What is Content Decay? Here’s How to Identify & Fix It

We’ve all been there—dedicating time and resources to create a solid piece of content. Only to watch it gradually lose organic traffic and conversions. That’s content decay in action!

It is the fate every piece of content has to face, no matter how well it performs initially. But the good news is your content is not entirely dead. There are proven ways to bring it back to life and boost those rankings.

So, what is content decay exactly, and how do you address it?

This article will explore the causes of content decay and practical strategies for identifying and fixing it. So you can keep your content thriving and drive more conversions.

What is Content Decay?

Content decay is the gradual decline in a piece of content’s organic performance over time. This means that content slowly loses its ability to rank well in search results.

Content decay is something every piece of content will eventually face. Even your best-performing articles won’t stay at the top of SERP results forever if you don’t refresh them over time.

In fact, IZEA reports that the average lifetime value of a blog post is only 2 years. After this point, impressions and traffic of the content begin to decline.

Why does this happen? Let’s explore the key factors causing content decay and loss in your organic traffic.

What are the Causes of Content Decay in SEO?

After knowing what content decay is, you must wonder why it happens. Here are some content decay causes that are compromising your SEO efforts.

1. Content Freshness

No matter how well your article initially performed, information becomes obsolete over time as new research trends, perspectives, and data emerge.

Therefore, fresh content can deliver more value to users than content posted years ago. Search engines like Google understand this and prioritize the latest content in their rankings.

Therefore, it’s important to update the content frequently while addressing current research trends and user intent.

Source – Hikeseo

2. Better Content from Competitors

External competition is one of the content decay causes. Not all content is created equal. If your competitors are targeting the exact keywords with more in-depth and rich content, Google will notice.

Say, for instance, you and your competitors are targeting the same keyword, “how to fix my bicycle chain.” However, compared to your content, your competitors have explained the topic in detail, using not just text but visuals like videos, images, and tables.

While targeting the exact keywords, Google will understand that your competitor’s content is more likely to answer the user’s query. And ultimately, competitors will rank higher than you.

3. Internal Competition for Same Keywords

Are you unintentionally competing against yourself for the exact keywords?

This is called keyword cannibalism, where multiple pages on your site cover the same topic and compete for rankings. This affects your content’s ability to rank effectively for the targeted keywords.

Ahrefs notes that a top 10 ranking page often ranks for 1,000 other keywords. So, even if a competing page doesn’t rank for the target keyword, it can still attract traffic from other keywords.

So, it’s essential to spot actual cannibalism.

How? The trick is to find pages targeting the exact keywords and search intent. When both pieces of content aim for the exact long-tail keywords, they hurt each other’s rankings.

Source – Ahrefs

4. Change in Search Intent

A change in search intent is a shift in what users seek when searching a keyword. Over time, user needs evolve, and Google will rank your content lower if it no longer satisfies the current intent.

In this aspect, a content decay example would be a homepage ranking for a “Content decay tool” that will lose relevance when users now look for “the best tools for spotting content decay.”

See the problem here? If you keep targeting the old intent, Google will no longer rank your homepage. Instead, you will notice more long-form content in the SERP results, indicating a shift in search intent.

5. Updates to Google Algorithms

Google’s algorithms use over 200 ranking factors and are continuously evolving. The most recent SERP features include generative AI, featured snippets, videos, lists, etc.

According to Backlinko, Google’s recent algorithm updates allow it to recognize the authors behind the content as well. This means that content linked to recognized authors gains more trust and credibility.

Optimizing for these features is important to rank your website in SERP results. Therefore, staying in the loop of the major Google algorithm updates is crucial.

Now that you know what’s behind decayed content, how do you spot it? Keep reading to learn the methods you can use.

How to Spot Content Decay: Tools & Signs You Should Know

The key signs of decaying content are loss of traffic and conversions. You can track these using Google Analytics, Search Console, WordPress Plugins, or dedicated content decay monitoring tools.

Let’s explore these methods in detail.

