Your SEO content becomes less relevant every month. It’s a harsh truth, and it’s frustrating since new content can often take 6+ months to rank. The big picture might show you a steady increase in overall traffic, but if you drill down, you’ll likely see some articles that haven’t moved and others that have lost visitors. That’s a clear sign of content that’s aging and losing its grip on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
This phenomenon is part of content decay and highlights why maintaining content relevance is so critical. To stay on top, you can’t just publish and forget.
Take the simplest example possible: 6 months ago, I wrote part of an article (a review of the AI writing tool Rytr) along with a list of alternatives. It was supposed to include a pricing section for each tool, but I forgot to finish it. When I checked back on my draft, I thought to myself:
“These are AI tools, things move so fast in the industry that I bet the pricing has changed.”
Sure enough, the pricing for nearly every tool I’d planned to review had changed, and many had updated names for their pricing tiers. Anyone could have looked the pricing up themselves instead of reading my article, but to be useful, a review is supposed to aggregate important information for buyers.
Had I published the article and it finally started ranking after a few months, it would have ended up misleading readers. That would ruin the whole point of such an article: building trust. After discovering that many features had changed, I decided to shelve that post because the traffic potential was low and the keyword wasn’t particularly relevant to me. However, if it had been a valuable piece of content worth ranking for, I absolutely would have gone back to ensure everything was accurate.
Now, I understand that not every article is worth updating for accuracy, so let’s set some ground rules for which SEO include relevant content updates:
First of all, check back once every 3 months. Only do this for topics that you know will change often. You can usually figure this out by using common sense. Topics about software, for example, are always subject to change because of constant updates. Meanwhile, a blog post about how to jog long distances won’t shift much year over year.
From those topics, prioritize the “money keywords.” They usually look something like:
“Best X” (e.g., “best running shoes”)
“Top X” (e.g., “top property management software”)
“Y alternatives” (e.g., “Zapier alternatives”)
“Y vs Z” (e.g., “Trello vs Asana”)
“Y reviews” (e.g., “Salesforce reviews”)
“Y pricing” (e.g., “Slack pricing for teams”)
That’s how you identify good update candidates efficiently and keep your content fresh. Otherwise, you’re just another annoying website trying to farm traffic.
Congratulations if your SEO traffic increased by 20% last month! But if you published 50% more articles over the last six months, that traffic boost might not tell the whole story. Maybe out of all 60 blog articles you’ve published, 20 have gone up in traffic, 30 haven’t moved, and 10 have lost visitors. Those 10 articles that dropped likely did so because they’re losing relevance.
This is content decay in action. Eventually, your articles age out. Google considers content relevance a ranking factor—often referred to as “Content Freshness.” Competitors keep their content up to date with new information, so if you don’t keep pace, search engines will favor their content over yours.
After you publish, you have to stay in the game by monitoring your SERP positions. If you notice that an article is hovering between positions 6 and 20 after an extended period in the top 5, that’s a sign it might be losing its grip. Update your content to regain your foothold.
Keep in mind that content decay isn’t just about how long it’s been since you hit “publish.” It’s also about everything that’s happened since then and how much the landscape has changed. That’s why fluctuations in SEO traffic can be misleading—sometimes a rise masks your underperforming articles, and sometimes a drop doesn’t show that certain content pieces are doing just fine.
A drop in SEO traffic is rarely what it seems, and neither is a rise in traffic. More than likely, you’re doing a mix of good and bad. The key to success is to pinpoint which pieces are continuing to drive results and which ones have lost traction due to declining relevance.
Many SEO providers will simply report on total traffic while finding ways to take credit for the big wins. But if some of your articles are losing traction, do you know which ones they are? Are you tracking your SERP positions for those keywords?
Taken as a whole, fluctuations in SEO traffic are extremely misleading. That’s why content relevance is so crucial: if you keep your material fresh, accurate, and aligned with user needs, you’ll outpace competitors who publish and forget.
SEO content doesn’t stay relevant forever. To fight content decay, commit to a regular review cycle. Upgrade your articles that are worth ranking for, and keep them aligned with the latest changes in your industry. By monitoring how your posts perform, prioritizing money keywords, and addressing topics that shift frequently, you’ll maintain an edge in the SERPs.
Remember, the best approach is a proactive one. Keep your eyes on your data, stay aware of changing user expectations, and ensure every piece you publish remains a valuable, trustworthy resource over time. That’s how you preserve content relevance —and stay ahead in the game.
