Footer copyright year statement. good or bad

[Autoschieber]

Hi,

I see a lot of sites with a year copyright statment in the footer like

Copyright 2011 - DomainName.com

or

Copyright 2002 - 2012 - Domainname.com

since new year a lot of sites (founded before 2011) still have 2011 instead of 2012 in the footer. Do you think the date gives any signals to google?

Should someone update the date or remove it completely?

I would tend to remove it completely since the page date for google is submitted in the HTTP header. But maybe the info could be of any use for the user. Any best practices?

[brycebertola]

Copyright notices are really just a signal for the users, and to say "don't steal our stuff" in somewhat of a non-forceful way. People can generate the year automatically, but sometimes they just forget to include it.

Is it a big deal to have an older date? Probably not. Google has a number of other ways they could check a page's freshness aside from a completely arbitrary copyright date.

An interesting note about copyright, you don't really have to display a copyright notice in the first place. As soon as you create something, it's already considered "copyrighted."

[EssEEmily]

I agree with Bryce that it probably doesn't affect Google's perception of the page at all.

However, from a user standpoint an "outdated" copyright could work against you. I see it as a sort of trust signal. I was on a page earlier that said "Copyright 2001" and I just couldn't get over it. If they can't bother to update the date on their site, why would they bother with having me as a customer?

Just something to think about. Great question.