Why You Should Date Your Blog Posts

You are doing your readers a disservice by not including the date on your blog posts.

I had a debate with a friend recently on Mack Collier’s BlogChat. He said that it was his blog and his decision whether to include dates. His point was a valid one, but it’s not good enough to me.

I have been blogging at davemadethat.com since January 2007. If somebody happens upon old content about a discontinued service or company that is out of business, they need only look at the date to understand why.

Not only are you doing your readers a disservice by not including the date, you are doing yourself one too. Including the date will reduce comments and questions in the future about why you are recommending a defunct service. Trust me, I still get some and I have the dates included.

So why exclude the date?

The first and only reason I can see is that you are not committed to blogging regularly. I take weeks off sometimes, but I have been better at keeping up with my new blog.

I asked the question on Twitter to see what your take was. Here’s what you said.

@davedelaney To avoid the perception that the content is dated? If it’s evergreen, someone may read it years later.

— Erik Fisher (@ErikJFisher) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney I’m with @nash_jen. If I can’t find the date of a post, I assume it’s old material and I look for something more current.

— Micah Smith (@MrsMicahSmith) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney don’t have to update as often as new readers won’t know when you lasted posted?

— Laurie Westphal (@GTConsultant) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney If content is timeless then no date needed but if content is date sensitive then add the date.

— by Jeffery Johnson (@PhotoCaptures) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney I’ve seen it done so readers don’t automatically assume a post from two years ago is no longer relevant. Everything’s evergreen

— Joey Strawn (@joey_strawn) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney That way you can re-link to something old, but it seems new to newer readers (as long as it’s not time sensitive).

— Ryan Haack (@LivingOneHanded) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney While I don’t do it, I think some do because they feel their info is “timeless” and it’s easier to reshare months down the road

— Liz Jostes (@LizJostes) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney keeps content more evergreen and allows you to share stuff down the road without it seeming ‘old’

— John Michael Morgan (@johnmorgan) August 31, 2012

@davedelaney I try to just say “from the archives” and date it. Otherwise it can be a disappointment; often I’ve already read the post.

— Jim Woods (@unknownjim) August 31, 2012

What do you think?

Did we miss any reasons to blog without dates?

Thank you for your answers.

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