Freshness is about whether a page reflects the current state of its topic. For some queries, such as news, software releases, pricing or regulations, recency matters a great deal, and Google's ranking systems include freshness systems designed to show fresher content where it is expected. For evergreen topics, an older page that is still accurate can rank well for years.
Which queries care about freshness
Google's guide to its ranking systems describes freshness systems that show fresher content for queries where it would be expected. Think recurring events, breaking topics and anything that changes often. A query about a tool's current pricing wants this year's answer; a query about what a balance sheet is does not.
- Product and pricing comparisons
- Software features, integrations and API versions
- Laws, standards and compliance requirements
- "Best" lists and tool roundups
- Statistics and benchmarks
What real freshness looks like
Freshness comes from substantive updates: replacing outdated facts, adding new options, removing discontinued ones, refreshing screenshots. Changing a date or swapping a few words does not make a page fresher, and Google advises against updating dates without meaningful changes.
Keeping SaaS content fresh
Set review cycles by topic volatility. Competitor comparisons and pricing pages might need quarterly checks; core concept guides might need a yearly review. Product teams' release notes are a good trigger list for which pages need updates.
Signals that a page has gone stale
Watch for falling impressions on queries that include a year or words like "new" and "latest," screenshots that no longer match the product, references to retired features or competitors, and support tickets that quote outdated instructions back at you. Search Console's performance report, compared across date ranges, is the simplest place to spot pages losing ground on time-sensitive queries.
Example
A roundup that went stale
Hypothetical team chat app Lanternmoss had a popular "best project management integrations" roundup. Two of the listed tools were acquired and shut down, and the page still recommended them. A quarterly review now checks each tool's status and pricing, updates the visible "last updated" date only when the content changes, and notes what changed.
Common mistakes
Faking freshness
Bumping dates without real changes misleads readers and is something Google specifically discourages.
Questions
Freshness is the quality of being current. A content refresh is one of the ways to restore it.
