Content decay is a content marketer's worst nightmare.
You pour your heart and soul into creating an incredible piece of content. You hit publish and boom—after a while, the results start rolling in.
Traffic is surging, conversions are happening, and you're feeling on top of the world.
But then, slowly but surely, things start to change.
😢 The traffic begins to dwindle.
😢 The conversions dry up.
Your content is decaying right before your eyes.
It's a gut-wrenching feeling that every content marketer has experienced at some point.
Content decay is a major problem that impacts almost every piece of content eventually. But the good news is, it's not a death sentence for your content.
In this post, we're going to dive deep into what causes content decay, how to identify it, proven strategies to revive decaying content, and how to prevent it from happening in the future.
Short on time and prefer audio? We've got you covered 👇
Content decay is the gradual decline in traffic and conversions that a piece of content experiences over time.
It's a widespread issue that happens to almost every piece of content eventually, regardless of how well it initially performed.
Think about it—when was the last time you published a piece of content that maintained its initial surge of traffic and conversions indefinitely?
Probably never.
The harsh reality is that content has a limited lifespan.
In fact, a study by IZEA found that the average lifespan of a piece of content is only 1 year and 9 months.
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After that, traffic and conversions start to steadily decline.
And if you don't take action to revive that decaying content, it will eventually flatline altogether.
Decaying content can significantly affect your SEO performance. For instance, as your content ages and becomes outdated, it may start to rank lower in search engine results pages (SERPs). Most brands rely on slightly older posts to bring in most of their organic traffic, but as we just showed in the previous section, higher-ranking content is usually less than two years old. This means that if these older pieces begin to rank lower, there could be a substantial drop in traffic.
Direct Consequences:
The Decline of Backlink Opportunities
When your content ranks high on the SERPs, its visibility pulls in more backlinks. It's natural. Content creators aim to link to authoritative and relevant sources that can enhance the credibility of their own posts. If your content is easily discoverable at the top of search engine listings, it’s more likely to gain backlinks. Its visibility helps to amplify its reach and solidify its online authority.
However, as content starts to decay—meaning it drops in search rankings—it becomes less visible to these content creators. When this happens, say goodbye to passive link growth. This reduction in backlinks not only affects the traffic to your specific post but also diminishes your overall online influence and authority.
Erosion of Brand Awareness
Google processes countless searches daily, providing extensive exposure to ranked sites. High rankings can lead your brand to be repeatedly seen and associated with relevant search queries, even if users don’t click directly on your site. This level of exposure is crucial for sustained brand awareness.
As content decays and slips into lower rankings or onto the subsequent search pages, its visibility declines sharply. This means fewer searchers are exposed to your brand when querying associated keywords. Lower visibility reduces the instances your brand appears connected with specific terms, which in turn weakens overall brand recognition. Your spot is taken by competitors who manage to secure or maintain higher rankings, leveraging the opportunity to increase their own brand exposure.
In conclusion, content decay directly impacts your digital marketing effectiveness. It not only lowers the number of backlink opportunities, which are essential for online ranking and authority, but also significantly diminishes the brand awareness opportunities among potential customers navigating through Google.
So what causes content to decay in the first place?
There are a number of forces at play:
Google is constantly tweaking their algorithm to improve the quality of their search results (I know, there’s a lot of discourse about this these days.).
While this is great for users, it can spell trouble for your content.
A single algorithm update can cause your rankings and traffic to tank overnight, especially if you’re regurgitating what’s already on the SERP.
Case in point: In 2021, a pivotal update called Core Web Vitals was rolled out, significantly influencing search rankings based on user experience metrics. One key metric, the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), measures the time it takes for the main content of a page to load. Sites with a "good" LCP score saw their positions improve, while those with a "poor" LCP score experienced a decline. This demonstrates that not just the quality, but also the loading performance of your content can influence its visibility and longevity on the SERP.
Fortunately, Google is pretty transparent about when they release major algorithm updates.
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You can use tools like GSC Guardian to overlay the dates of known Google updates directly into your Search Console data (red lines are algorithm updates).
