Glossary · Content & Optimization
Last-Updated Date
A visible or structured-data timestamp showing when a page's content was most recently revised, distinct from its original publish date.
Why it's tracked separately from publish date
A page published years ago but genuinely maintained and revised can still be a current, reliable source. The last-updated date lets a crawler distinguish an actively maintained page from one that's simply old.
How it should be implemented
The date should be shown to human readers and marked up via the dateModified property in structured data, and it should only change when the underlying content actually changes, not on a schedule disconnected from real edits.
See more terms in the full glossary, or read the AI Visibility 101 guide for the full picture.