Content Decay
The gradual decline in organic traffic and rankings for a piece of content over time as it becomes outdated or loses relevance.
Content decay refers to the gradual decline in organic traffic and search rankings that content experiences over time. Even high-performing content can lose its effectiveness as it becomes outdated, competitors publish fresher content, or search intent evolves.
Several factors contribute to content decay: information becoming outdated, competitors creating better or more comprehensive content, changes in search algorithms, shifts in user search behavior, and the natural aging of content. A blog post that ranked #1 two years ago may now be on page two simply because newer, more relevant content exists.
Identifying content decay early is crucial for maintaining your organic traffic. Signs include declining impressions and clicks in Google Search Console, dropping average positions, reduced time on page, and increasing bounce rates. Regular content audits help you spot these trends before they significantly impact your traffic.
SERPView's Content Decay Heatmap and Growing/Decaying Metrics features automatically identify which pages are losing traffic over time. This allows you to prioritize content updates, refresh outdated information, and prevent further ranking losses before they become critical.