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This makes it easy to correlate major traffic drops with algorithm changes.
Even if your ranking position remains unchanged, the appearance of new SERP features can dramatically impact your click-through rates.
Let's say you're ranking in position 3 for a high-volume keyword.
You might be getting a ton of traffic...until Google decides to place a featured snippet or a sources from the web grid above your result.
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Suddenly, your CTR plummets as clicks are siphoned off by these new features.
To combat this, make a habit of regularly analyzing the SERPs for your key pages. You can use tools like SpyFu & Ahrefs to quickly spot which features are showing on the SERPs your URLs on ranking on.
Take note of any new features and look for opportunities to optimize your content for them.
For example, you might adjust your heading tags or page structure to increase your chances of winning the featured snippet spot.
👉 Tip: defining the keyword early on in the article will increase your chances os capturing the featured snippet position
Sometimes, the type of content (specifically, page types) that Google chooses to rank for a particular query will change over time.
For instance, you might have a landing page that ranked well for a query, but if intent shifts, Google may start to favor long-form blog posts over landing pages for that query, and your rankings and traffic will inevitably start to decline.
Again, analyzing the SERPs is key here.
If you notice that the pages outranking you are a different type or format of content, it's a sign that intent has shifted.
In this example, our homepage is the only homepage ranking page 1 for this query. Historically, we ranked position #1 for this query, but intent has shifted and Google is rewarding long-form content (buyer's guides). In this case, we may need a net-new piece of content targeting the query to better align with what searchers are now looking for.
In some cases, your rankings might remain stable but you'll still see a decline in overall traffic.
This usually happens when there's a decrease in search volume for your target keyword.
For example, Copy.ai had a collection of AI writing assistant templates that were driving a ton of organic traffic—over 700,000 clicks in a single year.
But shortly after the release of ChatGPT, we saw demand for those keywords drastically decline.
Queries like "paragraph generator" and "sentence rewriter" that we used to rank highly for were no longer being searched as frequently.
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Unfortunately, there's not much you can do when search demand dries up, other than targeting new keywords.
But it's still important to be aware of demand shifts so you can adjust your content strategy accordingly.
As time passes, the information, statistics, examples, and references in your content may become outdated, reducing its relevance to users and search engines. Freshness is a crucial ranking factor on some queries (not all), and stale content can lead to a decline in search visibility.
Ask yourself: has the discussion and context around the topic changed dramatically over time or based on current events in your industry?
It's more than just updating dates and facts. Sometimes the entire context of a topic is different, and content that doesn't reflect that will be seen as stale.
For example, content on internet privacy and data security practices written before the widespread adoption of remote work and cloud computing may need an overhaul to account for the new cybersecurity risks and compliance requirements companies now face.
Topics don't exist in a vacuum.
The surrounding context—whether driven by new technologies, societal shifts, regulatory changes, or global events—can evolve rapidly.
Content that fails to adapt to these new realities will quickly become outdated and lose its value to the audience, even if the core facts and figures are still technically accurate.
Finally, technical SEO issues are a common culprit of content decay.
Something as simple as an accidentally adding a no-index tag to a page or a rogue disallow in your robots.txt file can tank your rankings.
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Other technical issues like redirect chains, slow page speeds, and mobile usability problems can all contribute to content decay over time.
Monitoring your site's technical health and fixing issues promptly is crucial for preventing decay.
The most obvious sign that your content is decaying is a decline in traffic and conversions.
But if you're not regularly monitoring your content's performance, decay can sneak up on you.
Here are a few ways to proactively identify decaying content before it's too late:
Google Analytics provides an overview of a website's traffic and conversions, allowing users to see trends and spot when these metrics begin to decline.
Look for major declines in sessions, pageviews, average time on page, and conversions. If a page's metrics are trending downward quarter-over-quarter, it's a sign that decay is setting in.
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Google Search Console provides data on SEO performance metrics like clicks, impressions, and average position, which can help users assess their content's performance on SERPs.
