Rant: How To Update Your Blog Posts (Should You Even Do It?)
Posted: December 5, 2024
Updating Blog Posts: This is a seemingly controversial topic.
Back in the day, you bought a Lonely Planet Guide Book. The traveller's bible. There was no internet, no smartphone. You lived off your wits, you talked to people, and you navigated your way around places using the maps provided in the Lonely Planet. And it worked. Dare I say, better than it does now.
In the Lonely Planet, there was a disclaimer of sorts. Prices for hostels, buses, and attractions would increase or decrease. Businesses would move, close, burn down, go upmarket. Things changed. You looked at the date the book was published and took the details at face value.
Now, bloggers are updating the date in the blog post automatically in bulk. As the clock ticks over into a new year, blog posts entitled Best Hotels in Rome in 2024 suddenly become Best Hotels in Rome in 2025. This is so wrong that I don't even know where to start.
Some bloggers just run the post for typos or add a photo, and Google will list the post as having been updated. This is NOT updating a post. This, in my view, is called tweaking the post.
If you spent time going to a place, collecting info: prices, opening hours, entrance fees, locations, it is your duty as a blogger that if you are going to update a blog post, you return to a place and check out all the relevant details again, personally.
I have just made a 3rd trip to the Teotihuacán, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, 50 km from Mexico City. My original blog post from 2020 included details such as the location of the bus terminal, the company that runs the bus and the bus fare. The blog post was entitled: How to get from Mexico City to Teotihuacan by bus. It wasn't about the site per se, just how to get there. But for added detail, I included the entrance fees and the opening hours.
Since my 1st trip, 4 things had changed. The bus fare had increased, the entrance fee for the site had increased, the opening hours extended and the place where the bus stopped changed. 4 key points that are essential for the traveller, and make the post what it is.
I am based in Mexico City. I can go back to places and check the details and update my posts. I have travelled in more than 120 countries and territories, do you think I am going back to places, like Senegal again, just so I can apply for another Mali visa, so that I can bring you the latest info? No.
Write the date on the post or just delete the post as it's highly likely that the post is no longer relevant anyways but if the post is part of the your journey, leave it.
All my posts are dated. You can easily see when the information and logistics were collected. Expect some changes.
If you can't update all the essential points, leave the blog post alone.
Rant over!
Back in the day, you bought a Lonely Planet Guide Book. The traveller's bible. There was no internet, no smartphone. You lived off your wits, you talked to people, and you navigated your way around places using the maps provided in the Lonely Planet. And it worked. Dare I say, better than it does now.
In the Lonely Planet, there was a disclaimer of sorts. Prices for hostels, buses, and attractions would increase or decrease. Businesses would move, close, burn down, go upmarket. Things changed. You looked at the date the book was published and took the details at face value.
Now, bloggers are updating the date in the blog post automatically in bulk. As the clock ticks over into a new year, blog posts entitled Best Hotels in Rome in 2024 suddenly become Best Hotels in Rome in 2025. This is so wrong that I don't even know where to start.
Some bloggers just run the post for typos or add a photo, and Google will list the post as having been updated. This is NOT updating a post. This, in my view, is called tweaking the post.
If you spent time going to a place, collecting info: prices, opening hours, entrance fees, locations, it is your duty as a blogger that if you are going to update a blog post, you return to a place and check out all the relevant details again, personally.
I have just made a 3rd trip to the Teotihuacán, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, 50 km from Mexico City. My original blog post from 2020 included details such as the location of the bus terminal, the company that runs the bus and the bus fare. The blog post was entitled: How to get from Mexico City to Teotihuacan by bus. It wasn't about the site per se, just how to get there. But for added detail, I included the entrance fees and the opening hours.
Since my 1st trip, 4 things had changed. The bus fare had increased, the entrance fee for the site had increased, the opening hours extended and the place where the bus stopped changed. 4 key points that are essential for the traveller, and make the post what it is.
I am based in Mexico City. I can go back to places and check the details and update my posts. I have travelled in more than 120 countries and territories, do you think I am going back to places, like Senegal again, just so I can apply for another Mali visa, so that I can bring you the latest info? No.
Write the date on the post or just delete the post as it's highly likely that the post is no longer relevant anyways but if the post is part of the your journey, leave it.
All my posts are dated. You can easily see when the information and logistics were collected. Expect some changes.
If you can't update all the essential points, leave the blog post alone.
Rant over!
