Most recent update: <date>
Edit: it’s only a matter of time till an article stops getting updated. Of course I doubt people in the “content industry” (tell me that’s not a real thing) care what happens to anyone else after they stop updating their ‘evergreen’ page.
Safer to just publish a new article when there's a sufficient amount of content to update. Link the articles together somehow. Maybe add a disclaimer to older (and not updated) articles that they might no longer be valid
Also solves the problem others have mentioned where they don't trust the date on articles. If you have a solid previous article to link to, you're more likely to build trust that the new one really is new
To get even more nuanced generally a superficial update shouldn't change the "updated" time, this gives another level of control.
I think if there is a thing of any sort, there's an industry for it.
And if it sound dumb to an engineer type, it's more likely there's a lot of it.
Exaggerating (which is lying) about the product.
Explaining how good it will make you feel, or better yet, showing photos of people very happy, using the products.
Acting = lying, photshopped photos = lying, fictitious scenarios of use = lying.
Lying is required to write a story (when you read a fiction book, you want the lie about reality, for it is fun to imagine.)
This is a lie all parties engage in willingly.
But marketing types have a sole purpose. To lie, but make it look like truth.
So they don't care one iota about really updating an article or not.
"That's right -- and when you get to the human world, the Nothing will cling to you. You'll be like a contagious disease that makes humans blind, so they can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. Do you know what you and your kind are called there?"
"No," Atreyu whispered.
"Lies!" Gmork barked
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story
“When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts
... Who knows what use they’ll make of you? Maybe you’ll help them to persuade people to buy things they don’t need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them.”
His child books certainly have a deep second reading as adults.
After all, it claims the unreal as real. Fiction, lies.
The difference with things like fiction in books and movies, for entertainment, is that the listener of the lie, knows it is a lie, and listens for entertainment.
It is not a lie, pretending to be true.