Content includes freshness signals

Visitors use freshness signals as proxies for whether the product is actively maintained and whether the company is still operating. A footer copyright year that reads "© 2022" in 2026 is a four-year-old stale signal that the site has not been touched. For any product that is software — where bugs get fixed, features get added, and security matters — an outdated copyright year creates doubt about whether the company is still around. This is especially problematic for AI-built projects where the site may have been generated and deployed once, then not updated. The fix is one line of code. Blog post dates that are 18+ months old similarly signal abandonment to visitors who value recency of information.

Make the copyright year dynamic so it updates automatically each year without a code change:

// components/Footer.tsx — dynamic copyright year
export function Footer() {
  return (
    <footer>
      <p>© {new Date().getFullYear()} YourCompany. All rights reserved.</p>
    </footer>
  )
}

Find the current static copyright year in your footer component (search for the 4-digit year in components/Footer.tsx or app/layout.tsx) and replace the hardcoded year with {new Date().getFullYear()}.

For blog freshness: if the most recent post is more than 12 months old and you have no content planned, consider removing the blog listing from the main navigation rather than leaving a visibly stale blog as a trust signal. A blog that looks abandoned is worse than no blog. If content is planned, even one new post per quarter is enough to maintain freshness signals.

• ID: marketing-content-quality.content-completeness.content-freshness-signals

• Severity: info

• What to look for: Count all relevant instances and enumerate each. Look for signals that the content is current: blog post dates (are the most recent posts within 12 months?), a copyright year in the footer (is it the current year?), product version numbers referenced in copy, or "Last updated" timestamps on docs pages. Check the footer for a static copyright year that would be out of date.

• Pass criteria: At least one of the following is true: the footer copyright year matches the current year, recent blog posts are dated within 12 months, or "Last updated" dates on docs pages are within 12 months. At least 1 implementation must be verified.

• Fail criteria: The footer shows a static copyright year that is 2 or more years behind the current year, AND no other freshness signals exist (no recent blog posts, no updated timestamps).

• Skip (N/A) when: No content elements with dates are present (no footer copyright year, no blog, no dated docs). Signal: none of the above elements found in any component.

• Detail on fail: Note specifically what was found. Example: "Footer copyright shows '© 2022' — 3 years out of date and no other freshness signals present" or "Most recent blog post is dated 18 months ago with no other freshness indicators"

• Remediation: An outdated copyright year or stale content signals abandonment. Visitors use these as trust signals.

  For the copyright year: make it dynamic rather than static:

  // In your footer component:
  <p>© {new Date().getFullYear()} YourCompany</p>
  

  For the blog: even one new post per quarter is better than no posts. If content freshness is not a priority, remove the blog entirely rather than leave stale dated content visible.