Definition

Content freshness is the degree to which a web page reflects current information, expressed through publication and update dates as well as the substance of the content on the page.

Google estimates publication and update dates from multiple signals, including visible bylines, structured data such as `datePublished` and `dateModified` on `Article` or `NewsArticle` schema, and other on-page cues. The guidance recommends keeping visible dates and structured data consistent and avoiding future dates or unrelated dates on the page. The 'Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content' page explicitly cautions against superficially refreshing content — adding or removing material primarily to seem fresh — and states that this does not, on its own, improve rankings.

Examples

• News article

  A news site shows a visible 'Updated 5 hours ago' label and mirrors the change in its `NewsArticle` structured data via `dateModified`, helping Google associate the article with the latest version of the story.

• Evergreen guide

  A 'best running shoes' guide is genuinely rewritten each year with newly tested models, and the page updates both the visible 'Last updated' line and the structured data — a substantive refresh rather than a date-only change.

Sources

• Google Search Central — Help Google identify dates for your pages
• Google Search Central — Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content

Related terms

• Helpful Content
  Google's term for content created primarily to benefit people, demonstrating originality, expertise, and a clear understanding of the intended audience.
• Schema Markup
  Structured data added to a page that describes its content to search engines in a machine-readable format.
• JSON-LD
  A JSON-based syntax for embedding structured data in a script tag, used to describe a page's content to search engines and other parsers.
• E-E-A-T
  Google's framework for assessing content quality across four lenses: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• Page Optimisation
• Schema Markup Generator