1. Track Your Traffic and Conversions with Google Analytics

Google Analytics offers a simple way to track the change in your website’s traffic over time. It allows you to monitor traffic patterns and conversion rates between two specified periods.

This can give you insights about whether your content is losing relevance and SERP ranking compared to how it performed initially.

To spot outdated content, look for steady yet significant drops in sessions, page views, bounce rate, and conversions. A quarter-over-quarter downward trend shows content decay in SEO that needs your attention.

Source – YouTube

2. Check SEO Performance Metrics with Google Search Console

Another way to detect content decay is to utilize Google Search Console. You can use it to track changes in your content’s performance over a period that you can specify.

With Search Console, you can gain insights about your content’s clicks, impressions, average CTR, and average position in the ranking. You can quickly gauge your content’s organic performance once you track the drops in these metrics over a specific time.

To track content decay with Google search console:

1. Sign in to Google Search Console and go to the Performance menu.
2. Switch to the Compare tab from the new popup.
3. Select a date range for your comparison, such as the last 3-6 months.
4. Click Apply and select all columns. These will include clicks, impressions, CTR, and position.
5. Select the Pages view and click the page URL you want to track.

Source – seotesting.com

That’s it! Now, you will be able to view the performance metrics for that page. The difference in metrics here will help you recognize the decaying content and lost rankings.

3. Use Dedicated Content Decay Tools

Let’s assume you have numerous pages with decaying content, significantly impacting your website’s rankings. In this case, you can substantially benefit from tracking hundreds of pages at a glance.

It is not practical to do this with Google Analytics and Search Console, which can only view metrics for individual pages—one at a time. Fortunately, there are more dedicated tools for tracking decaying content.

Here are some reputed tools to try:

• All in One SEO – Best for in-depth analytics. It provides detailed insights on the loss of rankings and stats about internal, external, and affiliate links. And if you’re unsure how to optimize the decaying content, it suggests changes to get you started.
• Clearscope – Best for monitoring content decay. It automatically spots and alerts you of the pages experiencing declines in organic positions, traffic, and overall health.
• ClickFlow Content Decay – Best for tracking multiple content pages. Although somewhat simple regarding the depth of content analysis, ClickFlow can track numerous content pages simultaneously. You can view the average traffic loss and number of sessions over time.

Metrics to Monitor for Decayed Content

Regardless of the tools you use, collect data about these metrics to recognize decayed content:

• Analyze engagement metrics such as page, bounce rate, and social shares to recognize a decrease in relevance or change in user intent.
• Check rankings for specific keywords. A drop suggests reduced visibility and relevance.
• Track backlinks to your content. A decrease shows reduced authority or quality of content.
• Compare performance with newer content. If newer content consistently outperforms older pieces, it suggests decay in older articles.
• Analyze your competitors and how your content is doing in comparison. If you see consistent outperformance in competitors, it signals the need for updates.

How to Fix Content Decay and Bring Your Traffic Back

Now that you know which content on your website is decaying, let’s help you bring it back to life! Here are six ways to fix content decay and avoid it in the future.

1. Prune Irrelevant Content

Content pruning involves removing outdated or underperforming content from a website. It allows you to maintain the website’s overall quality and authority.

In a case study published by Ahrefs, SEO consultant Francesco Baldini pruned 5 million low-quality programmatic pages from a vehicle valuation platform. This led to a 160% increase in organic visits and a 105% rise in conversions.

Siege Media also ran a content audit, pruning over 3000 pages. This significantly improved the organic traffic of the website. Here is how Ross Hudgens explains the results:

“The number of pages pruned was equal to roughly 15% of the entire site at the current time. Organic traffic after the project went up about 50% and has sustained itself since then, helping provide evidence of the benefits of a proper content audit and content pruning.”

– Ross Hudgens, Founder and CEO of Siege Media

How Do You Prune Content?

Here are the factors to consider when deciding which content to prune:

• How much is the page traffic from search and other sources?
• How many backlinks does the page have?
• Does the page have non-traffic benefits, such as serving important information or historical records?
• Is the page still relevant to your selling products or fulfilling the current search intent?
• Is there internal cannibalization of the page with other pages?

