Should You Change the Publish Date When You Update an Old Post? What Google Actually Wrote

Change the publish date on an old blog post only when the content behind it moved, and settle the question on a fact that has nothing to do with Google: how many dates your theme shows. On the pages we read, Google has never written that a changed date raises or lowers a ranking; the effects we could verify are on your own site.

The short answer

This is not a yes-or-no question, but a question of how many dates your theme shows.

If your theme shows both a publish date and a last updated date, the publish date never has to move: the updated date already says when the text was last true. If it shows one, that date must describe the text being read, so it moves when the text moves.

Three edits never earn it either way: a typo, a repaired link, an added internal link. That is maintenance: how often to update.

Three dates, and only one of them is yours to set

"The date" on a blog post names three, and the one Google shows is not a field you fill in.

The publish date is post_date in WordPress, the one you set. The last updated date is post_modified, which WordPress moves at every save, whatever changed. The third is the byline date, the one Google may print under your title:

"A byline date is the date that Google estimates that the web page was updated or published."

That is Influence your byline dates in Google Search, dated December 10, 2025 and read on September 21, 2026. You do not set that one: you inform it.

What Google wrote about changing a date, and where

The rule everyone repeats is not on the page everyone assumes, and its two pieces differ in scope.

The current documentation says only how to declare it: "Google doesn't depend on a single date factor because all factors can be prone to issues", and "You can provide a publication date and/or a last updated date." We read the current version on September 21, 2026 and a December 2021 archive, not those between.

That 2019 post files it under "More best practices for dates on web pages": best practices, not requirements. The freshening rule sits under "Guidelines specific to Google News", and Publisher Center, which carries no Creative Commons line, repeats it. One of the eight pages we read on September 17, 2026 names it, undated and unlinked, and applies it to any blog. Showing both is the main guide's subject: refresh old WordPress posts.

Its one current, general text on the gesture is a self-assessment question, in Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, dated December 10, 2025:

"Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?"

Google calls a yes there a warning sign to reevaluate how you create content. The question was added on September 14, 2023. It is not a spam rule either: on Google's spam policies, dated August 28, 2026, a keyword search, not a full reading, found no mention of dates, freshness or freshening.

None of the eight pages we read on September 17, 2026 cites or links the byline documentation or the 2019 post; three invoke a named Google voice, none dates it.

Where the line is, and why Google will not draw it

There is no threshold to find. Google has not defined the word, and one of its engineers says that is on purpose.

The eight pages we read on September 17, 2026 all make the decision depend on how big the change was; none says where the line falls, two list examples. The only written marker we found is not on a page about dates: it is in Build and submit a sitemap, dated July 8, 2026.

"The <lastmod> value should reflect the date and time of the last significant update to the page."

The same paragraph says what counts: the main content, the structured data or the links; not the copyright date. That governs crawling, not the date under your title, and two of the eight mention lastmod.

Asked how much change is enough, Gary Illyes of Google said they purposefully do not define "significant", hedging that himself: the content counts, the copyright date does not. He said so on Bluesky, an unofficial channel, reported by Search Engine Roundtable on February 6, 2025.

That leaves the test the main guide already gives: a change a reader would notice. A typo does not earn the date; the rhythm of coming back is how often to update.

What moving the date actually moves

The effects of a date change we could verify are not at Google. They are on your site.

What does not move: as of September 21, 2026 we found no Google text saying a changed date improves or degrades a ranking. John Mueller said as much in the office-hours of April 1, 2021, read in Search Engine Journal's transcript of April 7, 2021; we did not watch the video. Five years on, it corroborates the negative rather than carrying it.

Clicks are the other claim: four of the eight pages we read on September 17, 2026 say a recent date earns more, none with a figure or a source. We found no study isolating a byline date's effect on click-through rate at equal rank. The nearest controlled test, SearchPilot's split test on last modified dates (September 12, 2024), added one to a travel site's route pages: 4% less organic traffic in France at the 95% confidence level, inconclusive in Italy and Spain. That is traffic on route pages, not clicks on posts, and we have not measured it.

