Keeping track of content.

...that needs to be updated.

[2oddSox]

Just wondering how other folks keep track of content that needs to be updated from time to time.

Try as I might to keep all my content 'evergreen', occasionally there'll be a sentence or three that is date-specific or similar.

Trouble is, as I add new sites, new content, new features, its getting more and more difficult to keep on top of keeping my content up-to-date. I sometimes cringe when I rediscover a page I've created that's so far out-of-date as to be laughable.

Anyone got any tips or suggestions as to minimise the cringe factor?

2odd...

[Whoa]

I would add a link that says:

"Click Here If You Think the Content On This Page Can Be Improved Upon or Is Out of Date."

or something like that. Then, have a form that allows visitors to give you feedback on your content.

Why try to keep track of it yourself when you can get help from visitors to your site? That is a better, more Web 2.0 approach.

[2oddSox]

Why try to keep track of it yourself when you can get help from visitors to your site?

Nice suggestion, but in my experience people just take and don't give. One of my sites states clearly that people should report broken links. It's in their interest to do so (particularly on this site), but in three years I think I've had two people tell me of broken links. It has a decent amount of daily traffic, but people tend to be just smash, grab and take.

[edited by: 2oddSox at 3:49 pm (utc) on Sep. 21, 2006]

[Car_Guy]

I keep a list of my URLs that have dates or anything else that becomes obsolete.

"Click Here If You Think the Content On This Page Can Be Improved Upon or Is Out of Date."
Why try to keep track of it yourself when you can get help from visitors to your site?

When I see something along those lines on a site, it creates the impression that its creator can't be bothered looking after their site. Sorry, but to me it implies laziness or indifference.

[Beagle]

What Car Guy said about keeping track. Perhaps made easier by trying to keep the content that references dates of upcoming events, releases of new products, etc., in one area of the site so you don't have to search through every page to find it. (If you need it in different parts of the site as far as visitors are concerned, because of the topics addressed, you can still set it up so that it's easy for you to locate the pages.)

On pages that can change quickly, I use the old "last updated on..." notice, so that visitors can see that it's not that I've neglected the page for three months - I just don't have the news break from two hours ago published yet.

In one of my topic areas, I have pages that are evergreen "historically" - where it actually makes sense to have pages where people can read what was being said about it five years ago (not in an "I remember when" fashion, but in an article that was actually written at the time). When pages like that are out-of-date as far as current news, I put them into an archive section with the original publication date noted at the top of the page. That saves me from ever needing to update them in the future.