SEO for Solos
crawling

lastmod

lastmod is the sitemap field declaring when a URL's content last changed.

Why it matters

Google uses it only when it is consistently accurate. A build timestamp on every URL teaches the crawler the field is noise, permanently.

How it is measured

Extract every lastmod from the sitemap and count values per day. If one day covers most URLs, it is a build stamp.

Checks that involve lastmod

Related terms

Questions

What is lastmod?

lastmod is the sitemap field declaring when a URL's content last changed.

Why does lastmod matter?

Google uses it only when it is consistently accurate. A build timestamp on every URL teaches the crawler the field is noise, permanently.

How is lastmod measured?

Extract every lastmod from the sitemap and count values per day. If one day covers most URLs, it is a build stamp.