Go to Performance (Search Results). I like using the last 3 to 6 months, so choose either setting depending on how much traffic your site gets.
Make sure to select "average CTR" and "average position" so that these metrics are added to your columns.
Click the last two metrics on the right when you open Search Console.
Your list below should default to "Queries." These are the keywords that bring up your pages in search results. Click the "impressions" column header to sort your keywords.
Glance down the list, and look for average positions somewhere within the 4 to 14 range. These are bottom of the first page through top of the second page. Any ranking improvement you make will much further than moving something from page 4 to page 3.
Watch for keywords that match these criteria:
👉 Tip: use this regex to quickly removed branded queries from GSC
brand name|variation of brand name|variation of brand name 2|variation of brand name 3|
Click the keyword, and then click "pages," the second column in your chart. This will identify the piece of content getting all of those impressions.
Review their positions to find high impression searches where even a small bump in your position would make a substantial difference.
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Now you have your piece of content to refresh for an SEO boost, and the keywords to optimize it for.
👉 Tip: refreshing existing content (get our checklist) can be one of the fastest ways to put SEO wins on the board
Don't wait until your content is completely dead to take action. Make it a habit to audit your most important pages every quarter. Check for any signs of decay and make updates as needed to keep your content fresh.
Manually auditing your content for decay is tedious and time-consuming.
RivalFlow AI automates the process by proactively surfacing pages that are at-risk of decay AND gives you actionable recommendations to prevent decay.
It's an easy way to stay ahead of the curve and prevent small issues from snowballing into major traffic losses.
Once you've identified decaying content, it's time to take action.
Here are some proven strategies for bringing your content back to life:
Google has made it clear that they're prioritizing high-quality, helpful content in the search results.
If your content is starting to decay, it's likely because it's no longer meeting that bar. Here are some suggestions of what you can do to elevate it again.
To give your content a quality boost, put yourself in the shoes of your target reader.
✓ What questions are they trying to answer?
✓ What problems are they trying to solve?
Your content should address those needs in a comprehensive, user-friendly way. It shouldn't regurgitate everything else ranking on the SERP.
Search engines, particularly Google, have grown sophisticated in filtering content that delivers real value from what is considered "thin" or superficial. Content that lacks depth, often characterized by shorter, surface-level posts, tends to lose its rankings faster than more substantial pieces do.
Creating longer, more detailed content serves multiple beneficial purposes.
Detailed articles keep readers on the page longer, reducing bounce rates, and increasing the likelihood of converting them into followers or customers. In-depth discussions of a topic showcase your expertise and knowledge, positioning your brand as a credible source in your industry.
By covering related subtopics and answering potential follow-up questions, your content becomes a one-stop resource, making it highly useful and share-worthy.
Tools like RivalFlow AI can help by identifying content gaps and providing specific improvement recommendations. RivalFlow AI does the hard work for you by:
✓ Automatically analyzing your top decaying posts
✓ Comparing your content to higher-ranking competitors
✓ Surfacing missed questions and areas to improve
✓ Providing AI-generated content suggestions to fill the gaps
With RivalFlow AI, you get a clear roadmap for reviving your old content and stopping future decay in its tracks. No more guesswork-- just data-driven optimizations.
As I mentioned earlier, search intent can shift over time.
The type of content that used to rank well for a particular query may no longer be what searchers are looking for.
To optimize for intent, start by analyzing the current SERP for your target keyword.
✓ What type of content is ranking on page one?
✓ Are they mostly blog posts, product pages, videos, or something else?
✓ Has the discussion and context around the topic changed dramatically over time or based on current events in your industry?
If the intent appears to have shifted, adjust your content to match.
For example, if you're trying to rank a product page but the SERP is full of blog content, you may need to create an informational post to compete.
Internal links are a powerful but often overlooked tool for reviving decaying content.
By linking to your declining page from other relevant, high-authority pages on your site, you can give it a much-needed boost.
The key is to use descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text and only link from pages that are truly relevant to the topic at hand.
