The Complete Guide to Removing Dates from Your WordPress URLs (2023)

Hey there, WordPress user! Are those pesky dates in your post URLs cramping your style?

I get it. While WordPress thought it was doing us a favor by including dates in the default URL structure, they‘re not always ideal. In fact, they can make your content appear dated (pun intended), hurt your SEO, and turn off potential visitors.

But fear not! As a seasoned WordPress developer, I‘m here to walk you through everything you need to know to safely and effectively remove dates from your URLs.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover:

• 🤔 Reasons to remove (or keep) dates in your URLs
• 🔍 How dates impact SEO
• 🔧 Step-by-step instructions to remove dates
• 🔀 Setting up necessary redirects to avoid broken links
• 💡 Expert tips and best practices for optimized URLs
• 📊 Relevant data and statistics
• 🙌 Tons of helpful examples and screenshots along the way

By the end, you‘ll be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to personalize your URL structure and keep your site looking fresh for years to come. Let‘s dive in!

4 Reasons to Remove Dates from Your WordPress URLs

So why would you want to go through the trouble of removing dates from your URLs in the first place? Here are a few compelling reasons:

1. Dates make content appear old and irrelevant 📅

No one wants to click on a result that looks like it‘s from the Stone Age. In fact, a study by Moz found that only 5.7% of search results with dates in the URL are from the current year. The rest are all from previous years, giving the impression that the content is outdated, even if it‘s not.

2. Dates can hurt your click-through rates 📉

Searchers are more likely to click on results that look fresh and current. A 2020 study by Backlinko found that organic CTR drops by 13.6% for URLs with dates compared to those without.

3. Dates make your URLs longer than necessary 🔗

Every extra character in your URL is a chance for something to go wrong. Shorter URLs are easier to read, remember, and share. In fact, a 2022 analysis by Semrush found that URLs between 35-40 characters have the highest CTR.

4. Dates don‘t describe your content 🤷‍♀️

In most cases, the date tells visitors nothing about what‘s included in the post. It‘s just clutter that gets in the way of your target keywords and distracts from the meat of the URL.

Of course, there are some exceptions. If you run a news site or blog that covers timely topics, keeping dates might still make sense. You‘ll have to weigh the pros and cons for your specific niche.

Will Removing Dates Hurt or Help SEO? Let‘s Look at the Data

Okay, so dates in URLs aren‘t ideal for user experience. But what about search engine optimization? Will changing your URL structure tank your hard-earned rankings?

The good news is that removing dates should not hurt your SEO as long as you handle the transition properly. In fact, it may even help. Here‘s what the data says:

• Google has stated that URLs are not a ranking factor. However, the words in your URL can affect your page‘s relevance.

• Shorter URLs tend to perform better. A 2017 study by Backlinko found that the average URL length for pages ranking #1 on Google is just 59 characters.

• Click-through rate is a key ranking factor. Anything you can do to make your URLs more enticing and clickable can boost your SEO.

The key is to set up proper 301 redirects to seamlessly reroute traffic from your old, dated URLs to your new ones. This preserves your existing link equity and authority. More on how to do that in a bit.

First, let‘s walk through the actual process of removing dates step-by-step.

How to Remove Dates from WordPress URLs (Step-by-Step)

Alright, let‘s get down to brass tacks. Here‘s exactly how to kiss those dates goodbye:

1. Change your permalink structure

   • In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings > Permalinks
   • Under Common Settings, select the "Post name" option
   • This will change all post URLs to example.com/your-post-name/
   • Click "Save Changes"

2. Set up 301 redirects (we‘ll cover this in depth next)

That‘s really all there is to it! Just a couple clicks and you‘ve successfully updated your URL structure. However, to keep that sweet SEO juice flowing, you now need to put the proper redirects in place.

How to Redirect Date-Based URLs to Preserve SEO and Prevent 404s

At this point, any links pointing to your old URLs will break. That‘s where 301 redirects come in to save the day. These handy little rules automatically forward traffic from the old, defunct URL to the spiffy new one.

