Content freshness is a real factor in AI search, but it’s much more nuanced than most GEO advice suggests. ChatGPT does favor recently updated pages, but 30% of the content it cites hasn’t been updated in over a year. Freshness matters. It’s just not the whole story.
Through our testing at TJ Digital, we’ve found that a combination of genuine content updates and smart date signals is far more effective than obsessively refreshing every page on your site. The key is knowing which pages to update, how often, and what actually counts as “fresh” to an AI.
Does ChatGPT really prefer fresh content?
Yes, but not as dramatically as people claim. About 70% of the content ChatGPT cites was updated in the last 12 months. That sounds high, but consider that most of the content people search for has probably been updated in the last 12 months anyway.
The more telling stat is that 30% of all content ChatGPT cites has not been updated in the last year. That’s a big number. Authoritative, evergreen content still gets cited regularly, even without recent updates.
How does ChatGPT detect whether content is fresh?
ChatGPT just looks for a date on the page. That’s the short answer.
My friend Dave Davies recently shared something in Marie Haynes’ Search Bar that explains how this works under the hood. By inspecting the page source code while using ChatGPT, he found that ChatGPT passes a relevancy parameter to the web tool whenever it performs a search. For some searches, ChatGPT will limit the results to pages that have been updated or published within a certain timeframe.
ChatGPT’s search bot scans for visible date indicators, datePublished or dateModified schema, and year markers in titles. If it finds a recent date, the page passes the freshness check. If it doesn’t find one, it may skip the page entirely.
At least right now, it’s incredibly easy to trick ChatGPT. Just put the year in the title or a published date somewhere at the top of the article, and you’ve checked the box.
How is Google different from ChatGPT when it comes to freshness?
Google is more sophisticated. It typically won’t reevaluate a page just because you changed a date. Google needs actual content changes.
Guidelines suggest around 20-30% of the content should change for Google to consider an update substantive. In practice though, we’ve found that just adding or changing a few sentences is usually enough to trigger re-indexing.
So while ChatGPT can be fooled by a date stamp, Google cannot. The best approach is to make real updates so both systems recognize your content as fresh.
How often should you update content for AI search?
Update important pages at least once per year. For your most competitive pages, consider updating every three months.
Here’s a practical breakdown.
| Update Frequency | Best For | What to Change |
| Annually | Evergreen blog posts, service pages | Add current year to title, update a few sentences or stats, refresh the “last updated” date |
| Quarterly | High-competition pages, product roundups, industry trend pieces | Add new sections, update data, revise outdated recommendations |
| Monthly | Your most critical landing pages | Maintain an “updates” section at the top with the latest information |
You don’t need to rewrite entire articles. A few new sentences, an updated statistic, or a small new paragraph is often enough. The goal is to show active maintenance without altering the core content.
One practical tip. At the end of each year, do a site search for the current year. Go to Google and type site:yourdomain.com 2026. This pulls up every page on your website with that year in the content. Update each one with at least a small content change, swap the year, and update the published date.
Does all content need to be recently updated to get cited?
No. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that every page needs constant updates.
Some information really just doesn’t change that often. Mathematical definitions, historical events, basic technical principles, established how-to guides. These topics don’t age out. AI tools will still cite older authoritative sources for this kind of content because the information remains accurate.
Even for business-related content, a well-written guide on a stable topic can perform fine without constant refreshing. Focus your update efforts on pages where the information actually changes.
Why do old Reddit threads outperform new ones in AI search?
This is one of the biggest misconceptions about AI search. When people see how frequently large language models cite Reddit, they typically start logging on and posting on recent threads.
There’s nothing wrong with being active on Reddit. I think it’s worth it for its own sake. But if you look at the threads that large language models actually cite, almost all of them are more than six months old. Most are well over a year old. Semrush’s analysis of 248,000 Reddit posts cited by AI found the average age of cited threads was around 900 days, roughly 2.5 years.
AI models favor well-established discussions that have been referenced and paraphrased multiple times. An idea repeated across many comments gives the model multiple exposures to the same information. Older threads with depth outperform fresh threads with one or two comments.
You’ll have a much bigger impact on a large language model by posting to the 20 most-cited threads in your niche than you will by posting 2,000 comments on brand new threads.
What’s the best way to keep your content fresh for AI?
Here’s what we recommend to our clients at TJ Digital.
- Include the year in your title when it makes sense. This helps with both AI citation and click-through rates. People also prefer articles written this year, so it’s effective beyond just ranking.
- Update important pages at least once a year. Add a few sentences, refresh a stat, and update the published date. Make sure your CMS updates the dateModified metadata when edits are made.
- Update your most competitive pages quarterly. Product roundups, industry trend pieces, and buying guides need more frequent attention because AI tools double-check these topics every few months.
- Add an “updates” section to critical pages. Put it near the top of the article and refresh it on a regular schedule. This signals freshness to both readers and AI crawlers without requiring a full rewrite.
- Display your update dates visibly on the page. A “Last updated” line near the heading helps both human readers and AI bots confirm the content is current.
- For Reddit, focus on established threads. Contributing a thoughtful answer to an existing high-traffic thread is far more effective for AI visibility than posting dozens of comments on new ones.
- Leave stable content alone. If the information hasn’t changed, don’t waste time updating it just for the sake of a new date. Focus your energy on pages that actually benefit from a refresh.
Ready to optimize your content for AI search?
Content freshness is one of many factors that influence whether AI platforms recommend your business. If you want a full picture of how your content is performing in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and other large language models, reach out to TJ Digital for a free audit. We’ll show you exactly where you stand and what to prioritize. This was AI search factor #7 from Kevin Indig’s Growth Memo, a series I’ve been breaking down on video.