Sitemap freshness analyzer
Check whether your lastmod dates are telling the truth.
Free, no signup, and it runs entirely in your browser.
Sitemap XML
About this tool
Google has said it uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate and ignores it when it is not. That makes this the one part of a sitemap where lying costs you something real: a file where every entry shares one timestamp is reporting your build time, and once a crawler notices, the signal is gone for the whole site.
- Every entry sharing one lastmod is flagged, because that is the build-time bug rather than a coincidence — and it is the single most common thing wrong with a generated sitemap.
- Dates in the future are almost always a timezone bug. Crawlers discount the value entirely when they see one.
- The age breakdown shows how much of your site has genuinely changed recently. A site claiming daily changefreq with lastmod values a year old is contradicting itself.
- changefreq is a hint that Google has said it largely ignores. lastmod is the one worth getting right.
Questions
- Does Google use lastmod?
- Yes, when it is consistently accurate. Google has been explicit that it ignores the value on sites where it is unreliable, which makes an inaccurate lastmod worse than none.
- Why do all my URLs have the same lastmod?
- Your generator is stamping the build time rather than the time each page changed. It is very common, and it is exactly what teaches a crawler to discount the field.
- Does changefreq matter?
- Barely. Google has said it largely ignores it. Spend the effort on making lastmod true instead.