I watch my blog stats once in a while (used to be a daily routine once). I notice that there are lots of readers for some of my old posts even though some of them may be outdated. When I noticed this, I stopped covering news on my blogs. I even wrote a post titled Does Currency of Information Matter?
Once in a while, I feel compelled to revisit a post and make some minor adjustments – add some new links or add a comment to updated information. I have been thinking about keeping my posts (at least a few of the popular ones) updated. Here are some ideas.
- Keep updating the posts with current information when relevant, but keep a copy of the old version. Obviously we need to use the same permalink (so that people see the latest version), but does that violate the concept of a perma link?
- Keep the old blog but change the beginning to link to a new version of the blog
- Write a new blog and give a new version number with a link to all the old versions (in case people want to follow entries and comments)
I may try all these different techniques. I am sure that some one already solved this problem. If you did, can you share it here? If not, any thoughts?
2 thoughts on “Blogs – Keeping Content Current”
For small changes I tend to use an “UPDATE (Date):” tag appended at the bottom, I may also use strikethrough to delete (logically) obsolete information but leave it legible. I tend to use numbered posts for a couple of topics where there has been a lot of interest and new info. All three of the approaches you cite are sound, I think it depends upon the situation (how much info is updated and how many times).
Sean,
Thanks. I started using “UPDATE(date):” on a couple of my blog posts.
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