Content freshness is a signal that indicates to both search engines and language models whether the information can still be trusted. It doesn't mean simply rewriting the date – systems also compare the actual change in the text and the consistency of the data with other sources. An outdated page with an invalid price, a discontinued programme, or old legislation doesn't just harm itself; it lowers the credibility of the whole website, because it shows that no one is looking after the content. The practical approach is a regular content audit: once a quarter, go through the pages that bring the most traffic and enquiries, verify the figures, dates and links, and visibly state the date of the last revision along with what changed. Content that has lost its purpose is better merged or removed with a redirect than left to linger.
See also: QDF – Query Deserves Freshness, Information gain, Source consensus.
