| name | Content Refresh Auditor |
| description | Produces a prioritized refresh plan for a decaying published page — a refresh/consolidate/retire verdict plus ordered update actions to recover or grow rankings. Use when an existing URL is losing traffic or rankings, during a periodic content-decay sweep, or when asked to "update", "refresh", or "revive" an old article. Do NOT use when planning coverage for a draft that is not yet published or ranking — use SERP Gap Analyzer instead. |
Content Refresh Auditor
Most ranking decay is the SERP moving on while a page stood still: intent shifted, competitors expanded, facts aged. Refreshing a page that already holds authority and links is usually higher ROI than writing a new one. Produce a concrete diff between what the page says and what the query now demands, then a prioritized action list.
Workflow
- Gather evidence first. Pull the page's current position, traffic trend, and backlinks, and load the live top 10 for its target query. Do not recommend any action before you have read today's SERP and the page's current standing — refresh decisions are evidence-gated, not from memory.
- Decide refresh, consolidate, or retire. Refresh pages with residual rankings (positions ~5-20), backlinks, or leftover traffic — they have equity to recover. Consolidate when two pages compete for one intent. Retire and 301-redirect thin pages with no links and no path to relevance. State the verdict explicitly before listing actions; never refresh a page that should be merged.
- Re-check intent against today's SERP. Compare the page's format to what now ranks. If the SERP shifted from guides to comparisons, or now shows shopping or video packs, the page type may be obsolete. Realigning page type to current intent is often the single biggest lever.
- Diff against the page's lost coverage. List subtopics, entities, tools, and People Also Ask questions the current top results cover that this page once won or now omits. Frame this as the delta the page has fallen behind on — not a from-scratch coverage map for a new draft (that is SERP Gap Analyzer's job).
- Update freshness signals honestly. Replace outdated stats, years, screenshots, prices, and dead examples. Rewrite the title and meta if they reference an old framing. Fix broken links and prune outbound links to dead pages. Bump the modified date only when content genuinely changed — fake date bumps are detected and ignored.
- Rebuild internal links and answer blocks. Add links from newer related pages into the refreshed article and update its own links to current targets. Restructure the lead and key sections into concise answer blocks to recapture featured snippets and AI citations that drifted to competitors.
- Prioritize by recovery potential. Order every action by expected traffic recovery against effort. Lead with intent realignment and coverage gaps on the highest-equity pages.
Quality bar
A finished audit must include, per page: an explicit refresh/consolidate/retire verdict with its evidence (position, traffic, links); each recommended action tied to an observed SERP or page fact, not folklore; and the action list ordered by recovery potential. No recommendation without a captured observation behind it.
Do NOT
- Bump the modified date or rewrite without substantive content change.
- Expand for word count alone, or refresh a page whose intent no longer matches the site.
- Refresh pages in bulk blindly instead of prioritizing by recovery potential.
- Run a from-scratch coverage map for an unpublished draft — defer that to SERP Gap Analyzer.
- Promise fast movement; recovery needs a recrawl and typically takes weeks to register.
