{
  "slug": "content-decay-report",
  "name": "Content decay report",
  "aliases": [
    "Content refresh report",
    "Declining pages report",
    "Refresh worklist",
    "Content lifecycle report"
  ],
  "audience": "Content lead",
  "job": "Produce a refresh-or-consolidate worklist ordered by recoverable clicks, not by how old the page is.",
  "cadence": "Quarterly",
  "summary": "Pages measured against their own peak rather than against the site average: how far each has slid, over what period, and how many clicks are plausibly recoverable if it is refreshed. Each entry carries a recommendation, refresh, consolidate or leave, so the output is a work queue rather than a list of declines. Seasonality is separated from decay before anything reaches the list.",
  "headline": [
    "clicks",
    "pop-delta",
    "potential-clicks-raw",
    "unique-pages"
  ],
  "diagnostic": [
    "pop-delta-pct",
    "avg-position",
    "impressions",
    "ctr",
    "ctr-delta",
    "potential-clicks-adjusted",
    "ranking-movement"
  ],
  "guardrail": [
    "real-noise-verdict",
    "practical-effect-magnitude",
    "aio-haircut",
    "fallback-ctr-prior"
  ],
  "sources": [
    "search-console",
    "web-analytics"
  ],
  "skills": [
    "content-decay-refresh",
    "cannibalization-check",
    "significance-referee"
  ],
  "rungs": [
    "R2",
    "R5"
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Which pages have decayed since their peak?",
    "What should we refresh next quarter?",
    "How many clicks could a refresh recover?",
    "Is this decline decay or seasonality?"
  ],
  "workflows": [
    "twelve-week-drop",
    "year-over-year-truth",
    "category-decline-verdict"
  ],
  "caveats": "A decline against peak is not decay if the peak was a seasonal high or a one-off event, compare year over year before adding a page to the list. Recoverable-click estimates assume the page can return to a prior position and are a planning aid, not a forecast. Pages that declined because a rival page of yours now ranks for the same query belong in the cannibalisation report instead.",
  "verification": "verified",
  "lastVerified": "2026-08-04"
}