Definition
Content decay is a decline over time in the organic search performance of a page that previously attracted traffic. You might see fewer clicks, lower rankings or reduced visibility. The term describes the trend; it does not identify what caused it.
Why it matters
A page can lose traffic because its advice became outdated, competitors answer the question better, or search intent shifted. Seasonal demand, technical problems and changes in search results can produce similar losses. Updating the publication date alone does not resolve these causes.
Look at impressions, CTR and average position together. Fewer impressions with stable positions may suggest changing demand or query mix. Stable impressions with fewer clicks point you toward CTR. These patterns guide investigation rather than prove a diagnosis.
Where to check the decline
In Search Console's search performance report, compare equal date ranges and inspect pages with lost clicks. Drill into their queries, countries and devices. For seasonal content, a year-over-year comparison may be more useful than consecutive months.
mowteng's content decay analysis compares the last N days with the preceding N days and lists pages that lost the most clicks. It skips pages with fewer than 10 clicks in the earlier period. Use custom date comparisons when you need a different baseline.
Ask mowteng
Start with the largest losses, then check the underlying queries before rewriting a page. If a URL disappeared from results, investigate indexing as well as content quality.
Which pages lost the most clicks in the last 28 days compared with the previous 28? For the top five, compare impressions, CTR and average position, then show the queries with the largest click losses.