Blogging 101Tips for Christian Bloggers
Check this post Dates on Blog Posts - Should You Have Them? from ProBlogger Blog Tips:
Last week in my post exploring how to make blogs sticky I suggested (in point 14) that one technique to consider is to remove the dates from your blog posts. My theory is that dates can either add to or take away from a post. Let me explore this a little further:
When you put a date on a post you signal to your reader when the post was written. This is useful to readers wanting to make a judgment on how relevant the post is for them at any point of time. It signals to them that a post is current or recent when the date signals that it was written within the last weeks and signals to them that a post could be dated when the date is years back.
The Problem of Dates on Posts
The problem is that when you have a post that is ‘timeless’ (ie it doesn’t really date because the tips you give or the principles that you talk about will always apply) a date can act as a distraction to your reader. They arrive at the post and see that it was written in 2006 and a little warning bell goes off in their mind that what they are reading is not ‘current’.
As I mentioned in last week’s post - I’ve had comments numerous time on ‘old’ posts saying things like “this is old” or “this is out of date” even when the post was anything but out of date.
When a reader has this reaction no matter what your post contains - it’ll seem ‘old’ to them and you lose reader engagement. This might only happen to a small percentage of your readers but over time this adds up.
On the flip side - when a reader arrives on a post that IS recent and sees the date showing this you can actually get a good reaction because they get a sense that what they are reading is the latest thinking that you’ve had.
So dates can be good and bad. They can make a post seem dated or cutting edge.
So What’s a Blogger to Do? Should You Have Dates on Posts?
The key question to ask when it comes to whether or not to include the date of authorship on a post is - ‘is it relevant to the post?’