Dynamic Websites & Sitemap Updating

[timemachined]

I have a dynamic website where content modules update without the page / post being updated. How do I notify G that this data has been updated without manually updating the post to update sitemap?

This question pertains to freshness algorithm on G. If I update a post manually, G recognises this and sends traffic due to new position. However with most updates to pages being dynamic after launch, how do I get the related post to update sitemap, is it possible?

I know G is supposed to know data changes but I only usually see traffic from freshness and position movement after sitemap updated not when dynamic content updated.

[brotherhood of LAN]

If you're serving a Last-Modified header that isn't changing with your said updates, Google will probably get a 304 Not Modified response. It sounds like you're using something like Wordpress. Whatever CMS you use, there'll be a method to update that Last Modified header, usually by updating a database or changing the timestamp on a file. Updating the last modified times of posts/pages on WP IIRC would simply be an update of a single SQL field.

[timemachined]

Thanks for the reply. Yes Wordpress. Using WP All Import to set up a Woocommerce product post (which is not used or visible) which in turn updates a module that is embedded on a page or many pages.

So effectively if one of the datafeed fields is 'merchant name' and a new field in WP ALL Import was triggered every time and then that triggered an inbetween file which was manually updated with all page ids that the merchant name module is on, then that would then change sitemap date each update perhaps?

[brotherhood of LAN]

It sounds like there would be a plugin for it, I can't give a recommendation as I don't use WP a lot.

Plugins aside a simple cronjob of 10-20 lines would work just as well. Look at your import, look at last modified timestamps of your pages/posts and then update the last modified stamp where necessary. Then regenerate a sitemap if said sitemap shows last modified times. If you wanted to get fancier, a trigger or similar event based notification could do the same process.

There may be a simple plugin alternative, otherwise it's going to involve some coding if that's an option to you.