What does move is yours to check. Your blog sorts on the publish date, so a redated post returns to the top of your archive and feeds. Your SEO plugin derives its structured data dates from WordPress's two clocks. And if your permalinks carry the date, the address moves with it: addresses and rankings have their own guide, republishing safely.

Move it, or show both

The two camps argue about different dates: the publish date says when the page was born, the updated date when its text was last true.

Of the eight pages we read on September 17, 2026, one republishes at a new date after a rewrite, one never touches the publish date, one lays out both without choosing: three instructions, one question, no source. What settles it is your theme, not the results page: how many dates does it show? Google's documentation allows either, or both.

Content type is the second criterion: time-sensitive content, a price, a version, a year in the title, needs a date that describes its state; evergreen content can keep its original when the updated date is visible.

A third way none of the eight names: in Search Off the Record, episode 73 (May 9, 2024), Lizzi Sassman says of Google's own old posts that "we want to keep that with the original publish date", and that a bigger change would be worth a new post. One team's practice, not a ranking rule.

Showing both is what our main guide recommends, and that branch asks nothing of you: refresh old WordPress posts. It is rare: one of the eight recommends it and shows only an updated date. Another shows both.

In WordPress, and what a tool that moves the date owes you

WordPress keeps two clocks, and a tool that republishes for you moves one, usually without asking. post_date is the one your theme shows, post_modified the one every save moves. Four facts about what Unstale does:

• By default, at every level, and whatever the refresh changed, the box "Update the publish date when a refreshed post goes live", under Republication in the settings, is ticked: the date becomes publication time minus a random offset of up to an hour.
• It says so before, under the editor, and after, in the log. Unticking it stops the move.
• It skips the move when your permalinks carry WordPress's date tags. Replacing those with the plugin's own freezes the original date in the URL for good; deactivate the plugin, the core tags return, and a redated post changes address.
• The original date is kept in the database and shown nowhere on your post.

So with the default the original date leaves the post, which is not what our own main guide recommends. Its only support: the date move is the last step of the job, not the job. It follows the first half of the 2019 best practice and skips the second. What else a refresh changes: rewrite old posts with AI.

Apply the page's question to us. Theme with both dates: untick the box. Theme with one: leave it ticked for a rewrite a reader would notice, untick it for a Minimal pass that left the content substantially unchanged, the case Google's self-assessment question names. The rest of that list is in AI rewriting and rankings.

Questions people ask about changing the publish date

Can I set a publish date in the future to keep a post on top?

No, twice over. Google's guidance: "Don't specify future dates, or the date of the action described on the page." WordPress sends a post dated ahead back to scheduled; Unstale never sets one.

Do datePublished and dateModified have to match the dates on the page?

Yes, Google asks that the visible and structured dates agree. Both properties are recommended, not required: Article structured data has no required properties. Unstale writes neither; your SEO plugin derives them from WordPress's clocks.

Google shows the wrong date for my post. What can I do?

Nothing guarantees the date shown: it is an estimate. Google recommends a visible, labelled, prominent date, structured data that matches it, and removing the other dates if the wrong one wins.

My site is in Google News. Do the rules change?

Yes, and that is where the confusion starts. Google News asks for a clear date and time, both visible, ideally between headline and text, and no date in the title. The freshening rule lives there.

Should I hide the date from search engines?

No. Google asks the opposite: a visible date, featured prominently, plus matching structured data. One of the eight pages we read on September 17, 2026 recommends hiding it. If the date embarrasses you, the content is the problem.

Should I publish a new post instead of updating the old one?

On the date, sometimes yes: the team behind Google's blog keeps the original publish date and publishes a new post when there is enough new to say (Search Off the Record, episode 73, May 9, 2024, one team's practice). Addresses and rankings: republishing safely.

Can Unstale put the original publish date back?

Yes, under three conditions: the refresh really moved it, the previous date is known, and nobody has touched it since. The setting that avoids needing Restore: "Update the publish date when a refreshed post goes live", under Republication.

Quoted material from Google Search Central is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Sources: "Influence your byline dates in Google Search", "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content" and "Build and submit a sitemap", Google Search Central documentation; John Mueller, "Help Google Search know the best date for your web page", Google Search Central Blog, 2019-03-11.