How many websites pass the Date Modified check?
Based on 596 audited sites · Updated 2026-07-16
95% confidence interval: 9.6%–14.8%
About This Check
Checks whether content includes a last-modified date for freshness signals.
Why This Matters
LLM Discoverability
Last-modified dates allow AI systems to prioritise the most recently updated version of a page, ensuring citations reference current rather than outdated information.
SEO Impact
Google uses last-modified signals to schedule recrawls efficiently; pages with visible update dates are crawled more frequently, helping keep the index current.
What To Do Next
88.1% of audited sites need attention on date modified (525 of 596 sites are warning or failing).
- Prioritize date modified on templates that create many URLs, because one template fix can improve a large share of content freshness & authority.
- After changing the page, re-run the audit and compare the observed value for this check instead of relying on visual inspection alone.
- Use the 11.9% pass rate as a benchmark: if your site fails here, passing the check moves it closer to the visible majority of crawlable, AI-readable pages.
Status Breakdown
Compliance Trend
Daily pass, warning, and failure rates across benchmark snapshots (up to 90 days).
Industry Breakdown
How different industries perform on this check.
41.2% of audited Travel & Hospitality sites pass this check (n=51), compared with 0% of E-Commerce sites (n=30).
| Industry | Pass rate | Avg score | Sites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel & Hospitality | 41.2% | 74.8 | 51 |
| Education | 13.3% | 71.8 | 30 |
| Technology | 9.7% | 72 | 278 |
| Media & Entertainment | 8.3% | 73.8 | 84 |
| Finance & Banking | 2.6% | 72.8 | 39 |
| E-Commerce | 0% | 69.6 | 30 |
| Healthcare | 22.2% | 76.7 | 9limited |
| Government | 21.4% | 73.1 | 14limited |
| Food & Beverage | 9.1% | 71.1 | 11limited |
| Other | 0% | 67 | 7limited |
Related Checks
Run a free audit to see whether your site passes this check, or browse the leaderboard and the audited-sites directory.