How To Find the Latest Updated Date on a Web Page?
A website is made up of several content-containing web pages. Each page's most recent update date varies when its material is changed. The page's creation date is shown first, followed by the most recent update date. You should be aware of these dates if you are referencing the website or referring to it on your page. For the purpose of content validation, you may also need to be aware of the dates. Here are six methods to determine a web page's most recent modification date, whatever your motivation.
What Do the Various Web Page Dates Mean?
There are three significant dates associated with every website on the internet. The first is the date it was published. This marks when the page's creator first posted the article online. The last updated/modified date is the second. When did the author last update the website? The Indexed Date comes in third. This is the most recent search engine crawlers index the page for search results.
If you were a webmaster trying to follow a lesson that includes screenshots, you might need to be aware of these dates. It's crucial to understand if these screenshots are accurate. Doing so will guarantee you see the screenshots the author intended and the most recent and accurate ones for the instructions.
These are the six methods for determining a web page's most recent update date.
Examine the HTTP Header
It is only possible for web pages to transmit and receive data thanks to the HTTP protocol. If you know how to inspect the web page header, you may locate the most recent update date among the HTTP information. An online HTTP header checker tool is one technique to examine the page's title. Input the URL, and a report with the most recent updated date, the server, the content type, and more will be generated.
You may right-click on the website if you don't want to utilize the free tool. The "view page source" option. The most recent modified date will be shown in one of the meta> tags in a sample of the code you are given. Simply use "ctrl + F" to look for it if you can't see it.
XML Sitemap Use
All modern websites include XML sitemaps to inform search engines about the site's organization. Some sitemap designs let you view the most recent update date. Enter the website address together with the extension "sitemap.xml" to verify. You may see the "Last Modified" date if the page has a current sitemap. Each page's most recent modification date is visible on that website.
Using Google Search
To get the most recent update date of a web page, use Google's search engine. First, type "inurl:sitename.com/page-URL" in the Google search box, replacing "Sitename" with the website's name. Next, enter the following into your browser's search box: "&as_qdr=y15". A search result with a date at the start of the meta description appears when. The latest indexed date is this one. This usually comes near or precisely matches the date of the most recent update.
Also read: Best Content Marketing Tools You Should Be Utilizing in 2022
Command URL use
If you are proficient in JavaScript, you may use a code to determine when a page was most recently modified. This technique works well for discovering the date on static sites but not dynamic ones.
Open the web page in your browser. In the address bar, type "javascript:alert(document.lastModified)" after the web page's URL. When you press enter, you will see a pop-up showing the most up-to-date date.
Google Cache use
The Google cache may be used to discover various details about a website. For example, you may quickly check Google's cache using a free tool to see when it was last updated. Or use Google Search to locate the cached data. After typing in your search term, click the little arrow after the URL to bring up the selected web page in the results. Then choose "cached" from the menu. This approach also displays the most recent time a Google crawler cached the information.
The Use of the Internet Archive
How does the Internet Archive work? Wayback Machine, a crawling engine, was run by a non-profit. All publicly accessible web pages have their data snapshots taken by this tool. This information contains the date of the most recent modification.
Visit the Internet Archive website to apply this approach. First, enter the URL of the website whose data you're looking for in the query box on the Wayback Machine. When you enter, it will show you every page version between the earliest index date and the most recent one. While not always the most current update date, this approach displays all website updates.
How to Show the Date of the Most Recent Update in WordPress
Displaying the most current update date on your WordPress web pages may be wise for web admins and site owners. Visitors can see how current the information is, as can Google. Simply add the text and date in HTML to the page's backend to manually add the date. But if your WordPress site is built with PHP, you may need to be familiar with some more advanced capabilities. Fortunately, this code is already incorporated in most common WordPress themes, so the date is already shown. Use this method to get the page's most recent modification date and display it within a dynamic WordPress PHP page:
To sum up, several efficient approaches determine the most recent modification date of any publicly accessible web page on the internet. Try a new approach if one of them doesn't work for your system. The HTTP header check and utilizing the XML Sitemap are the most trustworthy choices.
