| name | content-dates |
| description | Use when auditing article or blog pages for date markup, generating Article JSON-LD with datePublished/dateModified, or checking whether a CMS template surfaces dates correctly. |
| metadata | {"category":"seo","priority":"medium","difficulty":"intermediate","estimatedTime":"10","source":"frontendchecklist.io","url":"https://frontendchecklist.io/en/rules/seo/content-dates"} |
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
dateModified in 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
dateModified only 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
datePublished and dateModified to the Article JSON-LD block:
{
"@type": "Article",
"datePublished": "2024-03-15T10:00:00Z",
"dateModified": "2024-11-20T14:30:00Z"
}
- Add Open Graph article time tags to
<head>:
<meta property="article:published_time" content="2024-03-15T10:00:00Z">
<meta property="article:modified_time" content="2024-11-20T14:30:00Z">
- Ensure your CMS or build system updates
dateModified automatically on content saves.
Explain
Google's freshness algorithm rewards recently published or updated content for time-sensitive queries. Structured date markup lets Google confidently surface the correct date in search snippets; without it, Google must guess from page text or HTTP headers, often producing wrong or missing dates.
Code Review
Verify that Article or BlogPosting JSON-LD includes both datePublished and dateModified in ISO 8601 format. Check that <time datetime='...'> elements in the body use machine-readable dates. Confirm dateModified updates when content changes, not just on every deploy.
For full implementation details, code examples, and framework-specific guidance,
see references/rule.md.
Rule page: https://frontendchecklist.io/en/rules/seo/content-dates
