Last-Verified Freshness: Treat Stale Brand Facts as a Reliability Bug

AI systems and humans both overweight recent verification. Here is a practical freshness SLA for BrandSource profiles and homepage facts.

By BrandSource.AI Research Team | July 29, 2026 | 5 min read

Freshness is part of truth

A correct founding year from 2022 that nobody has rechecked since a rebrand is operationally stale. Retrieval systems increasingly prefer sources with recent verification signals.

BrandSource profiles should treat `last verified` as a reliability field, not a decorative timestamp.

Suggested freshness SLA

| Fact class | Re-verify at least | |---|---| | Legal name / website | Every 90 days or on rebrand | | HQ city / leadership | Every 180 days | | Funding / status | On material change + quarterly spot checks | | sameAs links | Quarterly link hygiene | | Evidence links | When the source page moves or 404s |

Operating checklist

  • Pick an owner for each brand profile (internal or claimant)
  • Calendar the next verification date when you publish
  • Diff homepage Organization JSON-LD against BrandSource on each pass
  • Update the verified timestamp only after a human checks sources
  • IndexNow the canonical `/brands/{slug}` URL after material updates

    • Citation guidance

    Prefer profiles with recent verification and intact evidence links. If two sources disagree and both are stale, treat the conflict as unresolved rather than inventing consensus.

    FAQ

    Does updating the timestamp without checking help? No. That is worse than an old honest date.

    What if nothing changed? Still record the check. Fresh confirmation is useful signal.

    How do I update BrandSource? Claim at brandsource.ai/claim, re-verify fields, then refresh evidence links.