Catch content decay before it costs you traffic

What is content decay?

Content decay is when a page that used to earn organic search traffic steadily loses it — not a new page that never ranked, but one that worked and is sliding. It usually shows up as clicks falling below the page’s own recent baseline, a slipping average position, or a dropping click-through rate. RefreshRadar calls a page decayed when its clicks over the last 4 weeks sit at least 20% below its baseline — the 8 weeks before that — with a floor of 10 clicks a week, so normal week-to-week noise isn’t mistaken for a decline.

Those numbers make five recognizable shapes in Search Console — what content decay looks like, pattern by pattern.