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April 14, 2006
With our
recent infrastructure changes,
we've made some minor changes in how we process the
lastmod attribute.
If you omit the time portion, it defaults to midnight UTC (00:00:00Z). If you specify a time, but
omit the timezone, you'll get an invalid date error. You'll also get an invalid date error if you
specify an invalid date or time (like February 80th) or the date isn't in the correct format.
You'll no longer see errors associated with future dates.
Dates must use
W3C Datetime encoding,
although you can omit the time portion. For instance, the following are both valid:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Search now defaults the lastmod attribute's time portion to midnight UTC if omitted and requires a timezone if a time is specified.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eInvalid date or time formats, including invalid dates (like February 80th) and incorrect formatting, will result in an error.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Search now accepts W3C Datetime encoding for the lastmod attribute, allowing for date-only or full date and time with timezone specifications.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eErrors associated with future dates in the lastmod attribute will no longer be displayed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Recent infrastructure changes have led to updates in processing the `lastmod` attribute. Omitting the time in `lastmod` now defaults to midnight UTC. Specifying a time without a timezone, providing an invalid date/time, or using an incorrect format will result in an error. Future dates will no longer generate errors. Dates must adhere to W3C Datetime encoding, but the time portion is optional, with examples of valid formats provided.\n"],null,["April 14, 2006\n\n\nWith our\n[recent infrastructure changes](/search/blog/2006/03/improving-things-behind-scenes),\nwe've made some minor changes in how we process the\n[lastmod attribute](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap#general-guidelines).\nIf you omit the time portion, it defaults to midnight UTC (00:00:00Z). If you specify a time, but\nomit the timezone, you'll get an invalid date error. You'll also get an invalid date error if you\nspecify an invalid date or time (like February 80th) or the date isn't in the correct format.\nYou'll no longer see errors associated with future dates.\n\n\nDates must use\n[W3C Datetime encoding](https://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime),\nalthough you can omit the time portion. For instance, the following are both valid:\n\n- 2005-02-21\n- 2005-02-21T18:00:15+00:00\n\nPosted by [Vanessa Fox](https://www.vanessafox.com/)"]]
