Should You Put Dates in Blog Post URLs?

Some websites use URLs such as /2026/05/14/best-laptops. Others use /best-laptops. The right choice depends on the type of content you publish.

Arguments for dates

• News and time-sensitive content. For news sites, the date is useful information and helps readers judge how current a story is.
• Avoiding collisions. Two stories with the same title in different years get different URLs.
• Archive navigation. Users can sometimes browse by year or month.

Arguments against dates

• Content looks outdated. A guide updated last week still shows an old date in the URL, which can reduce clicks.
• Updating is awkward. Refreshing an article to keep it current does not change its URL date, so the URL and content disagree.
• Longer URLs that are harder to read and share.

Recommendations

Moving away from date URLs

If your blog currently uses dated URLs and you want to switch:

1. Change your CMS permalink structure.
2. Set up 301 redirects from every old URL to the new one. Many platforms offer pattern-based redirects that handle this in one rule.
3. Update internal links and the sitemap.
4. Monitor search performance for a few weeks.

Use the slug generator with stop-word removal and a length limit to create concise, timeless slugs for new posts.

Frequently asked questions

Should blog URLs have dates?

Should blog URLs have dates? For news, dates in URLs can help. For evergreen content, no: evergreen URLs without dates age better and suit a clean URL structure for blogs.

What is a good slug for a blog post?

A good slug for blog post URLs is the core topic in three to five words, such as /improve-sleep-quality. Keep it as your blog URL slug for life; the same rules apply to any page URL slug.