How to add a machine-readable date with the <time> element
Last updated:
AI Search Score checks for a <time> element with a datetime attribute — a date machines can read unambiguously.
Why this matters
“Last updated June 2026” is readable to a person but ambiguous to a machine. <time datetime="2026-06-01"> gives an exact, machine-readable date that engines can use as a freshness signal — and freshness strongly affects AI citation. It pairs with dateModified in your schema.
How to fix it
Where you show a published or updated date, wrap it in a <time> element:
Last updated <time datetime="2026-06-01">1 June 2026</time>In WordPress this is usually theme-level — a good theme outputs <time> for post and page dates automatically, using the modified date. If yours doesn’t, and you can edit templates, use get_the_modified_date('c') for the datetime attribute (the ‘c’ format is the ISO-8601 machines expect). The modified date is the one that matters for freshness.
How to check it worked
Re-scan. “Machine-readable date (<time>)” should turn green. View source and confirm a <time> element with a datetime attribute is present.
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