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Science-backed data on why AI says what it says
Citation signals

Content date

A content date identifies when a page says it was published, modified, or reviewed. BLURSOR reports the first usable date found through its supported detection order. A detected date is a declaration, not proof that the information is current or accurate.

Checked against BLURSOR’s measurements ·

What it means

Dates help readers judge context. A guide to this year's application process may need a clear review date, while a stable explanation of a basic concept may remain useful for years. The value of a date depends on what changed and how sensitive the subject is to time.

Publication and modification dates describe different events. Keeping them distinct lets a reader see when work first appeared and when it was substantially revised. Google considers multiple signals when estimating a page's date; the checker instead reports a supported date declaration found in the captured response.

Illustrative example

Hypothetical example: an older guide receives a real update

Imagine a fictional business guide published on 2024-03-10 and revised on 2026-08-20 after its booking process changed. The page can retain the publication date and separately label the update, while its corresponding metadata describes the same events.

Changing only the displayed date would not establish that the instructions had been checked. Conversely, a page without a supported date could contain fully current information. The report should lead the owner to review the content and its date labels together.

How BLURSOR measures it

In the report: Detected content date

BLURSOR checks the raw HTML in a fixed order: article modification metadata, article publication metadata, JSON-LD dateModified, JSON-LD datePublished, time elements with a datetime value, then supported text labeled Updated, Last updated, Published, or Reviewed. The first usable match wins; it is not necessarily the newest date on the page.

The date and its source type are reported when recorded. The detector accepts parseable candidates within a broad year range; supported visible formats are limited. The single-report age flag uses approximately 12 months as a review prompt. It does not assess the subject's actual update needs. An absent match and an unavailable measurement are different outcomes.

What to do next

  1. For information that changes, review the actual instructions, figures, and terms before assigning a new update date.
  2. Keep visible publication or update labels consistent with the corresponding metadata, and distinguish page dates from event dates.
  3. If the checker selects an unexpected date, inspect its reported source and ask your developer to remove stale or unrelated date declarations.

What it cannot tell you

  • The detector does not verify editorial work, resolve every conflicting date, or establish that a future-looking value is appropriate.
  • A recent date does not prove accuracy or citation likelihood. No date detected does not prove stale content, and a missing capture supplies no date evidence.

Sources and further reading

The definitions below describe the underlying concepts. The measurement section describes BLURSOR’s own checks.

Related explanations