Does Google use dateModified or date Published in its SERPs?

[Parse.ly]

I was curious as to the prioritization of dateCreated / datePublished and dateModified in our microdata and how it affects google search results. I have read some entries online that say Google prioritizes dateModified in SERPs, but others that claim they prioritize datePublished or dateCreated. Do you know (or could you point me to some resources) as to whether Google uses dateModified or date Published in its SERPs? Thanks!

[netzkern_AG]

From what I observed, it seems to be the datePublished. Example is this page http://www.grimoires.de/buch/1/. You see "Diese Rezension wurde veröffentlicht am 31.12.2002 und zuletzt geändert am 16.05.2015." (with appropriate schema.org data) below the writer info in the main part. This info is not cheated or manipulated in any way, also used in the sitemap and accurate (it takes the unix time stamp of the time of creation/modification). In a SERP, 31.12.2002 appears. Same for another page that had the content (text) extended.

What might influence it: changes in 2015 were rather minimal - the meta description only, if I remember correctly. I am not sure, if the extent of a change might push google towards displaying the dateModified.  It would seem reasonable to me to expect a "change threshold" but in the end I simply don't know. Anybody with hard empiric data?

Regards,

Nico

[Everett]

Hello Claire,

From what I have observed Google seems to give a boost to fresh content, or even re-freshed content. I have seen this effect in the following situations:

• When updating the publish date on the page- When updating the last-mod date in the sitemap
• When refreshing a page WITHOUT updating the publish date (though I don't know if the dateModified tag was updated.)

As for empirical data, none that anyone is willing to share publicly. But this is a real effect that has been seen over and over again by myself, and several people I trust. Take it for what it's worth, but going back through old content and looking for ways to improve it, bring it up-to-date, and ensuring the last-mod tag in the sitemap gets updated is a very good use of your time as a marketer.