My refresh protocol for one decaying post

My refresh protocol for one decaying post

Month 14, my best 'budget standing desk' review slid from #3 to #9 over a quarter. Revenue on it dropped $220 to $70. Here's the exact 8-step refresh I ran, not a rewrite.

— Open Search Console, filter to that URL, sort queries by impressions where position is 8-15 — those are keywords I'm ALMOST ranking for but didn't cover
— I found 'standing desk under 200' getting 900 impressions and a 0.4% click rate. Wasn't even a heading
— Added an H2 and 250 words for each near-miss query (found 4)
— Updated every price and 'as of 2024' date stamp; checked all affiliate links still resolved (two were dead, lost sales there)
— Swapped the intro to answer the query in the first 40 words
— Added one comparison table — the SERP winner had one, I didn't
— Re-linked 3 newer posts INTO it
— Resubmitted in Search Console, logged the date

Four weeks later: back to #4, revenue recovered to $190.

The setback: I refreshed 6 posts at once the first time and couldn't tell what worked. Now it's one post, one change-set, logged.

The takeaway: Decay is usually missing coverage, not bad content — mine Search Console for the queries you're almost winning and feed them in.