There are several different ways through which you can check when a specific website was updated or modified. Here, modified/updates mean that the website’s content or its layout was changed by the website owners or developers. You can instantly check the modified date using ‘document.lastModified’ command or you can even set up alerts on Google to do the job for you so that you receive the notification right on your email.
How check when a Website was Last Modified?
Here are some of the ways through which you can check the date instantly or set up the alerts accordingly. Before we move on to the solutions, we assume that you have a proper browser installed on your computer such as Chrome or Firefox. Furthermore, the exact URL of the site will be required to visit it.
Method 1: Using document.lastModified
JavaScript has a nifty command which you can use to check the last update date of any website. This can be executed two ways; either you can execute the command right inside the address bar at the top or you can open the console of the browser against the website and execute the command there. We will go through both the methods starting with the address bar. Another way to execute the command is through the console of your web browser while the website is open at the background. Follow the steps below:
Method 2: Using Sitemap.XML
Sitemaps allow the website owners to inform crawlers on the web that some of their URLs are available to be crawled into. There are also additional options in sitemaps which allow the webmasters to include other different information as well such as when it was last updated or how much the web page is updated over time (frequency). We will leverage this and try to extract the last updated dates using this method. Note: It should be noted that not all web pages may have the last modified date using sitemaps. If you can’t find it, move on to the other solutions listed below. For example, check the following code: Note: This might not give an accurate representation but it will give the user an idea.
Solution 3: Using Archive.org
Another useful method to get an idea when a website was last modified is checking the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive (also known as the Wayback Machine) can give you a rough idea when the website was last updated or if it is currently being updated frequently. Do note that this will not give you the ‘exact’ date when the website was updated like we got using JavaScript but it might provide you a rough idea. The idea behind Archive is that it takes screenshots of different websites and their contents through the web and saves them with time. You can easily check the metadata or check the archived copy of the site.
Method 4: Creating Google Alerts
If you want to be instantly notified about a website when it is updated by the owners or developers, you can opt for Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a service which allows users to check the change in content. This usually occurs when Google’s crawlers crawl the website and see additional content added. Then, they will notify the user by sending an email to the user’s email address which is registered in Google Alerts. Do note that this will not provide you the last modified date but it will provide future alerts if there are any modifications done.
