About the Content Freshness Checker
Pages often carry several dates: datePublished and dateModified in JSON-LD, article:published_time meta tags, time elements, visible "Updated on" text, the Last-Modified HTTP header and a copyright year in the footer. This content freshness checker fetches a public URL from our server, lists every date signal it finds and flags those that are old or disagree with each other.
Consistent dates help search engines and readers understand when content was published and last changed. Google recommends showing a clear visible date and matching it in structured data. Do not change dates without making meaningful updates; refresh the content first, then update dateModified and the visible date together. An old copyright year is a small but visible sign of a neglected site.
How to use it
- Enter the URL of the page you want to check.
- Review all date signals found and their sources.
- Look for stale dates and conflicts between structured data and visible text.
- Update the content, then align visible and structured dates.
Frequently asked questions
Does updating the date improve rankings?
Changing a date without changing the content is not a reliable tactic and can mislead readers. Freshness matters for some queries, such as news or prices, but the benefit comes from genuinely updated information. Update the substance, then update the date to reflect it.
Which date does Google use?
Google uses several signals, including visible dates on the page and datePublished and dateModified in structured data. Its guidance is to show a clear date and keep it consistent with the structured data. Conflicting dates make it harder to determine the correct one.
Why does the Last-Modified header show today's date?
Many servers and CMSs generate pages dynamically and send the current time as Last-Modified, or omit it. It often reflects when the HTML was built, not when the content changed, so treat it as a weak signal compared with on-page dates.