A Unique way to Auto Add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post Titles

This article is all about Adding a Dynamic Year in Selected Post Titles. I will share why you should Add Current Year in WP Post title using the shortcode. Along with that, I will also explain A Unique way to Auto Add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post Titles.

Using the same method, you can not only add a year, but you can also add month/date and/or day to WordPress Title. So that you can change the WordPress page title dynamically.

But before digging into the details, I would like to ask a very simple question about your behavior on the internet.

Have you ever observed your behavior to click on the Google Search Results Page?

Did you notice any pattern for choosing a particular link or post?

Hmm?? Any Guesses..??? Think about it for a second.

Okay, let me explain why I asked you to think about your behavior.

Why you should Add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post Titles

According to a study, humans’ eyes don’t read all the letters one by one, especially on the internet. Human eyes scan text for Highlighted Words, Numbers and Bullet Points.

Out of these three; Numbers made the most impact on the human brain. Digits or figures easily slides into your mind and hit it hard. After that, our mind says ‘this message is important’. And this is how we choose to discover the same.

Now, let’s assume that you have searched ‘fastest WordPress themes’ on Google. And you get results as per the following image.

Experts say that there are high chances that you will click on the Second (2nd) Search Result instead of First (1st).

Though, both the search results’ title start with digits.

But, the 2nd result also highlighted the Current Year and everybody wants to read newer information first. That’s why most of us would likely to click on the 2nd Search result.

At this point, you may argue that I’ll also read the date on which the article gets published and then choose the link.

I would say, Yes, this could be one of the deciding factors in this case, but most of the times there will be only one or two results with the current year or any kind of digit in the result titles.

And the study further reveals that Article Titles with Digits or Years got more clicks in comparison to the Titles without Digits.

I am hoping that now you have agreed with my point.

How you should Add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post Titles

So, we have learned that Digits and Figures are important and we should use the same in our Article Title. But how… what is the correct way out???

One can simply Add Current Year i.e. 2019 in the article title while writing it. Like I have added Year in this blog post related to Best Free CDN Providers for WordPress in 2019, Go check that out.

But what about after one year?

Suppose, you will get a Search Result in Jan 2019 with the Post Title mentioned 2018. Will you click on that search result?

Well, for me, it depends. My first preference would be any other latest search result instead of last year’s result. And, if I am not wrong, most of us will do the same.

People tend to give less importance to older information instead of new information.

So, next year, I have to update the post title manually to stay in the race. Right??

What if, your post title change automatically, and displays the current year instead of the old year.

How about adding a Dynamic Year in Post Title…??? or Add Current Year in WP Post title using shortcode..??  or change WordPress page title dynamically..?? That would be awesome… no…??

Hence, here I am sharing How to Auto Add Dynamic Year in WordPress post title using the WordPress post title shortcode method. These steps will help you to change WordPress page title dynamically.

1. First, you need to Activate shortcode for Post Title in WordPress,
2. Also, Activate shortcode for Yoast SEO Title and Meta Description (optional, if you are using the Yoast plugin).
3. And then create a shortcode, which dynamically displays current year,
4. Now, add Current Year in WP Post title using the shortcode.

How to Activate shortcode in WordPress Post Title

You need to add the following code into the functions.php file to activate WordPress post title shortcode:

//* Activate shortcode function in Post Title
add_filter( 'the_title', 'do_shortcode' );

The above-given code adds a filter to the_title WordPress Function, which allows you to use the shortcode in WordPress Title. Now, we’ll create a shortcode to display the current year dynamically.

How to Activate shortcode in Yoast Title and Meta Description

The process to use the shortcode in Yoast Title and Meta Description is similar to the use of shortcode in WordPress Post Title. Add the following code in function.php to do the same.

//* Activate shortcode function in Yoast Title and Meta Description 
add_filter( 'wpseo_title', 'do_shortcode' );
add_filter( 'wpseo_metadesc', 'do_shortcode' );

Now, let’s learn how to add dynamic Year/Month/Date/Day in WordPress post/page title.

