Republishing an article can be very useful. Especially with blogs you often see that old content is ready for an update. Do you want to republish articles in WordPress? In this article, I tell you all about it.
I regularly update old content at TopTut.com. Depending on how significant update is, I may adjust the date of a message or page. Especially with (blog) messages, adjusting the date is useful: your blog post will be at the top of the overview and Google will see that it is a new article. Another big advantage of updating old content is that the authority that built your article on search engines is not lost in this way.
Why publish (old) articles again?
Updating old content on your website and republishing it has many advantages. First, your visitors will appreciate that you keep your content up-to-date. For example, articles that I wrote on toptut.com five years ago are often outdated. For example, it may be that at the time I recommended a specific plugin that no longer exists or is no longer reliable. When I come across such an (old) article, I usually put it on my “to do” list to rewrite and republish it.
More importantly, Google loves “fresh content”. Regularly posting a new message on your website or blog can do huge wonders for the amount of traffic on your website. Re-publishing an old article can in this way even ensure that your existing content gets a huge boost in Google’s search results.
When you make small changes to an article, it is basically enough to click on “Update” in WordPress. You do not have to adjust the date here, because you do not add anything new. But if you have completely rewritten an old article, I would definitely recommend changing the date to “today.”
Re-publish articles in WordPress
Weather you are using a traditional WordPress blog or the best multi-purpose theme It is advisable to change the date of a message only when you have indeed updated the content. Or if you have completely rewritten an old article. If you change the date without making any (significant) changes, Google will see that and think that you are fooling things (and rightly so).
But how do you adjust the date of an existing (blog) message in WordPress? This is very simple. Edit a message in WordPress and search for the heading “Publish”. Now click on “Edit” below the date to be able to change the date (see also the image on the right). Then click Update and the date of your article will be updated. Based on the date you have entered, the article will also be given a new place in the (chronological) order of your blog posts.
When not to republish?
There are also scenarios in which you better not republish an article. For example, it may be that a relatively old article is still very up-to-date. In that case, there is no reason to republish the article unless you want to publish an improved version of the old article.
For example, I regularly rewrite articles from five years ago, because the quality of my paperwork has increased considerably over the past five years. When an article has been completely re-written, it is great to re-publish it.
