This factor reports whether a page carries the legacy published MicroFormat class in its body HTML. It is a binary presence check (1 or 0), and it does not validate the publication date it marks up.
| Factor ID | RG-SCF-019 |
|---|---|
| Family | Structured Data — MicroFormat |
| Measurement | Binary presence (0 / 1) |
| Measured zone | Body HTML without scripts |
What it measures
This factor detects the legacy published MicroFormat class. The class comes from the older hAtom microformat vocabulary, where a published element marks the date an entry was made public. RankGear records only whether the class is present in the page body — not whether the date it wraps is correct or machine-readable.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear searches case-insensitively for the exact sequence class="published" in the body HTML (scripts excluded) and returns 1 when that sequence is present, 0 when it is not. The detector requires an exact single-class value, so it matches only when published is the sole class in the attribute.
What RankGear looks for
<time class="published" datetime="2026-08-24">August 24, 2026</time>| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | The exact sequence class="published" appears in the body HTML. |
| 0 | No such single-class value is present. |
How to optimize it
Retain published where legacy hAtom consumers still require it, and make sure it marks an accurate publication date. Treat this as an observation about your markup rather than a target to chase: adding the class where nothing consumes it produces redundant legacy markup and no downstream benefit. If you are choosing a vocabulary for new pages, note that modern Microformats2 commonly uses dt-published instead.
Important considerations
- The detector requires an exact single-class value, so
class="published entry-date"would not match. - It does not validate the date — only the presence of the class.
- Modern Microformats2 commonly uses
dt-publishedrather than the legacypublished. - Avoid redundant legacy markup without a consumer that reads it.
- This is a prioritization signal that relates to position within a measured result set. Presence of the class correlates with patterns RankGear observes; it does not by itself cause or guarantee a ranking.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.