Content Decay

Content ages: prices change, tools disappear, screenshots become obsolete, statistics lose context and best practices evolve. Decay often shows up as declining rankings, falling clicks and a worse click-through rateThe click-through rate (CTR) indicates how many users click a search result relative to the number of times it is shown (impressions). It reflects how appealing a listing appears in search.Open glossary entry →, because competitors or AI and search results favor more recent sources.

Decay is especially critical for prices, software versions, legal situations, statistics, benchmarks and market comparisons. Not every old piece is automatically bad: a foundational article can remain correct for years.

Content ages at different speeds. Highly time-sensitive topics such as laws or prices need maintenance every one to three months, while evergreen topics often only need yearly review. The remedy is a substantial content refresh, not a mere pseudo-update with a fresh date.