For validation and accuracy reasons, it is sometimes important to check when a website was last updated to ensure the information you are reading is up-to-date and usable.
In this post, we’ll discuss some of the methods for doing this.
What Dates Can Relate to a Published Web Page?
Generally, three dates can be associated with a web page to determine how up-to-date it is.
These are the published date, the last modified date, and the indexed date.
Term | Description |
---|---|
Published Date | The original date the web page was first published on the internet. |
Modified Date | The date when the web page was last updated or its content was changed. |
Indexed Date | The date when the web page was indexed by a search engine crawler and made available in results. |
With this information, you can determine how old the original article is, when it was updated with new information, and when the last time a search engine crawled the content.
If any of these dates are a considerable time in the past, then it may be wise to assume the content is not up-to-date.
4 Simple Checks To See When a Website Was Last Updated
Here are 4 simple methods to check when the web page or website was last updated.
Method 1: Search it on Google
Simply Google the URL of the web page, and in most cases, Google will display the publication date directly in the search results.
Method 2: View the Source Code
The most common method for checking the date of a web page is by checking its HTTP header, which contains a range of information.
The internet uses this information, which is displayed by the HTTP Protocol to manage data, helping to define the World Wide Web as we know it.
To view the source code, right-click on the web page and select “View page source,” or just use the shortcut CTRL+U.
Doing so will display the code that generates the web page, and the date information can be found within the <meta> tags, which are in the <head> section of the page.
If you are struggling to locate this information, you can use the CTRL + F function on your keyboard to find specific words. In this case, try searching for “date”, “modified” or “update”.
Method 3: Check the XML Sitemap (Modified Date)
Another way of checking a web page’s last updated date is by looking at the XML sitemap of the website.
These sitemaps help search engine crawlers easily assess and navigate the website’s structure. They often include the “last modified” date for each page.
A sitemap is usually located at one of the following URLs:
https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
The most common location is at the root directory of the domain, typically at/sitemap.xml
.https://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml
Some websites use this URL if they have multiple sitemaps. This “index” file links to all the individual sitemaps.https://www.example.com/blog/sitemap.xml
If a website has different sections, like a blog, there might be separate sitemaps for each, such as/blog/sitemap.xml
.
To find the exact URL for a specific website’s sitemap, you can try visiting any of these common locations or check the website’s robots.txt
file (located at https://www.example.com/robots.txt
) for a direct link to the sitemap.
Once you access the sitemap, you should see a list of web pages along with their last modified dates as shown below:
Method 4: Google Cache (Modified Date)
⚠️ Update: This method is no longer reliable and may not provide accurate results, or any results at all.
When searching for a website using Google, you may see three vertical dots next to the title of the page, clicking this will give you access to page information, including when the website was last cached.
The date the website was last cached usually coincides with when it was last modified.
After clicking the three buttons next to the page title, you will then see this screen. Click the cached button in the bottom right corner to find out when the web page was last cached.
Alternatively, you may also use a website called Internet Archive which uses a crawl engine named the Wayback Machine to display information regarding almost any website. This information includes the “modified date”.
Advanced Website Analysis with SEO Tools
While the manual methods discussed in this article are effective for determining when a website was last updated, integrating a tool like Semrush can provide deeper insights.
Semrush (or an alternative like Ahrefs) goes beyond the basic update dates, offering a window into the SEO impacts of these updates.
These tools enhance your understanding by:
- Tracking Update Effects: See how updates influence search rankings.
- Competitor Analysis: Compare your website’s performance against competitors, identifying strengths and weaknesses.
- Backlink Analysis: Discover where your competitors are getting their backlinks from and find potential opportunities for your own link-building strategies.
- Site Audits: Receive actionable recommendations for improving on-page SEO and technical issues.
- Keyword Research: Find new keywords to target based on search volume, competition, and relevance.
Combine these advanced analytics with the manual methods mentioned earlier for a comprehensive view of website performance.
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Awesome article! Thanks for putting this together. We have been trying to figure out how often we should update our content by benchmarking against the listed companies. Your methods worked well!
Will come back again for more tips.
Very helpful. Genius