How to Add Dynamic Year on WordPress Blog Post Title (Without Plugin)

Using dynamic year and month in your post titles and content can provide a sense of timeliness and relevance to your content. By including the current year and month in your titles, you signal to your audience that the information you provide is up-to-date and reflects the latest developments in your field. This can help attract more readers and establish your credibility as a reliable source of information.

When it comes to enhancing your WordPress site with custom features, you typically have two options: employing a plugin or opting for manual implementation. However, there’s a straightforward approach for seamlessly integrating a dynamic year into your blog post titles without resorting to the installation of an additional plugin.

By creating a shortcode, you can effortlessly infuse a dynamic year into your blog post titles. This method ensures that the year is always current, enhancing the relevance of your content. The beauty of this technique lies in its simplicity and lightweight – you can insert the shortcode directly within your blog title, without the need for unnecessary plugin installations.

How to Add Dynamic Year in Blog Post Title

Creating the Shortcode

Before creating the shortcode, you might need to decide where to place the shortcode snippet first. The first option is by adding the shortcode snippet to your active theme functions.php file which you can access by navigating to Appearance Theme File Editor from your WordPress admin dashboard. If you use a block theme, you can find Theme File Editor under the Tools menu. Copy the following snippet to the bottom of the file.

//enable the shortcode for post title 
add_filter( 'the_title', 'do_shortcode' );

//shortcode to display current year 
function wpp_currentyear(){
    $year= date("Y");
    return $year;   
}
add_shortcode ('currentyear','wpp_currentyear');

The code above will enable shortcode usage on the blog title and create the 2025 shortcode to display the current year.

The second option is to place all of your custom code in an organized and streamlined way by utilizing the Code Snippet plugin. This method is particularly helpful if you’re using the “Twenty Twenty Three” theme which doesn’t have a functions.php file by default. This way also makes your modification likely to persist after the theme update.

Insert the Shortcode Within the Title

Once you’ve created the 2025 shortcode, whether you use WordPress default editor or a popular page builder like Divi Builder and Elementor all you need to do is insert the shortcode within your blog title. You can place the shortcode anywhere within the title and it will display the current year in its place on the front end.

WordPress Editor
Front End

The Bottom Line

Incorporating dynamic year and month references into your post titles and content lends an immediate and relevant quality to your material, showcasing its timeliness and credibility. This practice not only attracts a wider readership but also establishes you as a dependable source of up-to-date information. By opting for a shortcode-based approach, you can seamlessly infuse your blog post titles with a current year, enhancing content relevance without the need for additional plugin installations.

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Picture of Hendri Risman

Hendri Risman

Hendri is a WordPress expert and a writer staff at WPPagebuilders. He writes solutions on how to get things fixed in WordPress a lot. Mostly without involving a plugin.
Want to start a profitable blog with WordPress? OF COURSE!

2 thoughts on “How to Add Dynamic Year on WordPress Blog Post Title (Without Plugin)”

  1. How do you do this without having it show as [year] in the browser bar, it works for the post title, but if you look at the top of the browser window it looks weird

    Reply
    • Hi Dan,
      To display the year correctly in the browser tab title, you’ll need to manually echo the shortcode result in the “title” tag of your theme.

      Reply

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