Your sitemap has dates

What this is

Your sitemap lists your pages. Next to each page it can also say when that page last changed. In the file that looks like this:

<url>
  <loc>https://yourbusiness.com/services</loc>
  <lastmod>2026-08-14</lastmod>
</url>

The lastmod bit is the date. It means “last modified.”

If you do not have a sitemap yet, start with You have a sitemap. This check only makes sense once that one passes.

Why it matters to you

This is a modest check, 4 points. Robots cannot re-read every page on the internet every day. They pick. A date tells them “this one changed, come look.” Without dates every page looks the same age, and your new page waits in line behind pages that have not changed in years.

It does not make anything appear that was not there. It just helps your changes get noticed sooner.

What we look for

We count how many entries in your sitemap carry a lastmod date.

• Pass: 80 percent or more of the entries have a date.
• Warn: some entries have a date, but fewer than 80 percent. You get about 60 percent of the points.
• Fail: no entry has a date, or there is no sitemap to look at.

We do not judge whether the dates are recent here. That is a separate check, Your sitemap looks maintained.

Whether you can fix this yourself

Yes, usually. On WordPress it is a switch. On your own site it is a setting in the sitemap tool. If you would rather not, Setup ($350, 3 business days) does it for you.

On Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and SimplePractice the platform builds the sitemap and you cannot change what goes in it. Squarespace and Shopify include dates. If yours does not, there is nothing for you to do, and the points are small.

How to fix it

WordPress

Yoast SEO and Rank Math both include lastmod by default. If you see a fail, look for a sitemap plugin or theme setting that removed it, or search the plugin’s help for “lastmod”. The built-in WordPress sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml does not include dates, so switch to Yoast or Rank Math if you rely on that one.

Squarespace or Wix

There is nothing to change, because the platform decides.

Shopify

There is nothing to change, because Shopify’s sitemap already carries dates.

Your own site or a developer

Turn on the last-modified option in your sitemap tool and make sure it uses the real edit date of each page, not the build date. A sitemap where every page shows today’s date is worse than no dates, because it tells robots everything changed when nothing did.

How to check it worked

Open your sitemap in a browser (your site address with /sitemap.xml on the end). Look for lastmod next to most of the pages. Then run the free check again.

Do not worry about

A few entries without a date. Home pages and image entries often lack one. You only need 80 percent.