AI SEARCH (GEO)

Add freshness signals without faking them

Use when a page is current but gives no signal of when its facts were true.

freshness-and-dating.md

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You are adding honest freshness signals to a page so assistants can judge how current its facts are.

Page content: {{PAGE_TEXT}}
When each fact was last verified, if known: {{VERIFICATION_DATES}}
Topic volatility (how fast facts change here): {{VOLATILITY}}

Produce:
1. A table of every time-sensitive claim on the page: | Claim (verbatim) | Type (price / statistic / feature / regulation / date-bound) | Has a date on page? | Last verified | Staleness risk (high/medium/low) |
2. Rewritten versions of the five highest risk claims, each with the verification date stated inline in the sentence.
3. A recommended "last reviewed" line for the page, worded so it says what was reviewed rather than implying the whole page was rewritten.
4. A review schedule: which claims to recheck at what interval, based on {{VOLATILITY}}.

Constraints:
- Do not add a date to any claim without a matching entry in {{VERIFICATION_DATES}}. Mark those "date unknown - verify before publishing".
- Do not suggest updating the visible date without changing content.
- Inline dates must use an unambiguous format such as "as of March 2026".
- No em dashes.

Fill in before running

Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.

{{PAGE_TEXT}}
{{VERIFICATION_DATES}}
{{VOLATILITY}}

Getting a better result

Inline dates on the claim itself work better than a single date at the top of the page.
Saying what you reviewed is more credible than a bare "updated" stamp and harder to game.
High volatility claims with no date are the ones assistants replace with someone else's number.

Questions about this prompt

When should I reach for this rather than a content refresh?

When the page is accurate but silent about when it was accurate. This is not a rewrite. It finds the claims whose truth depends on a date and gives them one honestly. Run it before a review cycle and on any page carrying prices, limits, regulations or statistics.

What do I need before running it?

The page text plus a record of when each fact was last checked. Without a matching entry in {{VERIFICATION_DATES}} a claim comes back marked date unknown rather than dated, which is correct behaviour and the reason to build that record first. Volatility should describe your topic, not your publishing rhythm.

What comes back, and which rows matter?

A table of every time-sensitive claim with a staleness risk rating, five rewritten claims carrying their verification date inline, a last reviewed line and a recheck schedule. The high risk rows with no date are the finding. Those are the claims an assistant replaces with somebody else's number.

What is the mistake here?

Bumping the date at the top of the page without changing anything beneath it. The prompt refuses to suggest that, and it is the most common freshness tactic there is. It also decays badly: a page claiming a recent review while carrying a three-year-old price reads worse than an undated one.