which has been recently updated.

Usethepublishedondate

Final Thoughts

I've seen plenty of websites that recommend that you remove your posts' dates all together. I can only imagine the reason they want to do this is the fact they have really old content which puts them at a disadvantage.

Updating content and permitting search engines to pick up on updates is a good practice. Remember in 2011, when Google instituted the freshness factor, they remarked that approximately 35% of search queries will be affected.

If you have any other date related search engine optimization tips, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

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Article by Vishnu

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