Post dates might seem straight forward, but on further consideration, it has a lot of impact on your content’s performance. Displaying a post date on your blog content is generally believed to improve the reader’s experience. Users look for post dates as a point of credibility and relevance. However, older dates shown on Google search results can lower your click-through rate, and ultimately, that will impact your search rank. Readers naturally gravitate towards newer publications and often steer away from content written more than a year ago, assuming the information is no longer current. So how do you navigate the fine line between the importance of displaying dates and not burying your previous work over time?

The answer is two-fold. First, add a last-updated date to your blog posts (this doesn’t apply to timeless content like your home or about page). The last-updated date gives readers confidence that the information is current without losing the base of your past work. Then create a yearly plan to refresh your old content in a way that keeps it current to readers and a contender for search ranks on Google. If you have to prioritize your time, start with your top 10 ranking or highest traffic posts.

As you start this process, it’s important that Google can recognize the last-updated date in your WordPress structured data. The last-updated date will not be automatically visible to your audience on your website post. A plugin such as the WP Last Modified Plugin is built to update your structured data for Google and give you options of how you’d like it displayed for readers on the site. You can also double-check your results with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to verify that Google can read your structured data changes. Once you have confirmed that Google can see your site updates, then it is time to work on upgrading your content experience.