Google SEO Tips For News Articles: Lastmod Tag, Separate Sitemaps via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google Search Advocate John Mueller and Analyst Gary Illyes share SEO tips for news publishers during a recent office-hours Q&A recording.
Taking turns answering questions, Mueller addresses the correct use of the lastmod tag, while Illyes discusses the benefits of separate sitemaps.
When To Use The Lastmod Tag?
In an XML sitemap file, lastmod is a tag that stores information about the last time a webpage was modified.
Its intended use is to help search engines track and index significant changes to webpages.
Google provides guidelines for using the lastmod tag, which could be used to alter search snippets.
The presence of the lastmod tag may prompt Googlebot to change the publication date in search results, making the content appear more recent and more attractive to click on.