Are dates in URLs a problem for evergreen content?
- Published November 6, 2026
- Linked from 1 answer
- In a cluster of 51
For a page you plan to keep updating, yes, though not because of a Google rule: its URL structure guidelines do not mention dates in URLs. The problem is the update itself. A URL with a year in it keeps that year after the content is refreshed, so a guide revised this year can still show last year’s date wherever the URL appears, in shared links and in results that display it. You do not have to change the URL each year: the page can keep its old slug and show the current date on the page and in dateModified. Changing the URL is the only way to remove the old year from it, and that means a redirect, a recrawl and a period while the page settles at its new address. A URL without a date never has to change for that reason.
When a date in the URL fits and when it does not
| Content | Date in the URL? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| News, announcements, event write-ups | Fine | The date is part of what the page is; it will not be updated to a new year |
| Annual reports or "2025 results" pages meant to sit beside next year's | Fine | Each year is a separate page by design |
| Guides, how-tos and reference pages you will revise | Better without | The date goes stale at the first update and cannot be changed without moving the page |
| Lists titled "best of" a year that you plan to refresh | No | Keep the year in the title, where you can change it, and out of the slug |
Where the date belongs instead
Show the date on the page, where readers see it and where you can change it. Google’s guidance on publication dates asks for a user-visible date featured prominently, and lets you add the published and modified dates in structured data. Those can be updated with every revision; a date in the slug cannot.
Some content systems add the date to the URL by default, as a /2024/05/ folder path. On a new site, switch that setting off before publishing. On an existing site, weigh the cost first: changing every dated URL is a site-wide URL change, with the redirects and the settling period that brings.
Fixing an existing dated URL
Change it only for a page that matters and that you will keep updating. Add a 301 from the old URL in the same release, update internal links, and expect the page to move for a while; the steps are in what happens to rankings when you change a URL slug. For a dated page you will not update again, leave it as it is. Keep dates out of the URLs of pages meant to last.
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