Content Decay automatically scans your Google Search Console data and flags every page with a sustained traffic decline — sorted by severity so you act on the worst cases first.
Run the analysis on your existing GSC data and get a prioritised alert list in seconds.
Pull at least 90 days of Search Console performance data into your spreadsheet. More history means more reliable decay signals — the algorithm needs to see trend direction, not just a snapshot.
Open "Pages Losing Traffic" from the Improve menu. The algorithm analyses click trends across multiple time windows for every page on your site and calculates a decay severity score.
Pages are sorted from most to least severe. Critical alerts are pages in free-fall — act on these first. Warning alerts are pages to monitor. Healthy pages can be safely deprioritised.
A single bad week doesn't make decay. The algorithm looks for sustained, multi-period decline — the kind that signals a real ranking problem.
Every decaying page receives a severity score based on the depth and duration of the traffic loss. Critical pages get immediate attention; monitor-level pages stay on your radar.
Decay is measured week-on-week and month-on-month in parallel. Pages that show consistent decline across both windows get the highest severity ratings — a much more reliable signal than a single comparison.
The algorithm can distinguish a normal seasonal traffic dip from genuine content decay by comparing against the equivalent period from the prior year — reducing false-positive alerts for seasonal sites.
Adjust sensitivity to match your site's normal traffic variance. High-traffic sites with stable trends can use tight thresholds; newer or volatile sites can use wider ones to avoid noise.
Not every traffic drop is decay. The algorithm only flags a page when it sees sustained decline across multiple signals — not just a single bad week. Here's what triggers a decay alert:
Clicks falling consistently over 4+ weeks — not a single dip, but a clear downward trend across multiple periods.
Average ranking position moving upward (ranking lower) over time — a signal that Google is demoting the page in search results.
Impressions declining even as searches for the topic remain stable — indicating the page is losing share of voice, not just seasonal variation.
The longer the decline has persisted, the higher the severity score. Early action (4–8 weeks in) is far more recoverable than acting at 6+ months.
Organic rankings are slow to fall and slow to recover. A page that drops from position 4 to position 18 over three months can take another three months of active work to recover — if it recovers at all.
Content Decay surfaces the signal at the 4–6 week mark, when a refresh, a new section, or a round of link building can reverse the trend before positions slip beyond the first page.