AI finding
The dates a page declares contradict each other or the changes we observed
AI Warning Severity: Medium
Part of the audit The page has four different dates. Finding id: ai.dateConflicts.
What it costs you
Search and answer engines use declared dates to decide what is fresh. When the dates do not match what really changed, they stop trusting them, and pages that were updated get no credit for it.
What to do
Set the modified date only when the content changes, and print the same date in the page, the markup and the sitemap.
What it checks
- Data update date newer than any real change
- Shown date older than the date in data
- Same update date on every page
- Published date is after the update date
How to fix it
Keep datePublished fixed and before dateModified
- Find where datePublished comes from. It must be the date of first publication and must not move on a later save.
- Set dateModified to the date of the last edit, never earlier than datePublished.
How to check: Run this rule again after the next crawl.
Show the date the markup carries
- If the visible date is the publication date, add a visible 'updated on' date next to it.
- If it is meant as the update date, print the same value the markup has in dateModified.
How to check: Run this rule again after the next crawl.
Take dateModified and lastmod from the content's own change date
- Find where dateModified and the sitemap lastmod come from. A build time or the current time gives every page the same date.
- Use the date the content was last edited for dateModified, for lastmod and for the visible update date.
How to check: Run this rule again after the next crawl.
Thresholds
| Name | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
min_days_apart | 2 | Two dates of one page are reported when they lie at least this many days apart. Absorbs time zones and late crawls. |
min_sitemap_entries | 20 | A sitemap whose entries all carry the same lastmod is reported when it has at least this many entries. |
How to verify by hand
Our own snapshots; no outside source needed.
What this relies on
The detected change history is the truth.