SEO and Dates on Posts with Mark Traphagen – WPblab Ep. 11
Dates on posts affect SEO more than you might imagine. They can also affect CTR, or Click Through Rate. In this Blab my special guest +Mark Traphagen cleared up misinformation, and misunderstandings of good information concerning tips for taking advantage of the Google Freshness Alogrithm, along with tips on how to keep your posts relevant.
Update 1/25/16 Be sure to read Show Dates on Posts or Not for the latest info on how Google is constantly moving the cheese for this.
He also explained the difference in what Google and Bing index compared to the hidden code and visible dates on a post.
We also covered dates on posts in the form of:
- Hidden code
- Date published
- Last modified date
- Visible on post
- Byline
- Last modified
- Permalinks
- SERPs
- Comments on the post have dates too
The SEO impact of refreshing content including these items that are indexed by Google.
- Title
- Main Graphic
- Text content
- Internal links
How much can you re-write a post and it still be the same post folks commented on?
When it’s time to completely rewrite a post instead of refreshing an old one.
The impact of dates showing in SERPs and how it affects CTR.
Links Mentioned in the Blab
Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines
Important date info from 30+ Important Takeaways from Google’s Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines by Jennifer Slegg
Google’s Gary Illyes: Make Thin Content Thicker OR Use NoIndex on SearchEngineland by Barry Schwartz.
Updates to how Google is applying its Freshness Algorithm from tips in a post titled New Google Freshness-Based Ranking Patent by Bill Slawski
Freshness Factor: 10 Illustrations on How Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings on Moz by Cyrus Shepard
(We didn’t address the post below directly, but did talk about the practice, and how this method is gaming the system and won’t yield long-term SEO results.)
A recent post on Copyblogger about changing the publish date titled The Single Best Way to Create Hit Content in Record Time by Demian Farnworth
The Here’s Why series from Mark and Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting.
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More About Mark Traphagen
My esteemed guest, +Mark Traphagen is the Senior Director of Online Marketing for Stone Temple Consulting where he is responsible for raising the awareness of Stone Temple’s SEO services for their Fortune 500 level clients. He is also the person that I know has been following Google Authorship and authority on topic SEO changes the longest. And, he is my top go-to guy for all things SEO.
