Decay detection
Why this matters for your business
Most blog content has a 6-18 month "useful life" before rankings decay. The decay is gradual — drops a position per week, then accelerates. By the time traffic visibly drops, the page has slid from #4 to #15 and recovery is hard.
Decay detection catches the slide early. When a page that was ranking stably starts trending down, the system flags it (with confidence intervals) so you can refresh while the page still has authority — much easier than rebuilding from position 30.
What this typically unlocks
| Outcome | Result |
|---|---|
| Pages refreshed before traffic loss | 5-10/quarter |
| Time to detect decay | 2 weeks vs. 2 months |
| Recovery success rate | 70-85% when caught early |
What you actually get
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Multi-signal detection | Rank trend + impression trend + CTR drift |
| Confidence levels | High / medium / low (avoid false alarms) |
| Refresh suggestions | "Update statistics", "add 2024 examples", "improve internal linking" |
| Refresh-vs-rewrite recommendation | Sometimes minor refresh is enough; sometimes full rewrite needed |
| Track refresh outcomes | Did the refresh recover the rank? |
Real merchant scenarios
Scenario A — Brand catches decay across 8 pages
Setup. Brand had 8 pillar posts ranking well for years. Detector flagged 5 as "high-confidence decay."
Action: Refreshed all 5 within 2 weeks (statistics updated, new examples added).
60-day result: 4 of 5 recovered to prior position. 1 needed deeper rewrite.
Estimated lost traffic without detection: ~$18K/month at the point catch happened.
Scenario B — Refresh-vs-rewrite call
Setup. Page had decayed from #5 to #22.
Detector recommendation: "Full rewrite recommended — Google shifted intent for this query toward video content; current text post unlikely to recover with refresh alone."
Action: Created a video version + kept text as supporting content. Rank recovered to #6 within 90 days.
Plan tiers
| Capability | Free | Starter | Pro | Agency | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decay detection | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-signal scoring | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Refresh suggestions | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Refresh outcome tracking | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |