Show published and updated dates
Google uses publication and modification dates to assess content freshness, which influences rankings for time-sensitive queries. Visible dates also build user trust by signalling that content is current and maintained.
Quick Reference
- Include a visible published date and a
dateModifiedin JSON-LD for every article or blog post - Use ISO 8601 format (
2024-03-15T10:00:00Z) in structured data; human-readable in the visible UI - Update
dateModifiedonly when content meaningfully changes — not on trivial edits
Check
On each article or blog page, check: (1) Is there a visible published date in the page body or byline? (2) Does the JSON-LD Article or BlogPosting block include datePublished and dateModified properties in ISO 8601 format? (3) Does the <head> include <meta property="article:published_time"> and <meta property="article:modified_time"> Open Graph tags?
Fix
- Add a visible publication date in the page byline:
<time datetime="2024-03-15">March 15, 2024</time>. - Add
datePublishedanddateModifiedto the Article JSON-LD block:{ "@type": "Article", "datePublished": "2024-03-1…