ChatGPT is way more likely to cite content published in the last three months, six months, or at least this year. Google also loves fresh content, but ChatGPT really loves it. If you want to be cited by large language models, you need fresh content or at least content that ChatGPT thinks is fresh.
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to rewrite everything. You actually don’t have to update content that much. I’ll show you three simple tactics to keep your content fresh.
Why ChatGPT Prefers Fresh Content
Studies show AI assistants cite newer pages overwhelmingly. Over 70% of pages cited by ChatGPT were updated within the past 12 months. Content over a year old was 50% less likely to be cited.
An Ahrefs analysis of 17 million AI citations found that AI sources are, on average, 25.7% fresher than standard Google results. ChatGPT was by far the AI tool most likely to cite newer pages.
This happens because AI answer engines rely on up-to-date facts. Fresh content is more likely to contain current data, trends, and news. Traditional Google Search often still ranks highly authored evergreen pages even if they’re older. But if your content is new and updated, it’s more likely to be surfaced and quoted by generative AI.
Can You Just Change the Publish Date?
Your first thought might be to change the published date every day. But as any SEO can tell you, Google has already caught onto this.
Merely changing the published date isn’t enough.
Google’s John Mueller explicitly says you should only update a page’s date “when you write something new, or significantly change something existing.” Otherwise, changing the date is “just noise & useless.”
Google uses multiple freshness signals beyond the timestamp. It examines the actual content: new sections, updated statistics, fresh examples, rewritten copy. Google isn’t fooled by simple timestamp changes. It checks for real content changes, such as adding cases, data, or insights.
Google’s own guidelines warn against this trick. They ask, “Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed? … (No, it won’t).”
In practice, if you update only the date and nothing else, Google may even drop the “updated on” tag from results. You must revise the content itself for Google to treat it as new.
Three Simple Ways to Keep Content Fresh
1. Include the Year in Your Title
Include the year in the title of any post where it makes sense. This isn’t just effective for ranking. People also prefer articles that were written this year.
You see this on YouTube videos a lot. It’s because it’s effective.
Adding the year won’t directly improve your rankings, but it can improve user engagement and click-through rate. A SearchPilot A/B test found that adding the current month and year to title tags lifted organic traffic by approximately 5%.
Users tend to favor results that look current. Including the year reassures visitors that your content is up-to-date. It’s most useful for content where recency matters: yearly guides, reports, best-of lists, tutorials.
2. Do a Site Search at Year-End
At the end of each year, do a site search for the current year.
At the end of 2025, you’re going to go to Google and type:
site:yourdomain.com 2025
This will pull up every page on your website with 2025 in the content.
While it’s tempting to update that to 2026 and call it a day, that’s not quite enough. You’re going to need to change the content at least a little bit.
Find a way to either add a new paragraph or change a few sentences with some updated information. Then update the published date.
Google’s site: search operator searches only your domain. This simple query is an easy content audit at year-end. It uncovers blog posts or pages with content from last year so you can update or relink them.
3. Add an Updates Section for Important Articles
For any really important articles, include a section at the top with up-to-date information. Then update that section every month, every three months, whatever makes sense.
And of course, don’t forget to update the published date.
This is especially effective for cornerstone content. A recommended strategy is to add a “Latest Updates” or “Recent News” section at the top of these pages. Include a bullet list like “(Last updated: April 2025)” followed by 2-3 bullet points summarizing what’s new.
This immediately signals freshness to both users and crawlers.
How Much Do You Actually Need to Rewrite?
There’s no fixed percentage. Quality over quantity is key.
Google expects updates to be meaningful. A tiny wording tweak or grammar fix won’t count as freshening the content. Change the date only if you “write something new or significantly change something.”
In practice, that usually means adding real substance:
Add New Content. Insert at least a paragraph or two of new information. Recent stats, a new example, or a subtopic you hadn’t covered. A few added paragraphs or bullet points are a good minimum when claiming a content refresh.
Update Data. Replace outdated statistics or quotes with current numbers and sources. Even updating a single key statistic can trigger Google to re-evaluate freshness.
Revamp Structure. Consider adding a new section or reorganizing. Adding an FAQ section, charts, or answering new related questions can make the update substantial.
Google’s guidelines emphasize “meaningful updates” – basically, more helpful, relevant, and up-to-date information. If in doubt, imagine you’re genuinely providing new value. That level of change is what search engines look for.
What Google and ChatGPT Look For
Google looks at more than just dates. Here’s what matters:
Content Changes Matter. Google looks for substantial edits: new sections, updated stats or examples, removed outdated info.
User Signals Count. New comments, social shares, or fresh backlinks to the page can also indicate freshness. But these follow real content updates.
Tech Updates. Minor fixes like meta tags don’t count by themselves unless accompanied by actual content change.
The bottom line: you must revise the content itself for Google to treat it as new. If you update something meaningful, then update the date. Otherwise, keep the original.
Keeping Cornerstone Content Fresh
Cornerstone pages should be treated as living documents. Many sites review their cornerstone content on a quarterly or biannual basis, adding industry developments, case studies, or data.
Here’s how to keep your pillar pages fresh:
Add a visible update notice. A “last updated” timestamp or summary of recent edits at the top.
Refresh content systematically. Set calendar reminders to audit key pages every 3-6 months. Insert new material: industry changes, fresh images, new insights.
Update dates and schema. If you’ve made substantial edits, update the date on the page and in your structured data so Google recognizes the change.
Highlight new links. Where relevant, link to any new articles on your site from the cornerstone page to improve internal flow.
If an updated page still shows its original publish date, you will not get the full ranking boost you deserve. If the content has truly changed, make sure the visible date reflects that.
Why This Matters More Now
Traffic from large language models converts at about 8 times the rate of traditional search engines. People trust recommendations they get after a long conversation with ChatGPT more than they do from a typical Google search.
We’re also seeing that LLM traffic may surpass traditional search traffic in the middle of 2026. That’s about one year from now.
These optimization efforts take time to pay off. You typically can get some quick wins in the first month. But it really starts to pay off after six months, a year, or more.
The point at which it’s more valuable to be recommended by large language models than by traditional search engines might only be about six months away.
The Bottom Line
You don’t need to rewrite all your content. You need to make it look and actually be fresh.
Include the year in titles where it makes sense. Do a site search at the end of each year and update those pages. Add an updates section to your most important content.
Most importantly, actually update the content. Add new paragraphs, update stats, and expand sections. Then update the date.
Google and ChatGPT both reward fresh content. But they’re not fooled by fake freshness. Give them the real thing.
If you want help optimizing your content for ChatGPT and other AI platforms, that’s what we do at TJ Digital. We focus on AI optimization alongside traditional SEO to help businesses show up where their customers are searching.