Content Decay Monitoring

What This Does

Content Decay Monitoring tracks your published content for signs of declining performance before significant traffic loss occurs. It detects three types of decay:

1. Position drops - Rankings dropping in search results
2. Traffic declines - Clicks and impressions decreasing over time
3. Staleness - Content aging without updates

Each piece of content gets a decay score (0-100) that determines priority for refresh.

When to Use This

• Weekly review: Check new decay alerts during your weekly content review
• Content planning: Prioritize which articles to refresh this week
• Traffic drops: Investigate why a page is underperforming
• Proactive maintenance: Catch ranking declines before they become critical

How Decay Scoring Works

Decay score = Position Drop (0-40) + Traffic Decline (0-40) + Staleness (0-20)

Position Drop Component (0-40 points)

Compares current average position (last 7 days) vs. previous period (60 days ago):

• 40 points: Dropped out of top 10 (was ranking #1-10, now #11+)
• 35 points: Dropped 10+ positions
• 25 points: Dropped 5-9 positions
• 15 points: Dropped 3-4 positions
• 5 points: Dropped 1-2 positions

Traffic Decline Component (0-40 points)

Compares current clicks (last 30 days) vs. previous period (60 days ago):

• 40 points: Traffic declined 50%+
• 30 points: Traffic declined 30-49%
• 20 points: Traffic declined 20-29%
• 10 points: Traffic declined 10-19%
• 5 points: Traffic declined <10%

Staleness Component (0-20 points)

Based on days since last content update:

• 20 points: 365+ days (1 year or more)
• 15 points: 270-364 days (9-12 months)
• 10 points: 180-269 days (6-9 months)
• 5 points: 90-179 days (3-6 months)

Priority Levels

Critical (Red)

• Decay score ≥ 80
• OR dropped out of top 10 AND gets 100+ clicks/month

High (Orange)

• Decay score 60-79
• OR dropped 10+ positions

Medium (Yellow)

• Decay score 40-59

Low (Gray)

• Decay score 20-39

Status Workflow

Each alert moves through these statuses:

1. New - Just detected, needs review
2. Acknowledged - You've seen it, deciding what to do
3. Refresh Planned - Refresh brief created, ready to regenerate content
4. Refreshed - Content has been updated and republished
5. Dismissed - False alarm or not worth refreshing

Using the Dashboard

Running an Analysis

Click Run Analysis to scan all published content:

• Checks articles with 100+ impressions in the last 60 days
• Compares current performance vs. 60 days ago
• Generates alerts for content with decay score > 20
• Takes 1-3 minutes depending on content volume

Automatic scans: System runs this weekly on Wednesdays at 3:00 AM UTC.

Reading the Table

Each row shows:

• Content: Article title and age (days since published)
• Keyword: Primary keyword for the article
• Decay Type: Position Drop, Traffic Decline, Staleness, or Combined
• Position Change: How many spots it dropped (e.g., "#5 → #12")
• Traffic Change: Percentage change in clicks (e.g., "-35%")
• Score: Decay score (0-100) with visual progress bar
• Priority: Critical, High, Medium, or Low
• Actions: Optimize Content (launches Content Optimizer) or Dismiss

Filtering Alerts

Use the filter dropdowns to narrow results:

Priority Filter:

• View only Critical or High priority items
• Focus on most urgent refreshes first

Decay Type Filter:

• Position Drop: Lost rankings but traffic stable
• Traffic Decline: Losing clicks/impressions
• Staleness: Old content needing updates
• Combined: Multiple decay signals detected

Status Filter:

• Active (default): All alerts except dismissed
• New: Just detected, not yet reviewed
• Acknowledged: Seen but no action taken yet
• Refresh Planned: Refresh brief created
• Refreshed: Content already updated
• Dismissed: Hidden from view

Taking Action

Optimize Content

Click the Refresh button to launch the Content Optimizer:

1. Analyzes your article against the current top-ranking competitors
2. Generates a prioritized list of specific suggestions (add sections, update data, restructure)
3. You approve or reject each suggestion
4. ILLIXIS applies the approved changes and shows a before-and-after diff
5. Publish when satisfied

Analysis costs 1 brief credit. Applying changes is free. See the Content Optimizer guide for full details.

Dismiss an Alert

Click the X icon to dismiss false alarms:

• Seasonal content (naturally declines off-season)
• Low-value pages (not worth refreshing)
• External factors (SERP feature took traffic)
• Alert won't reappear for 7 days

Suggested Actions (What to Fix)

The system recommends actions based on decay signals:

"Add sections"

• Why: Dropped out of top 10, competitors added more depth
• Fix: Research top-ranking pages, add missing sections/topics

"Refresh"

• Why: Position dropped or traffic declining
• Fix: Update statistics, examples, screenshots; improve title/meta

"Update stats"

• Why: Content is 6-12 months old
• Fix: Replace outdated numbers, refresh examples

"Rewrite"

• Why: Multiple decay signals or content >1 year old
• Fix: Comprehensive refresh with new research and structure

