How to Influence Byline Dates in Google Search

What is a Byline Date? #

A byline date is the date Google estimates your page was published or last significantly updated. Google may show this date in search results if it helps users.

How Google Determines Byline Dates #

Google looks at multiple signals (not just one date on the page) to estimate when content was published or updated, because any single date could be misleading.

How to Provide Clear Date Information to Google #

1. Show a visible date on your page, prominently labeled like:
   
   • Posted Feb 4, 2019
     
   • Published February 4, 2019
     
   • Last updated: Feb 14, 2019 8pm ET
     
2. Use structured data markup with appropriate schema.org types like Article, BlogPosting, or NewsArticle. Include:
   
   • datePublished — the publication date
     
   • dateModified — the last updated date (optional but recommended)
     

Example JSON-LD snippet:

{

  “@context”: “https://schema.org”,

  “@type”: “NewsArticle”,

  “headline”: “Analyzing Google Search traffic drops”,

  “datePublished”: “2021-07-20T08:00:00+08:00”,

  “dateModified”: “2021-07-20T09:20:00+08:00”

}

Best Practices to Follow #

• Date is required; time and timezone are optional but recommended for accuracy.
  
• Make visible dates and structured data dates consistent (same date, time, and timezone if used).
  
• Never use future dates or dates related to the story/event, only dates about the page itself (when published or updated).
  
• If your page shows many unrelated dates (like event dates), consider minimizing them to avoid confusion.
  
• Use Event schema to describe event dates, not the page’s publication date.
  

Note #

Google doesn’t guarantee it will always show your byline date in search results, but these steps improve the chances and accuracy.