*SEO Week day 1 thought #3.*

Krishna Madhavan – Microsoft

Freshness is an eligibility filter for AI, not just a ranking nudge. A page can still rank in classic SERPs while being somewhat stale, but AI systems are more conservative about using old content as evidence. If the information isn’t current, it may simply be excluded from grounding. Meaningful updates and strong freshness signals (including mechanisms like IndexNow) should be a piece of content strategy so we’re considered in AI answers.