By Iliass El Barhoumi · Published · Last updated
How is freshness signals scored?
Freshness signals is worth 4 of 100 points, 4 of the 15 in the Ranked lever, which asks “Does this read as a source worth trusting?” The engine scores it with these rules:
- 2 points for a date a reader can see, labelled as published or updated.
- 2 points for datePublished or dateModified in the JSON-LD.
- Age is reported but never scored: a page older than 2 years is flagged in the summary, because an evergreen reference is not wrong for being old.
What does a pass and a fail look like?
| Verdict | Example |
|---|---|
| Pass | “Published 4 August 2026 · Last updated 1 October 2026” under the title, with the same two dates in the Article JSON-LD. |
| Fail | No visible date, and a dateModified that changes on every deploy. The first gives an engine nothing; the second tells it something untrue. |
How do you fix freshness signals?
In the order worth doing it:
- Show the published and last-updated dates near the title.
- Put the same dates in datePublished and dateModified.
- Change dateModified only when the content changes, not when the site is redeployed.
A scan reports the evidence behind the verdict, such as the sections, paragraphs or tokens that failed, and the fix prompt hands the same evidence to a coding agent so it can make the change for you.
Related checks in the Ranked lever
- How does an AI engine decide who wrote a page? — 7 points
- Why does a page that covers everything get cited for nothing? — 4 points
Frequently asked questions
Should I update the date on old pages to look fresh?
Only when the content actually changed. A date that moves without the content is a trust signal you spend once, and readers who notice stop believing the rest of the page.
Where should the date go on a page?
Near the title, labelled “Published” or “Last updated”, in a time element. That is where readers look and where the check looks first.