Do you want to display last updated date for your posts in WordPress? Some websites regularly update their posts and would like to show users when the article was last updated. In this article, we will show you how to easily display the last updated date of your posts in WordPress.
When You Need Last Updated Date for Posts in WordPress?
Most WordPress themes usually show the date when a post was last published. This is fine for most blogs and static websites.
However, WordPress is also used by websites where old articles are regularly updated (like ours). This last updated date and time is important information for those publications.
The most common example is news websites. They often update old stories to show new developments, add corrections, or media files. If they only added the published date, then their users would miss those updates.
Many popular blogs and websites don’t show any date on their articles. This is a bad practice and you should never remove dates from your blog posts.
Having said that, let’s see how to easily display last updated date for your posts in WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Displaying Last Updated Date in WordPress
This tutorial requires you to add code to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, then we recommend you to look at our guide on how to copy paste code in WordPress.
Method 1: Show Last Updated Date Before Post Content
You will need to add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.
function wpb_last_updated_date( $content ) {
$u_time = get_the_time('U');
$u_modified_time = get_the_modified_time('U');
if ($u_modified_time >= $u_time + 86400) {
$updated_date = get_the_modified_time('F jS, Y');
$updated_time = get_the_modified_time('h:i a');
$custom_content .= '<p class="last-updated">Last updated on '. $updated_date . ' at '. $updated_time .'</p>';
}
$custom_content .= $content;
return $custom_content;
}
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpb_last_updated_date' );
This code checks to see if a post’s published date and last modified dates are different. If they are, then it displays last modified date before the post content.
You can add custom CSS to style the appearance of the last updated date. Here is a little CSS that you can use as starting point:
.last-updated {
font-size: small;
text-transform: uppercase;
background-color: #fffdd4;
}
This is how it looked on our demo website.
Method 2: Add Last Updated Date in Theme Templates
This method requires you to edit specific WordPress theme files. Many WordPress themes now use their own template tags which define how these themes show post meta data like date and time.
Some themes also use content templates or template parts to display posts.
Few simpler themes will use single.php, archive.php, and other template files to show content and meta information.
You will be looking for the code responsible for displaying the date and time. You can then either replace that code with the following code, or add it right after your theme’s date and time code.
$u_time = get_the_time('U');
$u_modified_time = get_the_modified_time('U');
if ($u_modified_time >= $u_time + 86400) {
echo "<p>Last modified on ";
the_modified_time('F jS, Y');
echo " at ";
the_modified_time();
echo "</p> "; }
This is how it looked on our demo site:
We hope this article helped you learn how to display last updated date of your posts in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of most useful time saving WordPress shortcuts.
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The PHP code worked great, but how do I limit it to post pages only. Once I added the code to functions.php it displayed last updated on both pages and posts. What do I need to add to limit it to just posts?
Thanks,
John
To limit it to posts you would use an if statement after the function:
function wpb_last_updated_date( $content ) {
if ( is_single() ) {
and add a closing
}above the add_filter lineThank you for the quick response!
I tried the code, but it prevents my blog pages from rendering. However, my blog post pages continue to work and display last updated date.
Do you have any idea why that is?
You may want to reach out to your theme’s support, this code shouldn’t prevent the rendering of content unless something theme-specific is conflicting with it.
Still worked in September 2019 for one of my sites. For my Genesis based site, I needed to use the Genesis Simple Edits plugin to easily modify the post info since they put the post info in an array, instead of in a function.
Thanks for sharing what worked for you
Thank you for this post, I tried it and its working Fine..
You’re welcome, glad our article could be helpful
Hi there,
I’m having the opposite problem – I have a new website and have backdated my posts to the date that they were originally created, but my site is showing the dates that they were last updated.
Any advice on how to fix this, or if there is a link to another tutorial for that somewhere would be greatly appreciated, I can’t find one!
Thanks.
By default, WordPress should work like this, you may want to reach out to the support for the specific theme you’re using to see if they have a setting for this.
Hi, will it impact SEO if I show both the posted, and the updated date?
Thanks!
Unless I hear otherwise, we haven’t tested the SEO impact of having both displaying at the same time but your post’s metadata should let search engines know which date to look at.
Thanks.. is there a way to show the Last modified field Only After certain time from date of post?
i.e if the next day you edited a post for some reason, doesn’t have to show as modified..
Not at the moment but we can certainly look into an option to do that.
i have a page that lists books that I have read and I update the page when I start a new book.
On the sit’s homepage I have a menu link to the book list. I would like to have button, or maybe just text, next to the homepage link showing the last time the book list page has been updated.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
You could either add a text widget or edit the menu item’s title manually when you update the page.
I am using Method 1 since Method 2 doesnt seem to work on my theme. Is there a way to have the text be displayed n the bottom of the post? Your response would mean a lot. Thank you
For relocating the publish date you would want to reach out to the support for the theme you are currently using for how to do that with your theme.
