Refreshing 12 decaying pages recovered 6,700 lost clicks

Refreshing 12 decaying pages recovered 6,700 lost clicks

We found 12 pages in true decay: down on both clicks and impressions across a 90-day comparison, not seasonal dips.

— Pages in decay: 12
— Combined click loss vs prior period: ▇▇▇▇▇ -6,700/mo
— Avg position drift: 5 to 11
— Median content age: 31 months

The SERPs had shifted intent: three new sub-questions had entered the top 10 that our pages never addressed. We added those sections and updated stale figures, then republished.

Eleven of 12 recovered to within one position of their old rank within 8 weeks; clicks returned to 94% of the prior peak.

So what: decay is usually intent drift, not staleness alone. Diff the current SERP against your page to find the missing sub-intents.

Benchmark of the week: pages losing clicks AND impressions for two straight months recover 5x more often when refreshed than when left, across 50 cases.