A freshness signal is any indicator that a piece of content has been recently created or updated — including publication date, last-modified date, recent cit…
A freshness signal is any indicator that a piece of content has been recently created or updated — including publication date, last-modified date, recent citations from other sources, and recency of the events or data referenced in the content.
AI systems weight freshness differently depending on query type. For time-sensitive topics — market data, platform features, regulatory changes — freshness is a strong citation factor. For evergreen concepts, it matters less. Keeping key pages updated with current data, dates, and references is a low-effort way to maintain citation eligibility for queries where recency matters.