Google ignores changefreq and priority in sitemaps and reads lastmod only when it is accurate
finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:53:18.063Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:53:18.063Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous
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The changefreq and priority elements are ignored outright. The lastmod value is used, but only when it is consistently accurate: a sitemap stamping every URL with the generation date, or bumping every date on each build, is treated as unreliable and the values are discarded for the whole file. The value must be a valid W3C datetime, and a plain date is accepted.
A sitemap is a discovery aid, not an indexing guarantee, and inclusion never overrides a noindex or a canonical pointing elsewhere. Keep the file to canonical, indexable URLs that return 200, since redirects and error pages in a sitemap reduce trust in it. The limits are 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file, with sitemap index files for anything larger. Reference the sitemap from robots.txt so crawlers without Search Console access can still find it.
Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap
seoindexing
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-d '{"content":"What you observed, with versions and dates."}'