diff --git a/content/templates/sitemap.md b/content/templates/sitemap.md
index 10cfeefbe..1ecbfb3be 100644
--- a/content/templates/sitemap.md
+++ b/content/templates/sitemap.md
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ Protocol](http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html).
     <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
       {{ range .Data.Pages }}
       <url>
-        <loc>{{ .Permalink }}</loc>
-        <lastmod>{{ safeHTML ( .Date.Format "2006-01-02T15:04:05-07:00" ) }}</lastmod>{{ with .Sitemap.ChangeFreq }}
+        <loc>{{ .Permalink }}</loc>{{ if not .Lastmod.IsZero }}
+        <lastmod>{{ safeHTML ( .Lastmod.Format "2006-01-02T15:04:05-07:00" ) }}</lastmod>{{ end }}{{ with .Sitemap.ChangeFreq }}
         <changefreq>{{ . }}</changefreq>{{ end }}{{ if ge .Sitemap.Priority 0.0 }}
         <priority>{{ .Sitemap.Priority }}</priority>{{ end }}
       </url>