How to Fix: Dates shown on content

Dates shown on content is an SEO check in the Content Quality Signals category. It is medium-priority, and it is one of those checks that sounds cosmetic until you realise dates quietly drive whether a reader — and Google — trusts that your content is current.

What this check is really about

This check verifies that your posts and articles expose their dates properly — both visibly on the page and in machine-readable form. That means two things must agree: the human-visible “Published” / “Updated” date the reader sees, and the datePublished / dateModified values in your Article structured data. When those two diverge, or when the visible date is missing entirely, you send a muddled freshness signal. The check is really about honesty and consistency of dates, not just their presence.

Why it matters for SEO

• Freshness is a ranking factor for time-sensitive queries. A genuinely updated article that shows a recent dateModified can regain ground against stale competitors.
• Click-through. Google sometimes shows the date in the search snippet. A visible recent date earns clicks; a visible 2019 date on otherwise good content loses them.
• Trust. Readers judge relevance by date. Undated content reads as “who knows how old this is,” which raises bounce and lowers dwell time.
• Consistency. A visible date that contradicts the schema date can be flagged as a mismatch and undermine the very freshness signal you were trying to send.

How to Fix This in WordPress

Difficulty Level: EASY – This fix is straightforward and can typically be completed by anyone with basic WordPress knowledge.

Estimated Time: 15 min

Step 1: Make the date visible

Many themes hide post dates for a “timeless” look. On genuine articles and blog posts, show them. In a block theme, add or unhide the Post Date block in your single-post template (Appearance → Editor → Templates → Single). In a classic theme, the setting usually lives in Customizer or the theme’s post-meta options.

Step 2: Show “Updated”, not just “Published”

If you maintain evergreen content, display the modified date when it is meaningfully newer than the published date. Many themes and SEO plugins can output “Last updated on…” — this is the honest way to surface freshness. Make sure your Article schema’s dateModified reflects the same real edit.

Step 3: Confirm schema and visible dates match

Run a post through the Rich Results Test and check that datePublished and dateModified match what the reader sees. Yoast and Rank Math both populate these from WordPress’s own post dates, so the fix is usually alignment, not new code.

Do not game the modified date

The tempting shortcut is to bulk-touch every old post so they all show today’s date. Do not. Google is good at detecting a dateModified that jumped without the content actually changing, and a page that claims to be freshly updated but is visibly unchanged erodes exactly the trust you were chasing. Update the date because you updated the content — fix a broken figure, add a section, refresh a recommendation — and let the date be the truthful byproduct.

One nuance worth holding: not every page wants a date. Cornerstone reference pages and evergreen service pages can legitimately hide dates so they do not read as “old”. The judgement is content-type by content-type — news and blog posts show dates; a timeless “how it works” page often should not. This check is about news and article-type content specifically.

Recommended Tools & Plugins

These tools can help you fix and prevent this issue:

• Yoast SEO – Comprehensive SEO plugin with built-in checks
• Rank Math – Feature-rich SEO plugin with detailed analysis
• Google Search Console – Free tool to monitor your site’s search presence
• SEO Roadmap – Complete SEO audit and action plan tool

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Hiding dates on genuine news/blog content, leaving readers guessing at age.
• Bulk-updating modified dates without changing the content — a transparent and self-defeating trick.
• Letting the visible date and the schema date disagree.
• Showing a published date but never surfacing meaningful updates.

Need More Help?

If you’re still having trouble, consider:

• Consulting with a WordPress developer or SEO specialist
• Checking the WordPress support forums for similar issues
• Reviewing your theme’s post-meta and template documentation
• Running a complete site audit with SEO Roadmap for a prioritized action plan

This guide is part of the SEO Roadmap knowledge base – your complete resource for WordPress SEO optimization.