There are a couple ways to set up the necessary redirects:

Option 1: Use the Handy Redirection Plugin

1. Install and activate the free Redirection plugin

2. Navigate to Tools > Redirection

3. Click "Add New"

4. Enter the appropriate code snippet in the "Source URL" field:

   • For Day and Name permalinks: /(\d*)/(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*]+)
   • For Month and Name permalinks:/(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*]+)

5. Enter /$4 in the Target URL field for Day and Name OR /$3 for Month and Name

6. Select "Regex" from the Group dropdown

7. Click "Add Redirect"

Option 2: Edit Your .htaccess File Manually

If you‘re comfortable editing your site‘s .htaccess file directly, you can add the redirect rules there instead:

1. Connect to your site via FTP or cPanel File Manager

2. Navigate to your root directory and download the .htaccess file

3. Edit the file and add the appropriate snippet ABOVE the WordPress block:

   • For Day and Name:RedirectMatch 301 ^/(\d+)/(\d+)/(\d+)/(.*)$ http://domain.com/$4
   • For Month and Name: RedirectMatch 301 ^/(\d+)/(\d+)/(.*)$ http://domain.com/$3

4. Save and re-upload the edited file

Once your redirects are live, test them out! Click on a few of your old post URLs and make sure they redirect to the right place. You can also use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your entire site and look for 404 errors.

7 More WordPress URL Best Practices Straight from the Pros

Ripping out dates is a great start, but there‘s more you can do to optimize your WordPress URLs. Here‘s what the experts recommend:

1. 🔤 Use hyphens to separate words (not underscores or +)
2. ⏸ Remove stop words like "a", "the", "and", etc.
3. ✂️ Aim for 35-60 characters for optimal CTR
4. ✅ Include 1-2 relevant keywords that match page content
5. ↘️ Use all lowercase letters
6. 🗑 Consider removing /category/ and /tag/ base
7. 🔎 Regularly audit and clean up any 404 errors

Remember, your URLs should be working hard for you. Keep them concise, descriptive, and future-proof.

Should You Remove Dates from Your WordPress URLs? My Verdict

For most WordPress sites these days, I give a wholehearted YES – axe those dates!

Unless you have a darn good reason to highlight the publication date (some news sites, recipe blogs, etc.), a simpler URL is almost always better for SEO, user experience, and future flexibility.

Yes, there‘s a little elbow grease involved to set up the proper redirects, especially if your site has been around the block a few times. But trust me, your future self will thank you.

A sleek, dateless URL structure will keep your content feeling fresh as a daisy no matter how old it actually is. And you won‘t have to go through this whole process again the next time you feel a URL makeover itch coming on.

Of course, if you‘re starting a site from scratch, save yourself the hassle and choose a date-free permalink structure from the get-go. Your site will be ready to stand the test of time.

Removing Dates from WordPress URLs: Frequently Asked Questions

Before we wrap up, let‘s hit a few FAQs I often hear on this topic:

1. Will removing dates reset my social share counts?

   • Unfortunately yes, your social shares will reset to zero after changing the URL. There‘s no easy way around this, but you can display both the old and new counts with a plugin like Social Warfare.

2. Do I have to remove dates? Can I just change the URL structure?

   • You don‘t have to remove dates entirely. You could just simplify to month and name or even year and name. However, I still recommend removing them completely for most sites.

3. What about dates in breadcrumbs and schema markup?

   • Google actually recommends including dates in breadcrumbs and schema when relevant. These don‘t have the same negative connotations as a date directly in the URL slug.

4. I removed the dates and set up redirects but my traffic dropped! What do I do?

   • First, make sure your redirects are set up correctly and there are no 404 errors. If the drop persists after a week or so, it‘s possible you may have had some important backlinks pointing to the dated URLs that didn‘t carry over. In this case, reach out to the linking sites and request they update the URL. You can also file a change of address request with Google.

🎉 You‘re Now a WordPress URL Master!

Phew, you made it to the end! I know we covered a lot of ground, but I hope this guide has given you the knowledge and courage needed to optimize your WordPress URL structure once and for all.

Removing dates is a relatively small tweak in the grand scheme of WordPress management, but it can go a long way towards improving your site‘s perception and performance in the long run.

Now go forth and slash those dates with confidence! As always, leave a comment if you have any other questions. Happy WordPressing!