Definition
Content decay refers to the gradual and natural decline in organic traffic to a web page over time. This phenomenon occurs when content becomes outdated, new competitors publish more recent and comprehensive content, or search intent evolves. Content decay is a major SEO challenge because even initially well-ranked content loses effectiveness without regular updates. Signs of content decay include declining organic traffic, falling positions, decreasing CTR, and rising bounce rate. The strategy to combat content decay is content refresh: updating information, enriching semantics, adding recent data, and improving the reading experience. A regular content decay audit helps identify priority pages to update.
Key Points
- Gradual loss of organic traffic due to content obsolescence
- Causes: outdated information, increased competition, evolving search intent
- Remedy: regular content refresh and periodic performance audits
Practical Examples
Detecting decay
In Google Search Console, filter pages whose clicks have dropped more than 20% over the last 6 months. These pages are experiencing content decay and need an update to recover their traffic.
Content refresh
A 'best SEO tools 2024' article loses traffic in early 2025. Updating it to 'best SEO tools 2025' with current data and new tools recovers and often surpasses the original traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most does, at different rates. Evergreen content declines more slowly than news or trending content. Even evergreen content requires periodic updates to remain competitive.
Check the performance of your key content every 3 to 6 months. Prioritize updates for pages showing declining traffic or positions. Date-specific content (annual lists, tool guides) should be updated at least yearly.
Go Further with LemmiLink
Discover how LemmiLink can help you put these SEO concepts into practice.
Last updated: 2026-02-07