Google SEO Tips For News Articles: Lastmod Tag, Separate Sitemaps

Maximize your visibility with tips from Google's John Mueller and Gary Illyes on the proper use of lastmod tags and separate sitemaps.

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Google Search Advocate John Mueller and Analyst Gary Illyes share SEO tips for news publishers during a recent office-hours Q&A recording.

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Taking turns answering questions, Mueller addresses the correct use of the lastmod tag, while Illyes discusses the benefits of separate sitemaps.

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In an XML sitemap file, lastmod is a tag that stores information about the last time a webpage was modified.

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When To Use The Lastmod Tag?

Its intended use is to help search engines track and index significant changes to webpages.

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Google provides guidelines for using the lastmod tag, which could be used to alter search snippets.

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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.

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