Creating and delivering valuable content is one of the most important strategies for any site. Still, ultimately, every page can stagnate and see a leak of traffic and rankings. This decline is known as content decay, and it is quite capable of reducing the number of visitors, the interest they show, and the number of people who make a purchase.
This means that for businesses to remain relevant online, they need to revise and reinvent old content that is still relevant to their clients. Irrespective of whether you are an SEO company in the UK, an ecommerce SEO services firm, or a digital marketing agency in the UK, it is important to know how you can use content that is fresh in the long run.
Here in this guide, we will explain what content decay means, the causes, how you can know that it has happened to your content, and the appropriate approaches to take if you need to extend the lifespans of your content for search engine purposes.
What Is Content Decay?
Targets of content decay are the losses over time that a particular web page may experience in terms of its relevance in search engine rankings. A blog post, landing page, or article that was earlier gaining good ranking in search engines may start dropping down for different reasons.
As compared to the cases where sites experience ranking reductions as a result of penalties or dramatic shifts in algorithms, content decay is a slow process. If no action is taken, then your content is likely to keep on suffering the loss of traffic; this will definitely mean a decrease in the number of leads, conversions, and overall ranking of your website.
Key Causes of Content Decay
- Google Algorithm Update – Older content can be affected by changing the ranking factors.
- More Competition – Newer or better-optimized pages replace the previous content.
- Lack of Interaction – Data sources may not be current, and no interaction can be made to gather updated information.
- Reduced Audience Interaction – Fewer visits, click-through rates, and time spent on the page.
- Graphic & Design Errors – These include broken links, slow response time, or low-quality user experience.
It is only when one understands all these causes that one is in a position to go ahead and repair the decayed content.
How to Identify Content Decay
To correct content decay, we need to know which pages are affected. Here are the key methods:
Analyze Google Search Console Data
Google search console entails information touching on impressions, clicks, and rankings. They should identify web pages that have received reduced traffic in the last few months. For instance, if a page that used to occupy a good position for a primary keyword is now far in the nonentities, then content decay must be an issue.
Track Organic Traffic using Google Analytics
It is also possible to monitor the performance of individual pages or pages that have changed their design over a certain period by referring to Google Analytics. Analyzing data for a gradual decline in organic traffic in the past six months will show which content has been gradually losing its organic traffic. If the number of user sessions has been declining, the engagement metrics and conversion rates are low, then it may be irrelevant to the search intent.
Content Audit with SEO Tools
Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Screaming Frog are some of the SEO tools that allow one to keep track of keyword positions and website page performance. To do this, the list of pages that lost positions for the target keywords will be viewed, and the performance of competitors’ content will be compared. If the rest of the competitors have presented a piece of comprehensive and up-to-date or more relevant and interesting information on the topic, this could be a factor for the decline.
Compare Competitor Content Performance
If competitors are outranking you, it is time to analyze what updates they are posting to outcompete you. For the analysis of their articles, take their keyword choices, word count, posted media links, and internal link placements under consideration. Knowing what they have done, you will be in a position to make correct amendments to get your ranking back.
How to Revive Old Content for Better SEO
Update and Expand Content
Reactivation of stale content is among the most efficient strategies for preventing content stagnation. It is important to update the statistics, the cases considered, and the references to make the work as academic as possible.
Some of the ways that can increase the relevance of the content are as follows: Increasing the amount of information that is covered on the particular topic or when new subtopics or angles are covered. This way, it is beneficial to add more details and examples to the articles, as Google prefers in-depth and highly valuable content.
Optimize for Search Intent
It’s a given that user search behavior changes with time, and therefore, the content must be relevant to the current search intent. Specifically, one may use Google Trends or SEMrush to know what consumers are searching for today.
Writing for long-tail keywords, questions, and related topics ensures the content is relevant for the readers. Answering common questions and including the answers in a structured format also helps improve the site’s rank.
Improve On-Page SEO Elements
It has been established that on-page SEO can be greatly changed in order to improve the rankings. The current title tags and meta descriptions should also be modified to suit the current trending search terms used by most users.
Headers help in being more organized using headers 1, 2, and 3, which will make it easy for search engines to determine the structure of the content.
Linking to other relevant and updated internal web pages helps improve the SEO ranking of the web page; on the other hand, broken links negatively affect the ranking. Mobile-friendliness, fast speed, and optimum experience also play a role in performance to contribute to betterment.
Enhance Content with Multimedia
It should also be noted that in addition to the textual part, new interesting images often help attract users’ attention and contribute to the increase in the time spent on the website. Replacing or enhancing the existing images with more appropriate, more revealing images enhances the experience of the users.
It is advantageous to embed videos since they add more value, such as in topics that require demonstrations or in the tutorial. The idea behind the use of infographics is that it makes it easier to understand the data and information that are given to the users. Google loves fresh content, and using multimedia format makes it rather critical to revive content.
Strengthen Backlinks and Social Signals
It is not just an upgrade of the website’s content; it also includes some off-page techniques. Therefore, getting new backlinks from other related credible sites informs the search engines that the particular page is still relevant.
For instance, through link building, contacting the industry websites for weblink enhancement can help increase authority. Sharing new content on social networks and via e-mail distribution lists makes posts more noticeable and popular, which is important for search engines to understand that the site is useful and updated. To increase the reach of content, it can be repurposed; for example, a blog post can be converted into a video or a LinkedIn article into a video.
Final Thoughts
Withstand, content decay is one of the biggest issues that every SEO faces, albeit it can be overcome. Regular auditing, updating the old content, focusing on the real user intent, and improving technical SEO factors can work in the long term and get organic traffic to the website.
For organizations that are considering the expansion of their SEO operations, the best way is to tie up with an agency such as eIntelligence, which has specialists who can develop and put these kinds of content into operation. Whether you need help optimizing your e-commerce for target keywords or creating a complete digital marketing strategy, a professional digital agency in Sheffield will help you maintain the web position and rank of your site.
