Declared dates on top-5 ranking pages by vertical
| Vertical | Pages | Declare dateModified | Pages with dateModified | dateModified in 2026 | dateModified 2024 or earlier | Pages with <time> and schema date |
<time> date mismatch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel | 921 | 11.8% | 109 | 73.4% | 17.4% | 46 | 10.9% |
| Auto parts | 844 | 26.1% | 220 | 59.1% | 23.2% | 53 | 11.3% |
| Baby | 1,044 | 28.8% | 301 | 50.2% | 25.2% | 82 | 12.2% |
| Beauty | 900 | 31.3% | 282 | 50.0% | 27.7% | 134 | 6.7% |
| Dental and medical | 1,067 | 36.1% | 385 | 54.0% | 23.4% | 31 | 19.4% |
| DIY | 945 | 29.2% | 276 | 41.3% | 40.9% | 101 | 13.9% |
| Education | 1,040 | 26.2% | 272 | 44.5% | 31.6% | 59 | 8.5% |
| Electronics | 834 | 40.2% | 335 | 36.4% | 35.5% | 89 | 14.6% |
| Finance | 960 | 32.7% | 314 | 73.6% | 10.8% | 88 | 5.7% |
| Fitness | 950 | 47.6% | 452 | 37.6% | 34.3% | 133 | 19.5% |
| Gaming | 1,117 | 19.2% | 215 | 57.7% | 29.8% | 69 | 13.0% |
| Gardening | 930 | 33.7% | 313 | 55.0% | 26.5% | 95 | 14.7% |
| Health | 1,175 | 36.1% | 424 | 49.5% | 24.3% | 90 | 17.8% |
| Home | 922 | 17.5% | 161 | 65.2% | 17.4% | 80 | 2.5% |
| Home services | 885 | 39.0% | 345 | 56.2% | 23.2% | 67 | 28.4% |
| Insurance | 956 | 28.5% | 272 | 68.4% | 14.3% | 49 | 16.3% |
| Jewelry | 1,123 | 9.2% | 103 | 63.1% | 20.4% | 37 | 2.7% |
| Kitchen | 848 | 37.9% | 321 | 45.5% | 33.3% | 113 | 20.4% |
| Legal | 1,207 | 42.9% | 518 | 60.0% | 25.1% | 47 | 31.9% |
| Marketing | 1,148 | 21.3% | 244 | 60.2% | 20.5% | 74 | 10.8% |
| Outdoor | 953 | 20.8% | 198 | 60.1% | 23.7% | 63 | 27.0% |
| Parenting | 583 | 39.8% | 232 | 55.6% | 22.4% | 83 | 9.6% |
| Pets | 992 | 38.2% | 379 | 60.2% | 20.8% | 85 | 22.4% |
| Real estate | 914 | 27.2% | 249 | 69.1% | 13.3% | 61 | 36.1% |
| Recipes | 862 | 71.9% | 620 | 37.7% | 38.5% | 320 | 46.9% |
| Restaurants | 741 | 33.7% | 250 | 60.4% | 23.2% | 75 | 17.3% |
| SaaS comparisons | 1,189 | 8.9% | 106 | 58.5% | 29.2% | 29 | n/a |
| Software | 1,246 | 48.0% | 598 | 71.1% | 13.0% | 147 | 12.2% |
| Supplements | 1,073 | 44.8% | 481 | 52.4% | 27.0% | 128 | 21.9% |
| Travel | 930 | 29.6% | 275 | 61.5% | 24.4% | 50 | 36.0% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. Mismatch rates are shown only where 30+ pages could be compared (n/a below that). Only dates inside <time> tags are compared.
Summary
Most article pages state their dates twice: once for readers, often inside a <time> tag, and once for machines, in JSON-LD datePublished and dateModified or in article meta tags. When the two disagree, readers and search engines get different answers to a simple question: how current is this page?
We compared them on top-ranking pages. Among 2,578 top-5 ranking pages that have both a visible <time> date and a schema or meta date, 19.7% show a date that matches none of the declared dates. Recipe pages account for a large part of that, and most declared update dates are from 2026.
What we measured
We looked at the top 5 Google results for 10,019 US keywords in October 2026. Of 49,855 pages, 29,776 were readable. On each page we read the JSON-LD datePublished and dateModified, article meta dates, and every <time datetime> value.
