SEO for Events that are past

[geoff-maddock]

i have an events site where i post local events of interest. i want google to index the pages and update them up through the date of the event. the pages will still exist for historical purposes, so I would like them to still be on google. but the google indexing service should not go back and re-index them how to handle this case?

This is a very common (and very solvable) events-site SEO problem, and Google actually gives you all the primitives you need. The trick is to separate “discoverability” from “freshness signaling.”

Below is a clean, battle-tested approach that works well for event archives like yours.

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Goals recap

You want:

1. ✅ Event pages indexed before and up through the event date
2. ✅ Pages to remain indexed forever for historical value
3. ❌ Google not to keep re-crawling / re-indexing old events
4. ❌ No accidental “thin content / stale content” penalties

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The Core Strategy (TL;DR)

Keep old event pages indexable, but make them “crawl-cold.”

You do this with:

• Correct robots directives
• Last-modified discipline
• Structured data lifecycle
• Sitemap segmentation
• Optional archive canonicalization

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1️⃣ Never noindex Past Events (Important)

Do NOT do this:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Why:

• Google will drop the page entirely
• You lose long-tail search value (“Band X Pittsburgh 2022”)
• You lose internal linking authority

✅ Keep:

<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

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2️⃣ Stop Signaling “Freshness” After the Event

Google re-indexes pages primarily because it thinks something changed.

🔑 Rule

Once an event is over, the page should become immutable.

Practical steps

a) Freeze lastmod

• Do not update:

  • <lastmod> in sitemaps
  • Last-Modified HTTP header
  • JSON-LD dates

If you keep touching these, Google will keep coming back.

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b) Serve Cache-Control aggressively (for past events)

For past events only:

Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable

This is a huge crawl-budget hint.

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3️⃣ Use Structured Data Lifecycle Correctly (Critical)

Use Event schema, but transition it cleanly after the event.

Before & During Event

{
  "@type": "Event",
  "name": "Artist Name Live",
  "startDate": "2026-02-28T19:00:00-05:00",
  "endDate": "2026-02-28T23:00:00-05:00",
  "eventStatus": "https://schema.org/EventScheduled"
}

After Event Ends

Change ONLY:

"eventStatus": "https://schema.org/EventCompleted"

🚫 Do not:

• Remove schema
• Update timestamps
• Re-emit new JSON

This tells Google:

“This page is valid, complete, and done.”

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4️⃣ Split Your Sitemaps (This Is the Big Win)

Create two sitemaps:

🔥 events-upcoming.xml

• Only future events
• Updated frequently
• Submitted in Search Console
• <lastmod> changes allowed

🧊 events-archive.xml

• Past events only
• Submitted once
• <lastmod> = event end date
• Never touched again

Example:

<url>
  <loc>https://yoursite.com/events/nana-grizol-pittsburgh-2026</loc>
  <lastmod>2026-02-28</lastmod>
</url>

Google strongly respects sitemap segmentation.

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5️⃣ Internal Linking: De-emphasize Old Events

Google crawls what you link to.

Recommended pattern

• Homepage / main feeds → future events only

• Past events:

  • Linked via artist pages
  • Linked via year/month archives
  • Linked via search results

This lowers crawl priority without removing indexability.

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6️⃣ Optional: Archive Canonicals (Advanced)

If you have many nearly identical event pages (same venue, same artist multiple years):

<link rel="canonical" href="/artists/nana-grizol">

Use sparingly — this is optional and strategic.

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7️⃣ What NOT to Do

❌ noindex
❌ robots.txt blocking
❌ Constant timestamp updates
❌ Removing schema entirely
❌ Auto-editing old descriptions
❌ Re-submitting old URLs to Indexing API

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8️⃣ How Google Behaves After This

If done correctly:

• Google will:

  • Index event pages once
  • Re-crawl lightly after completion
  • Eventually crawl very infrequently (months or years)

• Pages stay searchable

• Crawl budget stays focused on new events

This is exactly how Ticketmaster, Songkick, Resident Advisor, and Bandsintown behave.

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9️⃣ Bonus: Status Banner (User + SEO Friendly)

Add a non-index-affecting banner:

<div class="event-status past">
  This event has already happened.
</div>

This helps users without touching metadata.

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If you want…

I can:

• Audit your current event page template
• Give you exact JSON-LD blocks for before/after
• Propose a sitemap structure tailored to your API
• Suggest crawl-budget-safe pagination patterns

Just say the word.

[geoff-maddock]

Check the sitemap, but it seems like I should be lastmodding correctly already? If not, make that tweak.
Even if a page changes...don't worry about the lastmod