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Tip: Update articles that reference last year to avoid losing traffic

If your content isn't fresh, people won't read it. Keep them reading in the new year by updating any articles that reference last year.

Nobody wants to read old content, so if an article unnecessarily references last year, click-throughs and dwell time will likely decrease. And that can have an impact on your SEO. Check for articles with the previous year in the title by Googling site:yoursite.com intitle:2020. And search site:yoursite.com 2020 to find it in the articles' bodies. Then just change the headlines, bodies, meta-descriptions, and social titles where necessary. And while you're at it, give the article a once-over to check for other time-sensitive information. Lastly, make sure your page's <lastmod> is accurate. This kind of housekeeping doesn't take long, but it lets visitors know that you maintain your site and that your articles are up to date.

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  1. 2

    Did it. Easy peasy!

    Unfortunately it's a little harder if the year is also in the canonical URL.

    Updating the slug will probably break links elsewhere on the web.

    1. 3

      Not if you change the slug and put in a 301 redirect :)

      It's worth the effort to remove the year from the URL.

  2. 2

    This is pretty crucial. Here are two examples of sites where we did this:

    Site 1:

    enter image description here

    Site 2:

    enter image description here

    👉I wrote more about it here

    1. 1

      Not bad! 🙌

  3. 1

    I have seen sites that update automatically especially the year and month? Any tip to do it automatically. Furthermore truth be told we don't have that much time to keep updating our work. Unless they are evergreen but everything keeps changing fast

    1. 1

      Yeah, I totally get that. I know you can change copyright years and that type of thing automatically but it's harder for articles 😤

  4. 1

    I was working on that today, great timing!

    1. 1

      Great minds! 🤓

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