[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #52099: Sitemaps "Last Modified" (lastmod) tag

[WordPress Trac]

#52099: Sitemaps "Last Modified" (lastmod) tag
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 Reporter:  junaidbhura               |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement               |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                    |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Sitemaps                  |     Version:  5.6
 Severity:  normal                    |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch has-unit-tests  |     Focuses:
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Comment (by MadtownLems):

 I believe that this was intentionally left in plugin territory, at least
 partially because "last modified" for a post can be much more complicated
 than this when you consider dynamic content.

 If a page's primary function is to embed a YouTube playlist, twitch
 channel, etc - the page gets new content whenever those things update.

 The same is true for pages that pull content from other sources, such as a
 third party calendaring system, RSS feeds, or even just using the Latest
 Posts block.

 Furthermore, most search engines don't actually consume these other tags.

 Here's an excerpt from the blog post announcing the new functionality
 (https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/07/22/new-xml-sitemaps-
 functionality-in-wordpress-5-5/):

 "The sitemaps protocol specifies a certain set of supported attributes for
 sitemap entries. Of those, only the URL (loc) tag is required. All others
 (e.g. changefreq and priority) are optional tags in the sitemaps protocol
 and not typically consumed by search engines, which is why WordPress only
 lists the URL itself. Developers can still add those tags if they really
 want to."

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52099#comment:4>
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