2

I am using WordPress with permalink as domain/post_name

Although my theme provide modified and published date and theses info shown in the google structure test I have noted that the date doesn’t appear in the SERP as shown in the second result

enter image description here

My questions are

  • Why the date does not appear in SERP

  • Is it important to show this date in SERP?

  • What’re the preferred permalinks for SEO? domain/post_name or domain/date/post_name

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Hello and thank you for the question.

  • There are a variety of reasons for why the date does not appear in SERP. I will elaborate below.
  • As with everything in SEO, it depends. Is it important? That depends on user behavior and if your users are more likely to click on results which display a date. This is something that you might want to test if you can. But generally speaking, if you are publishing timely or time-sensitive content, then users are probably looking at dates to gauge content "freshness".
  • With regards to permalink structure, again it really depends on your content and your user's expectations. Are you publishing news content and do your users expect to see or specifically look for timestamps in order to gauge freshness? If so, then I would opt to go with dates in the URL. However, keep in mind that one of the biggest downsides to URL dates is the constant need to redirect URLs whenever you update your content. Evergreen URLs are slightly more optimal because they allow you to aggregate link equity across a single URL, rather than needing to redirect with each update.

Now with regards to why the date are not appearing in the SERP, this is an excellent resource that goes into the specifics of this topic.

  • Google shows the date of a page when its automated systems determine that it would be relevant to do so, such as for pages that can be time-sensitive, including news content.
  • Google determines a date using a variety of factors, including but not limited to: any prominent date listed on the page itself or dates provided by the publisher through structured markup. //you should note that if you have multiple dates on a single page this can sometimes throw Google off and confuse them. The best practice is to clearly display one single publish date on the page and to reference that same date in your schema markup//.

To help Google to pick the right date, site owners and publishers should:

  • Show a clear date: Show a visible date prominently on the page.
  • Use structured data: Use the datePublished and dateModified schema with the correct time zone designator for AMP or non-AMP pages. When using structured data, make sure to use the ISO 8601 format for dates.
Improve this answer
1
  • Thank you so much for your valuable answer, where can I add date schema in my post, the theme already show the published date at the beginning of each post, it there any something else? Also, please your input is full appreciated at this question, I would be grateful if you helped me webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/127613/… Thank you
    – Mohamed El-Qassas MVP
    Jul 15, 2020 at 9:28

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.