2. Refresh Existing Content

Research trends and user needs are always changing, so keeping your content fresh is important to stay in the game. Refresh decaying content with the latest and valuable information to keep it timeless and avoid decay.

A case study by Neil Patel himself shows that refreshing old content can significantly boost performance. After updating a blog post’s metadata and keyword targets, clicks rose by 96%, from 27,783 to 53,755 in five months. Additionally, the post’s keyword ranking grew from 1,924 to 2,555, with the top 1-3 positions increasing from 53 to 152.

But How Do You Refresh Content?

Here’s what to look for when refreshing decaying content:

• Is the information updated and accurate? Search for recent developments or changes in facts, statistics, or references.
• Is the content relevant as fulfilling the user intent? Look for changes in the audience’s current interests or pain points.
• Is the content optimized for a better user experience? Compress images, refresh headers, alt tags, and metadata based on current SEO practices.
• Does the content provide detailed answers to user queries? Look for areas your content does not address. Add in FAQs to answer common questions directly.

3. Expand Decaying Content

Another content decay solution is expanding content to add more value. The goal here is to make the content more comprehensive and in-depth. The update can be as minor as a few hundred words or up to a thousand.

How do you know how much content to add?

It depends on your target keyword and how much information will make your topic more comprehensive than your competitors. The key here is to focus on the coverage needed for the topic.

Meanwhile, the article’s length can also play a part in bringing more traffic through backlinks. All in One SEO reported that long-form content gets 77.2% more backlinks than shorter articles.

Source – All in One SEO

To make the most of the added words, explore new subtopics and add fresh case studies and examples. You can also get quotes from experts to address the latest issues.

4. Build New Internal Links and Backlinks

Another way to revive old content is to improve internal and backlinks. It’s a powerful way to add more authority to your declining pages.

You can link your content to high-authority pages on your website. The anchor text is just as important. The key is to focus on descriptive and keyword-rich anchor text.

A study by Zyppy shows that anchor text variety is strongly linked to increased search traffic. All in One SEO reports that almost 92.3% of the top 100 ranking domains have at least one backlink.

5. Consolidate Your Content

Consolidating involves combining several similar pieces of content into a single comprehensive post. It is one of the best content decay strategies for dealing with keyword cannibalization and internal competition.

But how do you know which article to consolidate and merge?

How Does Consolidation Work?

• Identify Overlapping Content: Review your content to find articles with similar topics or ideas. Reduce redundancy where multiple pieces cover the same concepts.
• Optimize with Keyword Analysis: Conduct keyword research to spot articles targeting the exact keywords. Merge these to improve SEO and boost organic traffic.
• Address Content Gaps: Find underdeveloped areas in your content and use consolidation to provide in-depth, authoritative coverage on topics.

6. Re-Promote Content to Bring More Traffic

Let’s say you have a piece of content that isn’t missing anything regarding quality and relevancy. But despite the value of information and zero content gaps, it fails to bring more traffic.

What do you do here? It’s time to invest in promoting your article and give it a chance to gain traction. Here’s how to promote it to combat content decay:

• Build internal links: The first step is to add the page’s URL to your internal linking strategy. Then, find related, high-performing articles that will link back to this page.
• Promote on Social Media: Statista Data suggests that in 2024, over 5 billion people were using social media. Moreover, a typical user spends 151 minutes on social media. Needless to say, promoting your content on social sites can add a boost to your traffic.
• Utilize Email Marketing: Create an email list to contact your audience directly. This is an excellent way to increase the exposure of your content and build a dedicated customer following.

Key Takeaways About Content Decay in SEO

Once you understand what is content decays, you can take proactive action to keep your content alive. Decay may be the ultimate fate of every content, but there are ways to revive it and keep it in higher ranks.

Start by identifying which content on your site needs to be refreshed, pruned, expanded, or optimized. These strategies ensure that your content remains visible to your target audience and drives meaningful conversions.