This is great. Quick question, I can’t seem to get it to only show on post and not pages? I tried to add method 2 to the single post template, but that didnt seem to work. It doesnt contain a bit about date or time. Even though the date is displayed in header.
Should i be adding more to show date and time in the single post template?
Your specific theme may be pulling that information from another file. If you reach out to your specific theme’s support they should be able to assist.
Hi, how to make last updated date show only on specific pages?
Hi, thanks so much for this guidance freely given.
Suppose I do not want to show the published date but only the last updated date? How can I modify the code to achieve that, please?
Thanks
Alexander
You would need to modify your theme’s templates, as each theme is different you would need to check with your theme’s support for where the published date is located
Hi,
I found your information helpful. But perhaps you can answer two more questions:
When is it best to completely update a post aka republish it versus just provide the “last updated” information? Sometimes republishing something feels like cheating – it’s a lazy way to update my blog.
I’ve also read that having two dates on a post can confuse Google when it is crawling your site. Of course, I would like for them to pick up the latest date so it shows next to the description in the search results. Is there a way to show one or the other?
Right now, I have removed the entry date on posts while employing the “last updated” date (using css for both). Problem is that if I haven’t updated something, then it shows no date which is also a no-no according to the post above.
A LOT to address here, I know! But if you would be so kind to consider a reply, I would appreciate it.
Thanks!
Hi Melanie,
It is best to simply update a post if changes are minor. However, if a post is completely outdated and a rewrite contains all new information, then you can publish it as a new article and redirect your old article.
Thank you.
It so helpful.
I need it.
How do you keep the “last updated” from appearing at the top of specific pages. I really only want it on blog posts, not my homepage, contact page, etc.? thanks.
This code is excellent. Thanks so much. I’m following pretty much all of it, but I’m just curious what the 86400 number added to the updated time is doing.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Laura,
86400 is number of seconds in a day. The code checks if the modified time is larger than or equals to a day.
Hello, can i use the first méthod and using the translation file to translate it into my language ?
Thanks, this was helpful for implementing last updated text on my blog.
One point, the theme specific code is actually incorrect. You forgot the “echo get_…” before the get_the_modified_time() function.
Right now it just says:
the_modified_time(‘F jS, Y’);
echo ” at “;
the_modified_time();
When it should say:
echo get_the_modified_time(‘F jS, Y’);
echo ” at “;
echo get_the_modified_time();
Can you please tell me how to post the modified date AFTER the content. I tried using a in the footer.php but then it just displays before the content AND in the footer. I would just like the footer to display.
Thanks guys, it works like a charm! A so so cool tip!
If you want to add the last modified ONLY ON POSTS, that works for me (I’m Italian and I edited it not showing the hour and modified the date order):
function wpb_last_updated_date( $content ) {
$u_time = get_the_time(‘U’);
$u_modified_time = get_the_modified_time(‘U’);
if ($u_modified_time >= $u_time + 86400) {
$updated_date = get_the_modified_time(‘d F Y’);
$updated_time = get_the_modified_time(‘H:i’);
$custom_content .= ‘Articolo aggiornato il ‘. $updated_date . ”;
}
if(is_single()){
$custom_content .= $content;
return $custom_content;
}
return $content;
}
add_filter( ‘the_content’, ‘wpb_last_updated_date’ );
Dude, this is gold, I don’t know why anyone has thanked you before.
Thank you
Yeah, good stuff! Thanks bro!
I have applied above all settings on my website and its working fine.
But I have one question that when two dates shown above content then which date will be shown in google search engine result page? Please provide answer because I have done all this only for showing last update date in google search engine result page.
i like this it is very good and easy to install with genesis child theme function.php thank you
Hi,
Added the following code to functions.php
function wpb_last_updated_date( $content ) {
$u_time = get_the_time(‘U’);
$u_modified_time = get_the_modified_time(‘U’);
if ($u_modified_time >= $u_time + 86400) {
$updated_date = get_the_modified_time(‘F jS, Y’);
$updated_time = get_the_modified_time(‘h:i a’);
$custom_content .= ‘Last updated on ‘. $updated_date . ‘ at ‘. $updated_time .”;
}
$custom_content .= $content;
return $custom_content;
}
add_filter( ‘the_content’, ‘wpb_last_updated_date’ );
Works fine for posts but … the same is displayed in Pages also.
I want it only for post. or if pages then at a different place eg End og the page article.
Best Wishes
Vishal Mukherjee
Thank you for the code.
However, there is a common problem that Google pulls the date of the embedded youtube video instead of the updated blog post date. In your case, I see that the search results do in fact show the correct date, and not the embedded video’s upload date. How did you achieve this? Thank you.
hello, I want only show updated date like your website, not both(updated and published date), when I add your code to site then its shows that both dates, please guide me to show only that updated date. thanks
Thank you for this post, I tried it and it works like a charm. I went for the site-specific plugin-option.
