Content decay radar
Find pages losing clicks and impressions, and decide refresh vs merge.
In shortThe Content decay radar (Analytics → Search Console → Content decay radar) finds pages whose Google clicks have been falling steadily over the last 12 weeks. Click Analyze Decay and it fits a trend line to each page's weekly clicks, lists the 10 steepest declines with a sparkline, and adds AI refresh suggestions. Then you decide, page by page, whether to refresh, merge, redirect or leave it.
What content decay is
Content decay is the slow loss of search traffic on a page that used to perform. It rarely shows up as a sudden crash. A page loses a few clicks a week because competitors published something fresher, the facts aged, search intent shifted, or Google started answering the question on the results page. Because the loss is gradual, it's easy to miss in a site-wide total, where growth on new pages hides it.
The radar looks at each page on its own, so you can catch decline while the page still ranks and a refresh is cheap.
How the radar decides a page is decaying
- It reads the last 84 days (12 weeks) of daily clicks per page from Search Console and groups them into 12 weekly totals.
- It fits a straight trend line through those 12 weeks (least-squares regression). The Slope is how many clicks per week the page gains or loses on that line.
- A page is flagged when the slope is below -0.05 and it averaged at least 100 clicks a week (the page says ">100"). Pages under that traffic level are ignored.
- It shows the 10 steepest declines, most urgent first, and asks an AI model for refresh ideas on those pages.
Because only pages averaging at least 100 clicks a week qualify, a small or new site may get No significant decay detected even when individual pages are slipping. The run is still charged. If none of your pages reach that level, use the URL ranking analyzer to compare periods instead.
Run the analysis
- Open the radar and check the siteGo to Analytics → Search Console → Content decay radar. Confirm the site in the top-bar selector. The grey card under the header restates the rules: *Least Squares Regression on 12 weekly click buckets*.
- Click Analyze DecayClick Analyze Decay. A message tells you how many decaying pages it found, or that none met the criteria.
- Read the tableThe Decaying Pages table lists each URL, Avg Clicks/wk, Slope and a 12-Week Trend sparkline, sorted by steepest decline. Above it, AI Content Refresh Recommendations suggests likely causes, missing topics and refresh ideas per URL.
- Save what you needResults live only on this page. If you navigate away they are gone, and running again charges again. Copy the URLs and recommendations into your task list before you leave.
Check before you act
A falling line is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Before changing a page, open it in Search Console and look at three things:
- Season. Compare with the same weeks last year. A gift guide that falls every January isn't decaying.
- Position versus CTR. If position held but clicks fell, the results page probably changed (an AI Overview, ads, a video block). Rewriting the article won't bring those clicks back; check CTR opportunities and whether you're cited in the AI Overview.
- The last week. The window runs up to today, and Search Console's newest days are often incomplete, which can pull the final bucket down. If only the last bar dropped, wait a week.
- Large sites. One run reads at most 25,000 page-by-day rows, busiest first. On a site with many busy pages, quieter days can be cut off, which makes a page look like it is falling. Confirm the trend in Search Console.
Refresh, merge, redirect or leave it
| Situation | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Topic still matters, page is out of date or thinner than what now ranks | Refresh: update facts and examples, cover the subtopics competitors cover, tighten the intro so it answers the query fast, and update the date only if the content really changed | Keeps the URL, its links and its history |
| Two or more of your pages cover the same topic and split traffic | Merge the best parts into the strongest page, then 301-redirect the others to it | One stronger page usually beats two weak ones; see the cannibalisation matrix |
| The page is obsolete: a discontinued product, a past event, a replaced guide | Redirect (301) to the closest current page, or let it go if nothing related exists | Sends visitors and link value somewhere useful |
| Seasonal pattern, or clicks lost to a results-page feature while position held | Leave the content; work on CTR or AI citations instead | The page isn't the problem |
Note the date you changed each page. Four to six weeks later, run the URL ranking analyzer with a custom period before and after to see whether clicks came back. You can draft the refresh in the AI content writer.
Credits are taken before Search Console is read and before the AI model runs. If the AI step errors, the run is not refunded automatically.
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