content recency study — vendor-published
Study ties AI citation likelihood to how recently a page was updated
Seer Interactive analyzed 47,097 citations across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for four brands over a four-month window and found 75% of cited pages had been updated within the past year, rising to 88% within two years. Among 4,124 pages with both dates available, 72% looked fresh by last-modified date versus only 42% by original publish date, and recency requirements varied by engine — Gemini 78%, ChatGPT 73%, Perplexity 65%.
Why it matters: It's a rare AEO study with real methodology and a large sample tying recency directly to citation likelihood, suggesting refresh cadence may now matter as much as new publishing for AI visibility.
The record: ChatGPTGeminiPerplexity
Posted to the wire August 6, 2026.