Thanks a lot it worked perfectly. but for the custom CSS only the “text-transform” worked on my theme. Other CSS like; color, text-weight, background-color etc. did not work. Please is there any possible way around it?
hi syed ,am peter. the code work on my theme, but when i tried to add css style , i mean this code .last-updated {
font-size: small;
text-transform: uppercase;
background-color: #fffdd4;
}
my site goes blank. please what do i do to restore my website…
Hi Peter,
We are not sure what may cause this. Just to be on the safe side, please take a look at our guide on how to add custom CSS in WordPress.
Thank you for this tip. I actually turned it into a shortcode so that it only shows up where I want it, and not on every page or post. [last_updated]
Hi,
Actually the code is work, but the result showing some numbers before “last update”
1494555840LAST UPDATED ON JUL 9, 2017
Every single post that I updated showing different numbers like that. Any one can help me?
Thank you
Can you please explain how to apply it for genesis framework. i tried it but it didn’t worked
Hey I just tried this method it worked fine for me but the problem is that now my post is not showing any date in google search please help me i also want to show last updated date in Google search when anyone searches my content.
Hi
The code work great, thank you!
Can you tell us how to edit published time and add Published by “author” like in your images?
I tried using this for my blog but it is also showing the “Last Updated” in the latest post page and its making it look like Last updated is part of the post content.
i need help to correct this thanks.
Hi,
I tried this on my website and it didn’t worked.
Hi, i want to show last update date/time but of the entire web. How can i do this?
By the way I preferred not to have the time displayed, which I think is completely unecesssary so I deleted the following –
at ‘. $updated_time .’
I hope I did it right, it seems to work OK.
Excellent. This works great on my site. I too update articles all the time. Constantly improving them. I’m just completely rewriting and improving every article from day 1. Now instead of it showing my article is 10 years old people can see it has recently been updated.
This adds a new section showing modified date, but I would like to show updated date instead of published date as you have done in wpbeginner.
i would also like to know will this preserve seo and shows updated date in search engines??
Yes I’d like to know re above.
Especially the SEO impact of removing the original publication date.
Thanks!
– Paul
One question I have: After pasting in the function in the article, I noticed that only my home page displayed the updated date / time. What if I do not want it to run on the home page? I tried adding an additional condition, ! is_home(). That did not work as it still showed up. Is there a way to only display this on posts (and not on any pages). Nothing has worked so far. Thanks for any help!
Hi Jason,
You can try the second method and add the code directly to each template where you want the updated date to be displayed.
This plugin works. But, Last Updated is showing in the Home Page also. How to add the code to the Post Template alone? Thanks for help
This working on me
function wpb_last_updated_date( $content ) {
$u_time = get_the_time(‘U’);
$u_modified_time = get_the_modified_time(‘U’);
if ($u_modified_time >= $u_time + 86400) {
$updated_date = get_the_modified_time(‘j F, Y’);
$updated_time = get_the_modified_time(‘h:i a’);
$custom_content .= ‘Last updated on ‘. $updated_date . ‘ at ‘. $updated_time .”;
}
if(is_single()){
$custom_content .= $content;
return $custom_content;
}
return $content;
}
add_filter( ‘the_content’, ‘wpb_last_updated_date’ );
If you update the post, will it go out in RSS feed again? I assume no?
The code that you display in this article shows the last updated date only but with no text explaining what that displayed date is in the post. It shows it like this:
March 4th, 201701:29
That is not very useful to my readers. Why won’t it display the $custom_content of line 7 of the code?
Hi Roger,
Thanks for pointing this out. We have updated the article, please try the new code.
I’ll be really grateful, if you could update your post about showing Related articles below posts. Or maybe recommend me plugin you’re using right now
Sorry but after used i find that if your article not updated that it shows blank, i.e not shows the date of published article
it shows only when article updated or modified otherwise shows blank
Hey Ashoksinh,
It’s working fine on our end. Please try again, see our guide on how to copy paste code in WordPress if you need help.
Is SEO Shows This Modified Date ?
My theme uses the wordpress default date in its theme and these modifications don’t work. Any help?
Nice code and nice explanation. It is implemented on my site mohanmekap.com and working nicely, I have been seaching this code for internet though know it from wordpress codex but the instructions given here absolutely help for me kudos.
Hello WPBeginner Team,
Can you please state your SEO point of view about displaying last updated date instead of published date?
I have just successfully applied the changes and my blog posts are showing last updated date.
What would be your opinion? Is it better to show last updated rather than published?
Thank You,
Karan
Hi Buddy,
If I am not wrong, I have to replace this code in index, single and page.php pages.
Hello sir ,
I wanna know that is there any way to find out when a article was published first time ??
Most sites show the publish date instead of last updated date. However, if a site does not show it, then you can still try viewing the source code. They may or not have a meta tag for published date and time.
Can you recommend a plugin that accomplishes this?
Also, if I simply type “Last updated on XXXX”, will search engines recognize this and give appropriate credit for the freshness of the content?