Update trigger to track last update date (SQL 2008 R2) - sql-server

Question

I'm looking for a model for keeping a last update timestamp on all records in a set of tables. One idea was to implement this with triggers so that no matter how a record got updated, the DateLastUpdated column would keep up to date.
Given a test table called Data_Updata, this is my current update trigger which ensures
the data is updated. Looking at the query execution plan when I run this, the trigger takes 56% of the time. Is there a more efficient trigger/sql to use?
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[Data_Update]
ON [dbo].[Data_Trigger]
FOR UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
UPDATE
[Data_Trigger]
SET
DateLastUpdated = GetDate()
FROM
[Data_Trigger] data
JOIN
inserted ON data.DataID = inserted.DataID
END

Answer 1

Very likely, the join between [Data_trigger] and inserted uses a TABLE SCAN/CLUSTERED INDEX SCAN on [Data_trigger] table.
What can you do ?
Check cached plan for this trigger:
1) First, run this query to find plan_handle for your object(trigger):
SELECT t.name AS TriggerName
,ts.*
FROM sys.dm_exec_trigger_stats ts
INNER JOIN sys.triggers t ON ts.object_id = t.object_id
WHERE ts.database_id = DB_ID()
AND t.name LIKE '%Audit%';
2) Second, find the cached plan (XML). For example, if the plan handle for this trigger is 0x050009009A0A677BB8E09C7A000000000000000000000000, you can use this query to find cached plan:
DECLARE #plan_handle VARBINARY(64) = 0x050009009A0A677BB8E09C7A000000000000000000000000;
SELECT *
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_plan(#plan_handle) qp;
If the join between [Data_trigger] and inserted use a CLUSTERED INDEX SCAN for [Data_trigger] then you have (at least) three options in SQL Server 2008:
1) UPDATE STATISTICS on [Data_trigger] table: updating statistics causes queries to recompile. After this operation, test trigger and check again cached plan to see if it uses SEEK.
2) Or, you can rewrite the JOIN from UPDATE using one IN subquery:
FROM
[Data_Trigger] data
WHERE data.DataID IN (SELECT DataID IN SELECT inserted)
After this operation, test trigger and check again cached plan to see if it uses SEEK.
3) If SEEK operator is not used then you can use FORCESEEK table hint (new in SQL Server 2008; also see Best Practice Considerations section):
FROM
[Data_Trigger] data WITH(FORCESEEK)
JOIN
inserted ON data.DataID = inserted.DataID
For TABLE SCAN try creating an unique (clustered or clustered) index on DataID column.