Free Content Refresh Checker
Paste an old blog post as text or HTML, then optionally add a publish date and a target phrase. The checker flags year mentions, date phrases, missing headings, a short draft, a phrase missing from the title, images without alt text, and link counts. It also builds a printable refresh plan.
This is a review of the text you paste, not a live fetch and not a Google ranking score. Google does not publish a preferred word count, and changing a date without a substantial update does not make a page more useful.
Old post
The example data button loads a fictional old post so you can see the layout. It is not a live page and not a target.
Refresh plan
Work through these steps on the live post. They are based on this paste only.
Checks
Report
What the checker reviews
This page is a review of an old blog post you already have. Paste the article as HTML if you can, or as plain text if that is all you have. You can also enter an optional publish date, an optional target phrase, and an optional site address. The checker then lists calendar years, date-like phrases, heading structure, a word count, image alt attributes, and a count of internal and external links. It also builds a refresh plan you can copy, download, or print.
The plan is a writing checklist, not a Google score and not a forecast. Official helpful-content documentation, last updated 2026-10-05 UTC, states that Google does not have a preferred word count. The same documentation warns against changing the date of a page to make it seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed. Official crawling guidance, last updated 2025-12-18 UTC, adds that content is rated by quality, regardless of age, and that there is no additional value in trivial edits plus a new date. This tool follows those limits: it flags items for you to review, and it never invents a ranking threshold, a target length, or a required update cadence.
HTML is the more complete path. Headings, image tags, and links can be read from the markup. Plain text still gets a word count, a year review, and a simpler plan, but heading tags, alt attributes, and internal versus external counts cannot be checked as reliably. Relative links are counted as internal. Absolute links are counted as external unless you enter your site address and the host matches.
How to use it
Copy the post from your editor or from the published HTML view. Paste it into the Old post box. If you still have the original publish date, add it so the report can show how long ago that date is. Age is information only. An older date does not make the post unhelpful on its own. If you have a phrase you want the title to describe clearly, enter it as the target phrase. This is a clarity check, not a ranking score, and the phrase should not be stuffed into headings.
If you want a cleaner split between internal and external links, enter your site address. Then choose Check post. Load example data fills a fictional old post so you can see the layout. It is not a live page and not a target. Reset clears the form. Copy plan, Download plan, and Print give you a text record of the findings and the checklist. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or sent over the network, and this page does not use cookies or local storage.
Use the plan as a starting point, then also read the post yourself. A year mention may still be accurate. A short draft may already answer a narrow question. A missing heading or a missing alt attribute is usually worth fixing. After you edit the live URL, change a last-updated date only if you made a substantial improvement. Official byline-date documentation, last updated 2025-12-10 UTC, recommends labelling a visible date as published or last updated, and it advises against using a future date as the page date.
How to read the result
The summary cards show a word count, the detected title, the number of H2 headings when HTML was pasted, year mentions earlier than the current year used by this checker, images missing an alt attribute, and link counts. A warning is a review item. It is not a proof that the post must be rewritten, and it is not a claim about search rankings.
Year mentions earlier than the current year are listed so you can check them. A historical date, a case study, or a changelog can stay if it is still the right date. Future years are noted because official byline guidance says not to specify a future date as the publication or update date of the page. A future year in the body can still be appropriate if it describes a planned event, but it is worth a look. Date-like phrases are listed because extra dates on a page can confuse date detection.
If the draft is under 300 words, the checker warns that it is short and reminds you that Google does not publish a preferred word count. That warning is only a cue to ask whether a new reader still has enough explanation. The Free SEO Content Checker on this site can also review heading structure and reading ease, but it is a different tool. This page focuses on refresh work: years, dates, missing alt text, link counts, and a printable plan.
The report at the bottom is the same plan in plain text. Copy or print it, then edit the live post. This tool cannot open a URL, test whether a link still works, or log into Search Console. For link requests you control, use a method that can fetch the URL, such as the HTTP status checker on this site.
What this tool cannot do
It cannot crawl your site, fetch a live post, or check broken links. It cannot tell you that a refresh will improve rankings, traffic, or click-through rate. It cannot invent a typical update schedule, a preferred word count, or a quality score. It also cannot change a date in your CMS. The practical use of this page is to give you an honest list of review items from the text you pasted, then a checklist you can take back to the editor. Keep the draft on your computer if it is not public yet, and remember that a substantial update is a real improvement for the reader, not a new date on an unchanged page.