A page counts as a mismatch when its <time> date matches none of the dates declared in JSON-LD or article meta. 2,578 pages had both kinds of date and could be compared. Separately, we recorded whether each page declares a dateModified and which year it falls in.
Three limits apply. Only dates inside <time> tags are compared, so visible dates written as plain text are missed. Pages were read a few days after the rankings were recorded, which nudges the 2026 share up slightly. And a mismatch means a different calendar date, not necessarily a wrong one: a page can show its publish date while its markup also carries a later update.
One in five pages show a date their markup doesn't
19.7% of the 2,578 comparable pages show a <time> date that matches none of their declared dates. On roughly one in five pages, then, the date a reader sees is not one of the dates the page tells machines.
Some of these are harmless, such as a visible "last reviewed" date that was never added to the markup. Others likely come from templates that print one date field in the theme and a different one in the SEO plugin, or from caching layers and plugins that update dateModified on every small edit without changing what the reader sees.
19.7%
Share of 2,578 comparable top-5 ranking pages whose visible <time> date matches none of their declared schema or meta dates.
Recipe pages mismatch far more often
Recipe pages account for 320 of the 2,578 comparable pages, and 46.9% of them show a <time> date that differs from their schema dates. Across all other verticals the rate is 15.9%.
Recipe sites lean heavily on structured data, and recipe templates likely print a date near the title and in comment sections while the Recipe or Article markup carries another. Beyond recipes, real estate (36.1%), travel (36.0%) and legal (31.9%) also have high mismatch rates, while home (2.5%) and jewelry (2.7%) have the lowest among verticals with enough pages to compare.
Most declared update dates are from 2026
Of 9,250 declared dateModified values, 54.8% are from 2026 and 10.0% are from 2024. Ranking pages that declare an update date mostly claim a recent one.
The #1 result declares a dateModified less often than positions 2 to 5: 27.3% of 6,285 pages against 32.7% of 23,014. But when the #1 result does declare one, the date is more often from 2026, 58.6% against 53.9%. This does not show that a fresh date helps a page rank; top results may simply be updated more often.
Freshness varies by vertical. Finance (73.6%), apparel (73.4%) and software (71.1%) have the freshest declared dateModified values, while electronics (36.4%), fitness (37.6%) and recipes (37.7%) have the fewest from 2026. Whether a page declares a dateModified at all ranges from 8.9% of SaaS comparison pages and 9.2% of jewelry pages to 71.9% of recipe pages.
What this means for your site
Pick one source of truth for each date and print it everywhere:
- Compare the date your template shows with the datePublished and dateModified in your JSON-LD. View the page source and search for both.
- If you show an "updated" date, make sure dateModified carries the same day.
- If you show only the publish date, that is fine, but check that datePublished matches it.
- Do not let plugins bump dateModified on edits that change nothing a reader would notice. A date that moves without the content changing tells readers nothing.
- Wrap visible dates in a
<time>tag with a datetime value, so the visible date is machine readable too.
Sources
- PageSpeed Matters analysis of the top 5 Google results for 10,019 US keywords, October 2026
- Google Search Central, Article structured data: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/article
- MDN Web Docs, the time element: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/time
Embed this research
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<iframe id="psm-article-date-mismatches" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/article-date-mismatches" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Article Date Mismatches: 19.7% Differ From Schema - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/article-date-mismatches">Article Date Mismatches: 19.7% Differ From Schema - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How common are mismatched article dates?
Among 2,578 top-5 ranking pages with both a visible <time> date and a schema or meta date, 19.7% show a date that matches none of the declared dates. On recipe pages the rate is 46.9%.
How many ranking pages declare a dateModified?
It depends heavily on the topic: from 8.9% of SaaS comparison pages and 9.2% of jewelry pages to 71.9% of recipe pages. At #1, 27.3% of 6,285 pages declare one, against 32.7% of 23,014 pages at positions 2 to 5.
Are declared update dates on ranking pages recent?
Mostly. Of 9,250 declared dateModified values, 54.8% are from 2026 and 10.0% are from 2024.
How do I check if my article dates match?
View the page source and compare the datetime value in your <time> tag with datePublished and dateModified in your JSON-LD. The visible date should match one of them, ideally the one you label on the page.
Date mismatches usually come from one template and one plugin disagreeing, so aligning them fixes every article at once. Need help with this? See our on-page SEO services.