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Published September 1, 2026.
Publication dates are identity data, not decoration. A daily release should give readers, crawlers, and future editors the same truthful answer about when an article first became public. This checklist helps a small team detect date drift before it reaches production.
Establish the date source
Record the approved publication date once in the article front matter. Treat that value as the source for the visible byline area, Article structured data, Open Graph metadata, and sitemap entry. Do not change it merely because a page was rebuilt or edited.
Compare every rendered signal
Open the production build and compare the human-readable date with datePublished. Confirm the calendar day, timezone assumptions, canonical URL, and page title. For a substantive later revision, preserve the original publication date and use a separate truthful modification date.
| Check | Passing evidence | Stop condition |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Visible date | Full date appears in the article | Missing or different day |
| Structured data | datePublished matches source | Invalid or contradictory value |
| Canonical | Self-references the requested route | Alias or unrelated canonical |
| Sitemap | Route is present once | Missing or duplicated route |
Keep a release record
Save the route, full commit, validation result, and live observation together. A successful build proves renderability; it does not prove that production serves that commit. Separate those facts so an operator can reconcile deployment history without guessing.
Pair this checklist with the rendered-page QA routine and the structured-date research brief. Google documents the expected properties in its Article structured data guidance.
Frequently asked questions
Should a typo correction change the publication date?
No. Preserve the truthful first-publication date. Record material revisions separately when the page supports a modification date.
Who may resolve a date conflict?
An operator can identify the mismatch and prepare evidence. The accountable publisher should approve any correction that changes public release history.