Yes.
Oh, was that not a thorough enough answer? Yes. Yes you really should. I get asked this all the time and a lot of people don’t want to put dates on their posts. “It’ll make my site look outdated,” they say if their site is showing older posts.
I disagree. It’s important for the people reading your articles and posts to know how old it is. Sometimes we write about things that, after a few years, are no longer accurate. Having a date on that post will alert your readers that the information isn’t brand new.
This is particularly important if you are writing about topics that frequently change, like technology. A lot of people will come to me with articles or information they’ve found online regarding SEO or some other trend, and I always go back and check the date of that information. You definitely do not want to use SEO advice that’s five years old.
But Amy, I’m not writing about technology, it doesn’t matter if my posts are dated or not.
Will you be giving bad advice with an old post? Maybe and maybe not. But that doesn’t mean someone may not need to know when that content was written. In fact, I would argue that having older posts shows longevity and authority on a topic since you’ve been writing about it for a long time.
Will your site look out of date if you have old posts with dates?
The site will only look out of date if you haven’t added new content since those old posts. If you have old and new, you’re good. If you only have old, then yes, it might look out of date… because it is. So instead of hiding your out-of-date content, you should add fresh, new content. That’ll fix your problem without sneakily hiding the dates. 🙂
Amy Masson
Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.
Ok, ok, I restored the dates. You are very convincing.
I don’t mean to nag!