Should we be showing last modified date for each page in our sitemap?

[SOS_Children]

We're not currently displaying the last modified date in our sitemap, e.g.:

<url><loc>http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/about-our-charity</loc></url>

Are their any advantages to including this data? One benefit that occurred to us is that it will enable Google to determine which pages have fresh content and which are therefore worth crawling, helping Google index beneficial changes quicker.

Thanks!

[Stramark]

Google is always gratefull for all information you give it. Based on that information they may or may not make descicions of their own.

I think that google is very aware of what pages have changed and they will check for themselves anyway. If you have a very big website it might be an advantage to include the time. this to optimize on your (limited) crawl budget.

Google does not require it : https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183668?hl=en

but.. if you can, why would you not put it in?

[Mike.Bean]

Jamie,

You should update your sitelinks with Google at least once a month. They know when you've re updated it. A date inside the document shouldn't make a difference.

Thanks,

- Mike Bean