How to Auto Add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post Titles

Again, add the given below code in the functions.php file of your WordPress theme:

//* Shortcode to display the current year in WordPress
//* shortcode: [year]
add_shortcode( 'year' , 'current_year' );
    function current_year() {
    $year = date("Y");
    return "$year";
}

Alright, now add this shortcode [year] in your post title and it will auto add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post/Page Titles.

At the backend, in WordPress post editor, your post title would look like…

Fastest WordPress Theme of [year]

And at the front end, your post title would look like…

Fastest WordPress Theme of 2019

If you want to add the day and month along with the year, please use the modified code below.

//* Shortcode to display the current date, month and year in WordPress
//* shortcode: [date_month_year]
add_shortcode( 'date_month_year' , 'current_date_month_year' );
function current_date_month_year() {
$year = date("Y");
$month = date("M");
$date = date("D");
return "$date, $month, $year";
}

Final Code to add in function.php

Let’s compile all the code here… to auto add dynamic yeat in WordPress

//* Shortcode to display the current date, month and year in WordPress
//* shortcode: [date_month_year]
add_shortcode( 'date_month_year' , 'current_date_month_year' );
function current_date_month_year() {
$year = date("Y");
$month = date("M");
$date = date("D");
return "$date, $month, $year";
}
add_filter( 'the_title', 'do_shortcode' ); // activate shortcode in WP Title
add_filter( 'wpseo_title', 'do_shortcode' ); // activate shortcode in Yoast Title
add_filter( 'wpseo_metadesc', 'do_shortcode' ); // activate shortcode in Yoast Meta Description

//* Shortcode to display the Copyright Year in WordPress 
//* shortcode: [copyright_year] 
add_shortcode( 'copyright_year' , 'add_copyright_year' ); 
function add_copyright_year() { 
$copyright_year = date("Y"); 
return '© ' . "$copyright_year"; 
}

Use Custom Date and Time formatting

If you want to customize the formatting of date, month or year i.e. use ‘March’ (in full) instead of ‘Mar’. Here are the codes you can use for the same.

# Custom formatting for Year

• “Y” – Capital Y to display 4 digits (Numeric) year i.e. 2019, 2020
• “y” – Small y to display 2 digits (Numeric) year i.e. 19, 20

# Custom formatting for Month

• “M” – Capital M to display 2 letters month i.e. Mar, Apr
• “F” – Small M to display full word month i.e. March, April
• “m” – Small m to display month in digits with leading zeros (Numeric) i.e. 03, 04, 11, 12
• “n” – Small y to display month in digits without leading zeros (Numeric) i.e. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11

# Custom formatting for Day

• “S” – Capital S to display the day of the month with the English suffix (st, nd, rd or th) i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 15th
• “d” – Small d to display day in digits with leading zeros (Numeric) i.e. 01, 02, 25, 30
• “j” – Small j to display day in digits without leading zeros (Numeric) i.e. 1, 2, 3, 20, 31

By default, WordPress offers a couple of other Dates and Time formats, which can be used. Read more here for details.

Wrapping it Up

I do Auto Add Dynamic Year in WordPress Post Titles on various blogs using the shortcode in WordPress Post Title. Do you use this trick on your WP blog? or you might find this information useful and plan to give it a shot.

I would recommend you to go ahead and give it a try. You can also modify this code for the customized shortcode you want to use in Post Title. Because the possibilities here are endless.

Do let me know if you face any issue to Add Current Year in WP Post title using the shortcode.

Happy blogging!!!

Further readings…

• The Right way to Optimize WordPress Robots.txt file for SEO
• How to Optimize Images in WordPress
• Most SEO friendly Permalink Structure for WordPress
• How to Display Code Snippets in WordPress Post or Page
• Disable WordPress Visual Editor on Individual Posts and Pages