diff --git a/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooter.vue b/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooter.vue
index 61d2398b..0b6ff2a8 100644
--- a/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooter.vue
+++ b/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooter.vue
@@ -11,15 +11,17 @@ const { theme, page, frontmatter } = useData()
 const editLink = useEditLink()
 const control = usePrevNext()
 
-const hasEditLink = computed(() => {
-  return theme.value.editLink && frontmatter.value.editLink !== false
-})
-const hasLastUpdated = computed(() => {
-  return page.value.lastUpdated && frontmatter.value.lastUpdated !== false
-})
-const showFooter = computed(() => {
-  return hasEditLink.value || hasLastUpdated.value || control.value.prev || control.value.next
-})
+const hasEditLink = computed(
+  () => theme.value.editLink && frontmatter.value.editLink !== false
+)
+const hasLastUpdated = computed(() => page.value.lastUpdated)
+const showFooter = computed(
+  () =>
+    hasEditLink.value ||
+    hasLastUpdated.value ||
+    control.value.prev ||
+    control.value.next
+)
 </script>
 
 <template>
@@ -47,14 +49,28 @@ const showFooter = computed(() => {
       <span class="visually-hidden" id="doc-footer-aria-label">Pager</span>
 
       <div class="pager">
-        <VPLink v-if="control.prev?.link" class="pager-link prev" :href="control.prev.link">
-          <span class="desc" v-html="theme.docFooter?.prev || 'Previous page'"></span>
+        <VPLink
+          v-if="control.prev?.link"
+          class="pager-link prev"
+          :href="control.prev.link"
+        >
+          <span
+            class="desc"
+            v-html="theme.docFooter?.prev || 'Previous page'"
+          ></span>
           <span class="title" v-html="control.prev.text"></span>
         </VPLink>
       </div>
       <div class="pager">
-        <VPLink v-if="control.next?.link" class="pager-link next" :href="control.next.link">
-          <span class="desc" v-html="theme.docFooter?.next || 'Next page'"></span>
+        <VPLink
+          v-if="control.next?.link"
+          class="pager-link next"
+          :href="control.next.link"
+        >
+          <span
+            class="desc"
+            v-html="theme.docFooter?.next || 'Next page'"
+          ></span>
           <span class="title" v-html="control.next.text"></span>
         </VPLink>
       </div>
diff --git a/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooterLastUpdated.vue b/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooterLastUpdated.vue
index bb85588a..5ec3cfeb 100644
--- a/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooterLastUpdated.vue
+++ b/src/client/theme-default/components/VPDocFooterLastUpdated.vue
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 import { ref, computed, watchEffect, onMounted } from 'vue'
 import { useData } from '../composables/data'
 
-const { theme, page, frontmatter, lang } = useData()
+const { theme, page, lang } = useData()
 
 const date = computed(
-  () => new Date(frontmatter.value.lastUpdated ?? page.value.lastUpdated)
+  () => new Date(page.value.lastUpdated!)
 )
 const isoDatetime = computed(() => date.value.toISOString())
 const datetime = ref('')
diff --git a/src/node/build/generateSitemap.ts b/src/node/build/generateSitemap.ts
index 579141bf..08c013f9 100644
--- a/src/node/build/generateSitemap.ts
+++ b/src/node/build/generateSitemap.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import fs from 'fs-extra'
+import matter from 'gray-matter'
 import path from 'path'
 import {
   SitemapStream,
@@ -22,6 +23,12 @@ export async function generateSitemap(siteConfig: SiteConfig) {
     file = siteConfig.rewrites.inv[file] || file
     file = path.join(siteConfig.srcDir, file)
 
+    if (!fs.existsSync(file)) return undefined
+
+    const { data } = matter.read(file)
+    if (data.lastUpdated === false) return undefined
+    if (data.lastUpdated instanceof Date) return +data.lastUpdated
+
     return (await getGitTimestamp(file)) || undefined
   }
 
diff --git a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
index 102f293b..642dabd7 100644
--- a/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
+++ b/src/node/markdownToVue.ts
@@ -185,8 +185,12 @@ export async function createMarkdownToVueRenderFn(
       filePath: slash(path.relative(srcDir, fileOrig))
     }
 
-    if (includeLastUpdatedData) {
-      pageData.lastUpdated = await getGitTimestamp(fileOrig)
+    if (includeLastUpdatedData && frontmatter.lastUpdated !== false) {
+      if (frontmatter.lastUpdated instanceof Date) {
+        pageData.lastUpdated = +frontmatter.lastUpdated
+      } else {
+        pageData.lastUpdated = await getGitTimestamp(fileOrig)
+      }
     }
 
     if (siteConfig?.transformPageData) {