Why age is important for thought leaders.

DATE = Context + Relevance.

No Date… When’s this from? When was this post, article, whitepaper, research from? Is this still relevant? Has it been updated? Can I trust this information? The last thing you should be doing in your first point of contact is getting a client to question your trustworthiness.

Especially in recent times, it’s completely valid to question whether something published yesterday is still relevant. So why do so many brands choose to remove dates from their thought leadership?

Surveying many professional firm sites, and having been involved in website development and management, I am definitely triggered when I see this:

Article…. no author or worse.. the author is Admin, there is no date - not even a year, no reference to who might be remotely interested in this content or if it’s even still trustworthy.

If it’s a law - is it still law, what’s happened since then?
If it’s an app - is it even still around?
If it’s a business - is it even operating anymore?

When I see ANY article that doesn’t have a date, I immediately question if it is even still relevant. 9/10 times I don’t click on it unless there’s nothing else. If I do, I’m very suspicious and often frustrated.

So, why are some websites omitting dates from their content?

Recent research by Harsh Agrawal (Shoutmeoutloud.com) created a stir when he decided to test the impact of removing dates from his blog (his main source of income) and saw traffic increase - an unexpected result. “When I added the dates back onto my blog posts, my blog traffic dropped by almost 40%.” - Search algorithms had trumped user experience once again, and he does acknowledge that if designing a good user experience - dates would be included.

My take: It would be very interesting to see the Agrawal’s conversion or leads generated as a statistic alongside his search results. Especially in professional services, UX is key.

Rather than focusing on what search engine results and keywords are doing, I strongly believe and recommend you write for the client you want, offer valuable content and make it easy for them to see the value you can create - answer their questions, provide resources and further info and ensure a good user experience (at the very least, include dates). It creates an environment of trust - and that’s what clients need before they can confidently take the next step - pick up the phone/write an email.