Interpreting Decay Types

Position Drop

What it means: Rankings fell but traffic may still be stable (impressions > clicks)

Common causes:

• Competitor published better content
• Algorithm update
• Technical SEO issue (page speed, mobile issues)
• Lost backlinks

Fix priority: High if dropped from top 10, medium otherwise

Traffic Decline

What it means: Clicks/impressions dropping, position may be stable

Common causes:

• Seasonal trend (searches decreased)
• SERP feature taking clicks (featured snippet, People Also Ask)
• CTR drop (title/meta no longer compelling)
• Search intent shifted

Fix priority: High if decline >30%, medium otherwise

Staleness

What it means: Content hasn't been updated in 6+ months

Common causes:

• Statistics are outdated
• Examples reference old products/versions
• Screenshots show old UI
• Information is no longer accurate

Fix priority: Medium (low urgency but inevitable)

Combined

What it means: Multiple decay signals detected simultaneously

Example: Rankings dropped AND traffic declined AND content is old

Fix priority: Critical or High (compounding issues)

Best Practices

Weekly Review

• Check decay dashboard every Monday
• Address Critical alerts immediately
• Plan 1-2 High priority refreshes per week
• Dismiss obvious false positives

Prioritization

1. Critical alerts on high-traffic pages (fix this week)
2. High priority position drops from top 10 (fix within 2 weeks)
3. High priority traffic declines >30% (fix within 2 weeks)
4. Medium priority alerts (fix within 30 days)
5. Staleness alerts (batch refresh quarterly)

Content Refresh Strategy

• Don't just republish - add new sections, examples, data
• Update publish date after significant refresh
• Check what new content top-ranking competitors added
• Improve page speed and mobile experience
• Add internal links from newer content

Monitoring After Refresh

• Mark alert status as "Refreshed" after updating
• Watch GSC data for 30-60 days
• Expect position/traffic recovery within 2-4 weeks
• If no improvement, investigate technical issues

Common Questions

Q: Why do some pages show N/A for position change? A: No GSC data exists for that keyword in the comparison period (60 days ago). Either the page is new or wasn't ranking for that keyword previously.

Q: How often should I run manual analyses? A: Not necessary - the system runs automatically every Monday. Only run manually if you suspect a recent algorithm update or noticed traffic drops.

Q: Should I refresh every article with a decay alert? A: No. Focus on Critical/High priority items with good historical traffic. Low-value pages may not be worth the effort.

Q: Can I prevent decay alerts for seasonal content? A: Yes. Dismiss the alert and it won't reappear for 7 days. For permanently seasonal content, mark as "Dismissed" each time it appears (quarterly).

Q: What if I refresh content but the alert stays? A: Change the status to "Refreshed" manually. The alert will remain visible for tracking but won't appear in "Active" filters. Next week's scan will create a new alert if decay continues.

Q: Why did my content get a decay alert right after publishing? A: New content shouldn't trigger alerts (min 100 impressions required). If it does, the system may have compared it to pre-publication data. Dismiss the alert.

How Decay Detection Works

Data sources:

• Position and traffic data come from your connected Google Search Console account
• Content age is based on when the article was published and last updated
• Primary keyword is pulled from the content brief's target keyword or the top-performing query in Search Console

Comparison periods:

• Current position: 7-day average (today minus 7 days)
• Previous position: 7-day average (60 days ago)
• Current traffic: 30-day total (today minus 30 days)
• Previous traffic: 30-day total (60 days ago)

Minimum thresholds:

• 100 impressions in the current period (low-traffic pages are excluded)
• Decay score must exceed 20 (minor fluctuations are filtered out)

Alert deduplication:

• The system won't create duplicate alerts within 7 days for the same content
• Each weekly scan creates new alerts; previous alerts remain as historical records

Automation Schedule

Content decay analysis runs automatically on a weekly schedule:

When: Every Wednesday at 3:00 AM UTC

What happens:

1. System compares current rankings to historical peaks for all published content
2. Traffic trends are analyzed against the previous 60-day period
3. Content with >20% traffic decline gets flagged for review
4. Decay scores are calculated and priority levels assigned

Where alerts appear:

• Notifications: New decay alerts trigger a notification badge
• Discover feed: High-priority decay items appear as opportunities in Strategy Hub
• Content Decay dashboard: All alerts are listed with full details and actions

No action required: The automation runs in the background. Check the Content Decay dashboard weekly (recommended: Wednesdays or Thursdays after the scan completes) to review new alerts.

Related Features

• Content Optimizer: Analyzes decaying content against competitors and applies targeted fixes
• Strategy Hub: Decay alerts also appear as opportunities in the unified feed
• Content Inventory: View all published content and manually check for decay risks
• Rank Tracking: See detailed position history for individual keywords
• GSC Integration: Raw search performance data powers decay detection

Need Help?

If decay alerts seem inaccurate or you're unsure what action to take, reach out to support with the alert details (content title, keyword, decay score).