Published Date vs Last Updated Date: Which One Google Prefers?

Click-through rate (CTR) is a critical metric for measuring how often users click on your search results. However, an overlooked yet significant factor influencing CTR is how dates are displayed in search results.

According to a recent analysis by Abby Gleason, Senior Product Manager, SEO at Upwork, having both “Published Date” and “Last Updated Date” on a page can confuse Google and negatively impact CTR.

Case Study: How Dual Dates Caused a CTR Drop

Abby Gleason conducted an SEO case study analyzing the impact of displaying both “Date Published” and “Date Updated” on web pages. The study revealed a 22% drop in CTR after adding both dates, as Google started prioritizing the “Date Published” over the “Date Updated” in search results.

Key Findings from the Research:

Google Prioritizes Frontend Dates Over Schema: Even if the schema markup correctly differentiates between datePublished and dateModified, Google often pulls the older “Date Published” from the frontend rather than the updated date.

Outdated Dates in SERPs Reduce Clicks: Searchers tend to favor fresh content. If Google displays an older publish date instead of the recent update, users may assume the content is outdated, leading to lower engagement and clicks.

CTR Decline After Date Change: The case study’s graph showed a steep CTR decline starting in late August 2024, coinciding with the time when “Last Updated Date” was added alongside “Published Date” on pages.

In her LinkedIn post, Abby Gleason summarized the key takeaway:

“TL;DR: If your content has both “Date published” and “Date updated,” get rid of one. Like, today. Choose the most recent date and label it as either Published or Updated. Your CTR will thank you. 🚀🚀”

Best Practices to Prevent CTR Loss

If your site displays both “Date Published” and “Date Updated,” it’s time to reconsider your approach. Based on Gleason’s findings, here are some best practices to avoid CTR drops:

Display Only One Date on the Frontend

Choose either “Last Updated Date” or “Published Date”, not both. If your content is frequently updated, display “Last Updated Date” only.

Validate Your Schema Markup

Ensure your structured data contains both datePublished and dateModified.

Google’s crawling may still prioritize frontend dates over schema, but correct structured data ensures proper indexing.

Check Google SERP Snippets

Use Google Search Console to see what date Google displays. If an outdated date appears in search results, adjust your on-page date display.

Monitor CTR & Traffic Changes

Track CTR trends before and after removing “Date Published” from the frontend. If CTR improves, it confirms that date visibility was impacting user engagement.

Notable Comments from Industry Experts

Several SEO experts engaged with Abby Gleason’s post, validating the findings with their own observations:

Ryan Jones, Marketing Manager at SEOTesting, asked: “Was this just schema, or did the site also show both dates on the site as well?”

Abby Gleason responded, highlighting that frontend elements matter more: After digging in more, only having one date on-page is more impactful than schema changes. Definitely limit on-page to just one date (the most recent update) but it shouldn’t hurt to maintain both datePublished and dateModified attributes in schema.

Simon Glanville, SEO Director at Future, added: “Having both the datePublished and dateModified in schema but only the dateModified showing on the frontend works well. But we found when both dates were shown on the frontend, Google favored the datePublished.”

Real-World Impact: A Simple Fix for Higher CTR

This case study highlights a simple yet highly effective SEO fix. If your site displays both dates, removing “Date Published” from the frontend could boost your CTR and search visibility. As Abby Gleason points out, “If you frequently update posts, my instinct would be to go with just ‘Updated’.”

Stan Ventures recommends implementing this best practice for all content-heavy websites, particularly those updating existing content for freshness.

Have you noticed that in our Stan Ventures blogs, we show the updated date instead of the published date? That’s because we often update our published blogs pretty frequently. But when you’re reading the news section, which is the one you’re on right now, we only show the published date. That’s because these posts are meant to be be of interest to the users at the moment and their relevance fades over time, just like any other news story.

Keeping your content strategy aligned with Google’s ranking factors ensures that your pages remain competitive in search results.

Have you tested this?

Have you noticed any changes in CTR when modifying how dates appear on your pages?

We’d love to hear your insights. Implement this simple fix and monitor the results—it could be the easiest SEO win of the year!