Urls have dates - bad? terrible?

[comforteagle]

My URLs include dates: example.com/2009-05/post-about-something.html

I know this isn't the 'best', but is there any reason to be concerned?  Some panda, duplicate content, google hates date in URLs, I should know about?

[SDSLaw]

Heck no you shouldn't be concerned. If someone told you that Google hates "dates"-- that is just wrong. How is that a date? What if that was the category number for a line of products? So all of the parts from 79-86 get their own section.

i.e.-- chevynovacarparts/01-1979-06-1981/steeringwheels.html

That's called good site organization and Google will reward you for that.

I don't see how you could have duplicate content, unless you wrote the same post. Duplicate content is most definitely NOT having something in the same category or "taxonomy." I have 20 mosts under a given month on one of my blogs... And they all go in that month category / taxonomy.

In this case, your posts are organized by date. There's nothing wrong with that.

With the HTML extension, I am assuming you are not using a content management system. (Or, you are using a WP plug-in that adds the HTML extension-- smart!) If you were using a content management system, like Wordpress-- much of the content is organized just like this and Google loves it.

I have a number of websites on page one across many different industries. All of them are in Wordpress and all of them have dates in the URL.

It's just a way of organizing your content. I think the opposite of what you think is true: I think the dates may help you-- but never harm you.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi!

Michael pretty much summed it up for you. There's no concern of anything bad. Plenty of blogs etc have the URL as part of the date structure (even mine!).

If I were to start over I would not use dates - or I would put the dates at the end  of my URL like: domain.com/blog/post-about-something/06/08/2012

But no need to switch now that you've already started that way - especially if you have like more than 10 posts.

Its argued in some cases they are good to have for analytics purposes. Almost like Michael is talking about with URLs having product IDs.

But you're not in danger of a penalty or unusual algorithmic filter or anything that I'm aware of.

-Dan