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The playbook Moonrank's SEO Agent uses to find pages losing traffic year over year, name the cause, and give each one a single verdict: refresh, consolidate, or retire.
Download the methodology, see how the agent classifies decay, or run it live inside the SEO Agent.
--- name: content-decay description: Find pages losing traffic over time and decide, per page, whether to refresh, consolidate, or retire them. owner: Moonrank SEO Agent --- # Content Decay Every content library rots. Some pages slip because the answer changed, some because a competitor did the job better, some because you published three near-duplicates and split your own authority. ## When to use - Total traffic is flat while publishing volume is up. - Old winners are drifting down and you can't see it in the aggregate. - You suspect you're competing with yourself on the same queries. ## Inputs - **Required:** Search Console access, at least 12 months. - **Optional:** publish and last-updated dates per URL. ## Method 1. **Trend:** compare each URL's last 90 days to the same period a year ago. 2. **Classify decay:** seasonal, competitive, staleness, cannibalization, or intent shift. 3. **Check the SERP:** read what now ranks; if the format changed, a refresh alone won't recover it. 4. **Detect overlap:** find URL clusters competing for one query and pick the canonical winner. 5. **Decide:** refresh, consolidate, or retire. One verdict per page, no maybes. 6. **Re-measure:** review at 30 days; a refresh that hasn't moved by then needs a different verdict. ## Output format A decay worklist. For each URL: - **Trend**: clicks YoY, and the drop as a % - **Cause**: seasonal | competitive | stale | cannibalized | intent shift - **Verdict**: refresh | consolidate | retire - **Action**: what specifically changes, and where the redirect points ## Prioritization rules - Fix cannibalization before refreshing anything; otherwise you refresh the loser. - Seasonal dips are not decay. Compare year over year, never month over month. - Retiring and redirecting a weak page is a gain, not a loss. - If the SERP format changed (video, tools, forums), rewrite the format, not the copy.
The Content Decay skill is how Moonrank's SEO Agent audits an ageing content library: which pages are slipping, why each one is slipping, and what to do about it — without refreshing pages that were never going to recover.
It's written as a SKILL.md, a plain-language instruction format that people and AI agents can both follow. Read it to audit your own archive, or let the SEO Agent run the year-over-year comparison and return a verdict per URL.
Downloading the playbook is free with a Moonrank account. Running it on a schedule, and shipping the refreshes and redirects it calls for, is what the SEO Agent does for you.
“We publish more than ever and traffic is flat. Where is it going?”
Forty-two URLs are down year over year, and eighteen of them are cannibalizing each other — you have four separate posts targeting the same query, none of which wins it. Consolidate those into one page and redirect the rest. Nine more are stale rather than beaten: the answer changed, the page didn't. The remaining fifteen are seasonal and need nothing.
Twelve months minimum, so decay can be measured year over year instead of month to month.
The agent compares the last 90 days to the same period last year and flags real declines.
Seasonal, competitive, stale, cannibalized, or an intent shift — each needs a different response.
Refresh, consolidate, or retire, with the specific change and the redirect target.
The only comparison that separates real decay from a seasonal dip.
Seasonal, competitive, stale, cannibalized, or intent shift — named, not guessed.
Groups of your own URLs competing for one query, with a canonical winner picked.
Catches the queries where the result type changed and copy edits won't help.
One verdict per page, with the redirect target when a page is being retired.
Refreshes that haven't moved get re-judged instead of quietly forgotten.