Content decay is the slow loss of organic traffic to a post that once performed. It is predictable enough to plan around, and almost nobody does, which is why teams find traffic falling while still publishing weekly.
What decays fastest
Anything with a year in the title starts dying the moment the year turns. Tool comparisons and pricing posts decay as products change. Platform how-tos decay every time the interface moves, which for ad platforms is constantly. Trend pieces have the shortest life, often weeks.
What barely moves
Definitional content on stable concepts holds for years. Original research holds until someone publishes newer numbers, which in most Indian marketing niches takes a long time. Tools hold indefinitely while they keep working. Regulatory explainers hold until the rule changes, then fall off a cliff, which is why they need a review date rather than a refresh cadence.
The trigger worth automating
Do not refresh on a calendar. Set an alert for any post whose trailing ninety-day clicks are down more than thirty percent against the prior ninety days, excluding seasonality you can explain. That list is your refresh queue, ordered by traffic actually at stake.
It is a Looker Studio report over Search Console data and takes an afternoon to build once.
What a refresh actually means
Changing the date and adding a paragraph does nothing. A refresh that works means new data, a materially better answer than whoever overtook you, or added utility such as a template or calculator.
If none of those are available, the post has probably lost its slot for a reason. Consolidate it into a stronger piece and redirect, rather than polishing something no longer competitive.
General information, not legal advice. Rules current as of July 2026.