Content Decay Calculator

A content decay calculator turns two traffic numbers, your page's peak and its current level, into a compound monthly decay rate and a projection of where that traffic is headed. Most pages do not lose traffic in a straight line; they lose a percentage of what is left each month, which is why a compound rate tells a more useful story than a simple average.

What actually causes content decay

Content decay rarely happens because a page got worse. It happens because everything around the page changed: competitors published newer, more complete articles, search intent for the keyword shifted, statistics and examples went out of date, or a core algorithm update rewarded freshness the page no longer had. The page can rank for the exact same query it always did and still lose clicks if updated pages outrank it on relevance signals.

Reading your decay rate

A monthly decay rate under roughly 2% is often just normal seasonal noise. A rate in the 3% to 6% range usually signals a page that is aging and would benefit from a refresh within the next quarter. A rate above 8% a month is a page bleeding traffic fast, often because a specific competitor overtook it or the topic moved on, and it deserves an update sooner rather than later.

Turning a decay rate into a content plan

Once you know which pages are decaying fastest, prioritize refreshes by a mix of decay rate and remaining traffic, since a fast-decaying page with real traffic left is worth more than a fast-decaying page nobody visits anymore. A refresh typically means updating stats and examples, adding sections that match how the query is searched today, tightening internal links from newer pages, and republishing with a current date. For teams managing dozens of aging pages at once, ongoing SEO content management is usually more efficient than one-off manual audits.