Why Your Evergreen Content Doesn’t Rank In Google When The Topic Is In The News

Google’s Danny Sullivan responded to a complaint around why a well-researched and detailed piece of content around Gwyneth Paltrow was not ranking above the “the obvious spammy robo chat churners,” as the publisher put it. The answer, having dates on fresh content is important for Google to understand the content is recent and recently updated.

Here is the original complaint on Twitter:

I wrote this to highlight how regurgitators are flooding Google. And not just the obvious spammy robo chat churners, high quality authoritative publishers have made content regurgitation a pillar of their editorial processes. AI pours fuel on the fire. https://t.co/iSyHJZPHp0

— Celebrity Net Worth (@celebnetworth) March 31, 2023

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, a few days later, came in and gave a pretty detailed answer in the form of a Twitter thread. Ultimately, he said, “So for you (or anyone) publishing content, dates can be helpful. Helps readers know the currency of the information. Helps us understand if the content’s been recently updated, especially perhaps is something is in the news.”

Here is that thread:

Consider the post you wrote about this situation. You saw it appear in Top Stories. So clearly, Google understands you produce news content relevant for that area and that this is fresh. A key aspect was probably that post had a clear date: pic.twitter.com/B75cArpKgH

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 3, 2023

Google Search itself also tries to understand dates to know if content if fresh or updated, and our guidance is here (it also talks about showing a visible date): https://t.co/fHlkbV0Mfk

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 3, 2023

So for you (or anyone) publishing content, dates can be helpful. Helps readers know the currency of the information. Helps us understand if the content’s been recently updated, especially perhaps is something is in the news.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 3, 2023

For what it is worth, I personally see this site ranking number four in Google Search for [Gwyneth Paltrow net worth].

Forum discussion at Twitter.