Is an old copyright year a legal problem?

No. It is a trust problem, not a legal one.

How do I set the year automatically?

Render it from the system date instead of typing it — in most systems a small block or one line of code.

Does the copyright year have to be current?

Legally, no. In practice it is the fastest visible signal that a site is still looked after, which is why it is worth keeping current.

Can I exclude historical pages?

Yes. Mark them once and later runs skip them.

Year check for footers and headlines

The year check looks for year references that no longer match today's date: copyright lines, headlines such as "Pricing 2024", legal details and dates in case studies. Every hit comes with an excerpt so you can fix it in minutes.

August 5, 2026

Check your years

Enter your address and see where yesterday's number is still showing.

No account, no credit card. Takes a minute.

So geht es

1Enter the address. Type your website address into the field.
2Review the years. Every passage with a suspicious year appears with an excerpt.
3Make the footer dynamic. Render the footer year from the system date so it never happens again.

Why years matter more than they should

The year in the footer is the first signal visitors read to judge when someone last looked after the site. It sits on every page and is touched least often.

Where old years hide

Years show up in more places than the footer. Page titles, headings, price sheets, PDF filenames and legal notices all carry them, and each one lives in a different part of a content system.

That spread is why the January pass gets skipped: it is not one edit, it is six small edits in six different screens.

Copyright line in the footer
Headings and titles such as "Prices 2025"
Legal and privacy text with an as-of date
Downloads whose filename carries the year

Not every year is wrong

A blog post from 2023 should still say 2023 — that is a fact, not dust. The same goes for company history, award years and archived press releases.

The distinction that matters is whether the year makes a claim about the present. "Prices 2024" does. "Founded in 2024" does not.

What no system updates for you

Even with a dynamic footer, years stay put elsewhere:

Headlines and page titles
Download file names
Legal and register details
Phrases like "for over ten years"

Häufige Fragen

Is an old copyright year a legal problem?: No. It is a trust problem, not a legal one.
How do I set the year automatically?: Render it from the system date instead of typing it — in most systems a small block or one line of code.
Does the copyright year have to be current?: Legally, no. In practice it is the fastest visible signal that a site is still looked after, which is why it is worth keeping current.
Can I exclude historical pages?: Yes. Mark them once and later runs skip them.