Dates

Dates in search snippets are important clickthrough factors.

• People may click on a search snippet with a more recent date.
• They can scroll past an older date even when the page ranks higher.

Google has clear guidelines as to how publishers can keep dates fresh:

• Don’t hide dates, they are useful
• When updating a piece, re-publish it on a new date only when you’ve rewritten it - don’t redirect, better to update the old piece & change the publish date
• Include “Updated on” on top of the article if you updated it
• Using schema “datePublished” & “dateModified” is not reqd. but will be helpful