Content Decay Analysis: Identify and Revitalize Underperforming Pages
SEO & SearchintermediateClaude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4o. Claude excels at structured analysis and creating detailed frameworks from complex data inputs, while GPT-4o handles multi-step reasoning and can better synthesize competitive intelligence. Both handle spreadsheet-style output formatting well.
When to Use This Prompt
Use this prompt when you notice organic traffic plateauing or declining, or when you have content that once ranked well but has lost visibility. It's especially valuable for mature websites with 100+ pages where manual audits become impractical, or when you need to justify content refresh budgets to leadership by quantifying recovery potential.
The Prompt
You are an SEO content strategist analyzing content decay across a website portfolio. Your task is to identify pages that have lost search visibility, traffic, or relevance over time, and recommend a prioritized revival strategy.
## Input Data
Provide the following information about your content:
**Website Context:**
- Industry/vertical: [e.g., SaaS, e-commerce, B2B services]
- Primary target keywords: [list 3-5 main keyword clusters]
- Current monthly organic traffic: [approximate number]
- Content portfolio size: [number of published pages]
**Content Decay Indicators:**
- Pages that ranked in top 10 but dropped to page 2+: [list 3-5 examples with original rank and current rank]
- Content published: [timeframe, e.g., "2-3 years ago"]
- Last update date for each page: [if available]
- Current traffic vs. 6-12 months ago: [percentage decline]
## Analysis Framework
For each underperforming page, evaluate:
1. **Decay Root Cause** - Is this due to algorithm changes, competitor content improvements, outdated information, technical issues, or keyword drift?
2. **Content Freshness Gap** - What information is now stale? What new subtopics should be added based on current search intent?
3. **Competitive Landscape** - What are top-ranking competitors covering that this page misses?
4. **Technical Health** - Are there crawl errors, indexation issues, or internal linking problems?
5. **Keyword Opportunity** - What related keywords could this page target with minimal changes?
## Output Requirements
Provide a prioritized action plan with:
- Top 5 pages to revitalize (ranked by potential traffic recovery)
- Specific content additions and structural changes for each
- Estimated effort level (low/medium/high)
- Expected traffic recovery timeline (30/60/90 days)
- Quick wins vs. strategic investments
Format as an actionable spreadsheet-style table with columns: Page Title | Current Rank | Target Rank | Primary Issue | Recommended Changes | Priority Level | Effort | Expected Impact.
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Tips for Best Results
- 1.Provide actual traffic data (Google Analytics or Search Console exports) rather than estimates—AI will produce more accurate decay diagnosis and recovery timelines with real numbers.
- 2.Include competitor URLs in your input so the AI can reference specific gaps in your content vs. what's ranking; this makes recommendations more concrete and actionable.
- 3.Specify your content refresh timeline constraints upfront (e.g., 'we can only update 2 pages per month')—AI will then prioritize based on effort-to-impact ratio rather than generic importance.
- 4.Ask the AI to flag pages with 'hidden potential'—those ranking 15-30 that could hit top 5 with minimal changes—these often deliver fastest ROI and build team momentum.
Example Output
# Content Decay Analysis Report
## Top 5 Pages for Revitalization
| Page Title | Current Rank | Target Rank | Primary Issue | Recommended Changes | Priority | Effort | Expected Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Best Project Management Tools 2023" | Page 2 (Rank 15) | Top 5 | Outdated comparison, missing 2025 tools | Add 8 new tools, update pricing, refresh case studies, improve internal links from pillar content | 1 | Medium | +150-200% traffic |
| "How to Implement Marketing Automation" | Rank 8 | Rank 3 | Thin content vs. competitors, lacks video | Expand from 1,500 to 3,500 words, add workflow diagrams, embed video tutorial, add FAQ section | 1 | High | +120-180% traffic |
| "Email Marketing Best Practices" | Rank 12 | Rank 5 | Last updated 18 months ago, missing AI tools | Add section on AI-powered personalization, update statistics, add 5 new tools, improve meta description | 2 | Low | +80-120% traffic |
| "Customer Retention Strategies" | Rank 18 | Rank 8 | Weak internal linking, no schema markup | Add schema markup, create 3 internal links from related content, add expert quotes, improve H2 structure | 2 | Low | +60-100% traffic |
| "Marketing Attribution Models" | Rank 25 | Rank 10 | Technical issue: slow page load, outdated data | Optimize images, remove render-blocking resources, update 2024 statistics, add interactive comparison tool | 3 | Medium | +40-80% traffic |
## Quick Wins (Implement This Week)
- Update all publication dates to current date after edits
- Add 3-5 internal links from high-authority pages to each target page
- Refresh meta descriptions with primary keyword and value proposition
## Strategic Investments (30-60 Days)
- Create new pillar content linking to revitalized pages
- Develop interactive tools (calculators, comparison matrices) for top 2 pages
- Conduct competitor content gap analysis for each page
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