TL;DR
Not all SEO issues are obvious. Some creep in quietly and slowly drag your traffic down. One of the biggest offenders? Content decay.
Over time, even your best-performing blog posts can become outdated, less relevant, or overtaken by competitors. Left unchecked, it can mean less traffic, fewer leads, and lost rankings – even if the page looks fine on the surface.
Here’s how to sniff out content decay before it sinks its teeth into your performance – and what to look for using data from tools you already have.
📉 Look for sudden (or slow) drops in organic traffic
The first and clearest sign of content decay is a decline in organic traffic. This doesn’t always mean the content is bad – it just might not be good enough anymore.
Where to check for drops in traffic
Use Google Analytics (GA4) to monitor individual page performance over time.
1. Navigate to the right report
Go to Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens. This view shows you performance metrics at a page level.
2. Filter for organic traffic only
- Click the “Add filter” button near the top of the report.
- Choose Session source/medium as your dimension.
- Select “google / organic” (and other organic search sources if applicable, like Bing or Yahoo, depending on your setup).
This gives you a clean view of which pages are being reached through organic search only – no direct or referral noise.
3. Compare time periods
- Go to the date range selector in the top-right.
- Tick the box for “Compare”, and select a past time period (a 90-day comparison is a solid starting point).
- Hit “Apply” and scroll down to view differences in sessions, users, and engagement time across each page.
This side-by-side data shows you exactly where performance has changed – and by how much.
4. Flag pages with notable drops
Look for pages with a 20% or greater decline in organic sessions that aren’t seasonal. A dip like that is usually worth investigating.
If seasonality is a factor (e.g., Christmas gift guides or summer travel content), make sure you’re comparing similar periods year-over-year instead.
What does this data mean?
If the page is slipping, Google may now see other pages – possibly from competitors – as more relevant. Algorithm updates or user search behaviour changes could also be at play. Either way, it’s a signal your page needs attention.
What to do next…
- Revisit the search intent: Is your content still solving the user’s problem?
- Check competitors: What are they including that you’re not?
- Update your content: Add new insights, improve structure, refresh examples.
📊 Monitor declining click-through rates (CTR)
Even if your page is ranking, a poor CTR means fewer people are actually clicking. That’s lost traffic, plain and simple.
Where to check for declining click-through rates
1. Open up Google Search Console
Head to the “Performance” → “Search Results” section.
2. Clean up the graph view
By default, GSC shows you Total Clicks, Total Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position. To focus in on CTR changes:
- Deselect “Clicks” so only CTR and Impressions remain selected above the graph.
- This helps you compare the percentage of users clicking through from search and how visible your content still is.
3. Compare time periods
- Click the date filter at the top of the report.
- Tick the box for “Compare”, and choose Last 3 months vs. Previous 3 months.
- Apply your changes and let the data load.
This will give you a snapshot of CTR trends across all your indexed pages – and whether visibility (impressions) is holding steady while clicks are slipping.
4. Sort the table by CTR difference
- Scroll down to the table.
- Sort by CTR Difference to see which pages have seen the biggest changes.
- Focus on pages with high impressions but noticeable drops in CTR – those are your priority pages for optimisation.
These are the pages people are still seeing, but not clicking on anymore.
What does this data mean?
Your listing may look outdated. That could be:
- A stale publish date visible in search results.
- A meta title that doesn’t reflect current trends or keywords.
- A description that lacks urgency or clarity.
What to do next…
- Rewrite your meta title to better match searcher intent.
- Update your meta description to tease value and encourage clicks.
- Make sure the publish date is recent or remove it if irrelevant.
💡
Pro Tip: You don’t always need a full rewrite. Sometimes, small tweaks can lead to quick wins.
⏱️ Analyse time on page and engagement
Even if a page is getting traffic and clicks, how long users stay tells you a lot about the actual quality of your content.
Where to check engagement rates
Head back to Google Analytics, this time focusing on engagement metrics.
- In GA4, head to “Pages and screens”.
- Follow the exact same steps as organic traffic, but this time, focus on engagement rates.
What does this data mean?
Users aren’t sticking around. That could mean:
- The content is outdated or no longer relevant.
- It’s poorly structured or hard to scan.
- It doesn’t deliver on what the user was expecting.
What to do next…
- Make the page more scannable with clear headings, bullet points, and visuals.
- Remove fluff and focus on value.
- Update outdated information, broken links, or irrelevant examples.
- Add internal links to guide users to other valuable content.
When to refresh, rewrite, or retire
Not all content decay needs a full overhaul. But knowing what action to take is key:
| Issue | What to Do |
| Traffic drop + outdated info | Refresh content |
| Stable rank, low CTR | Update meta title + description |
| Low engagement time | Improve structure + content |
| No rankings, no traffic | Consider redirecting or merging |
Don’t let content decay kill your rankings
Content decay always bites. Keeping your content fresh is key to maintaining (and growing) your SEO results. With a few regular check-ins using GA and GSC, you can easily catch the warning signs before they hurt your bottom line.
