Definition
Freshness window is the time horizon within which an engine treats content as 'fresh' vs 'stale'. Topic-dependent: news = 7–30 days; product reviews = 6 months; how-to guides = 12 months; definitional content = years. Outside the window, retrieval boosts decay or invert (preference for fresher alternatives). Republishing with updated date can reset the window if substantive changes are made.
A 'best CRM 2024' post in May 2026 is outside the freshness window, so engines downrank it in favor of 'best CRM 2026' posts.
How to optimize
Match content freshness to topic: refresh news content weekly, product reviews semi-annually, definitional content annually. Update dateModified honestly. Engines detect fraudulent date bumps.