How to Know the Publication Date of a Web Page? (4 Methods)

Most of the information that people get nowadays comes from the internet. It is a great platform that has replaced a large part of books and newspapers, but it has a problem: just as there is information, there is also misinformation. Something that will help you in this regard is knowing the publication date of a web page.

Google itself indicates the publication date of a page in some circumstances. It shows this in the snippet, which is the short description that appears in search engines. If it doesn’t work, you can use the code inurl: and then &as_qdr=y15 in the link.

Here, we’ll explain what you need to do to find out the publication date of an article, or even an entire web page. In this way, you can make sure that what you are reading is properly updated.

Contents

Why is it important to know the publication date of an article?

As we mentioned in the introduction, most of the information we consume in this society comes from the internet. In the great information network, there are all kinds of topics that help people of all kinds. Even though most people use the internet for entertainment, there are also some topics that are somewhat more delicate.

When we get information related to health, finance, news, and the like, it is very important to stay up to date. On many occasions, results that appear in Google can be too old, and therefore the information they provide is not exactly correct.

Therefore, it is important to make sure that what you are reading on the web was published recently.

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How to find the publication date of an article on the internet?

There are several ways to find out the publication date of a web page, or rather, of an article published on it. This can be essential when the information you want to get tends to change over time.

Here, we explain the methods you can use:

1. See the publication date with the Google search engine

The first tool we can use to know the date of an article on the web is Google. When we perform a search on this engine and come across an article, we can see the publication date in the description. Of course, this is something that does not always happen because it is a feature that can be enabled or disabled by content creators.

In the same way, there are times when Google does not show a specific date. However, this does not mean that we can’t find the publication date because, with Google itself, it is possible to use other interesting tricks.

2. Use inurl:

If the publication date does not appear automatically, copy the link of the article you want to read. Then go to a new tab and open the Google search engine again. Type inurl: and then paste the link you have on your clipboard. It is important that you do it without spaces because otherwise, it will not work.

Therefore, the address should look like the following:

inurl:https://www.ejemplo.com

After this, press enter and Google will do a search, after which you have to add &as_qdr=y15 at the end of the URL like the following:

https://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:https://www.ejemplo.com&as_qdr=y15

Use enter again and now the publication date will appear right next to the link. The &as_qdr=y15 parameter tells Google that we want to search for all pages that have been indexed in the last 15 years.

3. Wayback Machine

This is one of the most interesting platforms, especially for those users who want to explore what internet websites were like several years ago. If you want to take a look into the past, it is a very interesting and even fun tool.

However, this website can be used not only to see things as they were in the past but also to find out if an article is new or old. Of course, it does not offer a specific date, but it does offer a fairly timely approximation.

To use this tool, just copy the article link and paste it into the Wayback Machine search bar. After this, go to the calendar and there you can get an idea of the publication date of that particular article.

4. Carbon Dating the Web

This tool is quite similar to the previous one, only a little more direct. Its purpose is precisely to give an approximate date of the publication date of a certain article on the Internet.

Using this tool is as simple as simply pasting the address in the program’s search bar and clicking on the “Carbon Date” option. It shows approximately when the article was created.

How to find the publication date of an entire website?

So far we have seen how to find the publication date of a specific post or article. However, these tricks can also be used to know the publication date of the entire website as such.

In reality, the steps to follow are exactly the same, with the exception that you will have to use the main page of the portal as a reference. Find the Home page of the website, which is usually the first thing that is published, and then use any of the tools that we have described above.

With these tools, you will be able to find out the specific date or an estimate of the publication of an article, although of course, if you can do it with Google, much better because it is the tool that offers the best results. After all, it is the largest search engine in the world.