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Stuffing your page with irrelevant links will only hurt your chances of ranking.
👉 Tip: use the site: search modifier to find internal linking opportunities (site: domain.com "related keyword). You can also use our AI tool below 👇
Content pruning is the strategic process of removing outdated or underperforming content from your website. This practice helps maintain a high standard of relevance and quality throughout your site. Here’s when and why you should consider implementing content pruning:
Sometimes, your site may contain content targeting keywords that no longer serve your business objectives. For instance, if you've phased out a specific product feature or no longer cater to a particular use case, any associated content becomes obsolete. Removing these pieces ensures your site stays focused on current offerings.
There are times when you have fresh, updated content that can better address a topic than older articles. By pruning outdated posts, you make room for new content that can enhance user experience and improve your site's relevance. Although this process might not directly boost your organic traffic, it helps ensure your content library remains pertinent and valuable.
Old and decaying content can negatively impact your SEO metrics. For example, if a piece of content no longer ranks for a relevant keyword and isn't worth updating, keeping it live can harm your overall site metrics such as organic traffic and average position. By removing these low-performing pieces, you ensure you're only evaluating the content that matters to your current strategy.
Content consolidation is a strategic method to tackle content decay by merging multiple similar pieces into a more comprehensive and authoritative post. This approach helps combat internal competition and reduces content clutter, ensuring higher quality and more relevant material for readers and search engines.
Sending consolidation signals to both search engines and visitors that a single, comprehensive piece contains all the necessary information. This clear indication improves search ranking and user experience, as visitors find all the information they need in one place.
However, consolidation is more time-consuming than simply updating an existing post. It requires a meticulous process to combine different articles, ensuring no sections are repeated and the content flows logically. Proper organization and coherence are crucial to enhance readability and retain user engagement.
One key aspect of content consolidation is updating internal links. All previous links directing readers to the original articles must now point to the newly consolidated post. This step is essential to maintain link equity and guide users correctly.
To streamline this process, it’s advisable to create a dedicated publishing checklist for consolidation projects. This helps ensure that no vital steps are overlooked, making the transition smooth and effective.
By consolidating content, you provide a more valuable, user-friendly resource that stands a better chance of ranking highly on search engines, effectively mitigating content decay.
As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
While it's important to have a plan for reviving decaying content, it's even better to prevent that decay from happening in the first place.
Here are a few ways to future-proof your content:
Don't wait until your content is on its deathbed to give it a refresh.
Build content refreshing into your regular workflow so your pages always stay fresh and relevant.
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Prioritize which content to update based on traffic potential, business value, and other key metrics. Set a schedule—whether it's monthly, quarterly, or annually—and stick to it.
If your content starts to decay, you could see your traffic organic evaporate overnight.
To mitigate this risk, focus on diversifying your traffic sources.
Build an email list so you have a direct line to your audience.
Experiment with paid promotion to drive traffic to your most important content assets.
And repurpose your content into different formats like videos, social posts, and podcasts to reach new audiences. Doing this manually is a drag. Thankfully, you can use tools like Copy.ai to quickly repurpose your blog posts.
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👉 Here’s an AI template to get you started
Finally, make it a habit to regularly monitor your content's key performance indicators.
The sooner you spot signs of decay, the easier it will be to reverse the trend.
At a minimum, check your traffic, rankings, and conversions on a monthly basis.
If you want to be extra proactive, consider using a tool like RivalFlow AI that will automatically alert you to decaying content.
The less time you spend manually digging through data, the more time you can spend actually improving your content.
Content decay may be inevitable, but it doesn't have to be a death sentence for your content marketing efforts.
By understanding what causes decay, knowing how to spot it, and having a plan to reverse it, you can keep your content performing at a high level for the long haul.
Remember, the key is to be proactive.
Don't wait until your content flatlines to take action.
With a little TLC and the right strategies, you can bring even the most decayed content back to life and enjoy the traffic and conversions you deserve.
Ready to put an end to content decay for good? Try RivalFlow AI for free today.
