As you all know, I am a huge fan of dates on articles and blog content. I even suggested Google should penalize pages that do not put dates on articles. Google has not gone that far, yet - but John Mueller seems to be a fan of dates on articles as well.
John Mueller from Google wrote on Twitter that you should put dates on stuff because it helps your users. He wrote "Why not put a date on it? I personally find it really useful to know that when reading something. It's great to see evergreen content, and it's great to see new looks at an old or new topic. All have their place. Write something awesome & stand by it!"
Why not put a date on it? I personally find it really useful to know that when reading something. It's great to see evergreen content, and it's great to see new looks at an old or new topic. All have their place. Write something awesome & stand by it!
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) August 29, 2018
We do know that Google can penalize date bylines in snippets if they are abused - which they are by many publishers. But not having a date at all is currently something Google does not penalize for.
Of course, web site static content doesn't need a date. But any news, articles, blogs, research, etc, should have dates and even time stamps - of course, this is my opinion. I just personally hate reading content that isn't timestamped.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
