WordPress version 6.5 now supports including the lastmod element within your sitemap file. This helps search engines understand which parts of your content are new or updated. This increases the crawl efficiency of search engine crawlers and reduces the server load on your website.
Last mod. Lastmod is an element that can be added to your sitemap file and should represent the last time the URL was modified. Search engines check the date when they process your sitemap file for crawling purposes. In fact, Bing announced last year that it would rely even more on his lastmod date for crawling purposes.
Google's Gary Illyes posted the news on LinkedIn, saying, “The lastmod element in your sitemap is a signal that helps crawlers determine how often to crawl your page.”
he added:
“If you use WordPress, starting with version 6.5 this field is set natively thanks to Pascal Birchler and the WordPress developer community. If you are hesitant to upgrade your WordPress installation, take the plunge. If you're not running version 2* like Gary, be sure to enter the date of the last significant change. Broadly speaking, “material” here means changes that may be important to you and, by proxy, to the site. ”
Bing's Fabrice Canel commented on the post and said:
“A big thank you to Pascal Birchler, Gary Illyes, Google, and the WordPress developer community for their amazing contributions to WordPress version 6.5. It provides great data insights for websites about when content changes and optimizes crawl activity to ensure content freshness in search engines.
Consider this feature the biggest motivator for those who are reluctant to update their WordPress installation. The more websites implement lastmod in their sitemaps, the more search engines will utilize this signal, whether AI-driven or rules-based.
For free, adopt https://www.indexnow.org/ and take control of your crawling and SEO strategy with real-time indexing. To ensure comprehensive and up-to-date coverage, a sitemap with IndexNow (for real-time updates) and lastmod (daily – catch-up mode) is a good setup.
Increasing your online visibility is about more than just having a website. That's where you'll find the latest content. ”
upgrade. Approximately 21% of WordPress installations are currently using version 6.5, so it might make sense to double check if you're using that version if you want to improve crawl efficiency.
If you're not using WordPress, you can ask the developer how to get the exact lastmod date in your sitemap file.