Content Decay: What Is It and How to Recover from It?

Content Decay: What Is It and How to Recover from It?

When crafting a content strategy for your construction business, it is very tempting to focus on just making new content every single time. But have you thought of your existing content? Do you know that it still has value even though no piece of content will perform well forever? Yes! It has value, and if you keep ignoring the content on your site, you are missing out on the opportunity to get more traffic.

As stated earlier, pieces of content will only perform well in the short term. And that is a hard truth to deal with. Know that this is because Google continues to update its algorithms, and the intent behind all keywords will change its course. In addition, the information needs to be updated quickly, resulting in Content Decay.

In this blog, discover what content decay is, including the best ways to freshen up your content and get more traffic. This guide will also help you recover from content decay. Now, let’s dive in.

 

What is Content Decay?

 

Content decay refers to the instances when the performance of your content begins to decline. It may point out a certain loss in your organic traffic, conversions, and rankings. Usually, this often occurs right after an initial period of growth, which increases and then starts to drop over time. This decline can happen all of a sudden and may occur for a wide range of complex reasons.

But another big question is – why does content decay matter, and why should you know about it? Let’s say you want all your web pages to perform well. This is where SEO comes into the flow. But SEO is a continuous process and not an instant fix. But Content decay impacts SEO in many ways you do not even know. See below:

  • Backlink performance: The decay of your content makes your pages less likely to maintain backlinks. Other websites will not attempt to link to your webpage, knowing you are not updating any of your content.
  • Information relevancy: If the content you have on your website has been outdated for many years, Google will label your web page irrelevant for the users. So, any searcher that clicks will most likely bounce when he cannot find what he needs. 
  • Page visibility: As the competitors create new content, your content will get pushed to the bottom of the SERPs. It will take a huge effort for your target prospects to find your website.
  • Conversions: With a few people coming to your website, expect to see a drop in your conversions. 

 

7 Tips to Recover from Content Decay

 

We hope you finally understand what causes content decay, so it is time to fix your pages! To recover from content decay, your main goal is to refresh your content every now and then. Below are the seven best tips you can implement to resolve the decay of your content.

1. Update Information

Ensure that all information or details in your content are relevant to your construction business and industry. Know that new advancements and information have emerged since you wrote your previous content. 

You can start by replacing your old content with new details to help keep your web visitors in the loop. Start checking the following:

  • Statistics
  • Product descriptions
  • Outbound links 
  • Year
  • Your company policies and information

Pro Tip: You should aim for a modern-look web page. So, make sure to remove any outdated content, videos, or screenshots as well. Know that even an old screenshot may impact how your target audience sees your web page. 

But partnering with top construction marketing agencies like ConstructionMarketing.io helps you in every process – from updating content to checking information on your web page. It saves you time and effort, especially if your focus is on your business’s operations, not marketing.

2. Add new content

Freshening up your web page with new content is a must. Look at your other ranking articles, and figure out what topics you want to cover this time. The good thing is that you will not need to start from scratch, and you can easily devise new content based on your already existing content.

Suppose you write a blog post covering the top commercial construction services to avail in 2023. If you observe SERPs, you will notice similar web pages with the same blog articles. You can incorporate that pieces of information to help match user search intent.

Whenever you add new content, always perform keyword research for new sections to discover additional phrases to include.

3. Combine your posts

Suppose you have many smaller blogs that rank on the same, and combine them into one master blog content. As a result, you will have one powerful long-form post coming from your short-form content. And while short-form content has its many benefits, on the other hand, long-form content allows you to:

  • Explain topics in greater detail.
  • Create more sharable content.
  • Rank for more keywords.

If you put it all together, you can start refreshing it and combine them to rank better as new content. But if working with parts looks tedious and time-consuming, you can partner with an agency that offers you the best construction marketing solution to solve your pain points. An agency has the best content marketers and writers that are incredibly experienced in crafting and devising content unique to your construction business.

4. Refresh SEO data

The SEO-focused information also helps you freshen up your web page and then reflect on new changes. See below:

  • Title: Do you have a compelling title that separates your web page from others? Does your title even include the main keywords?
  • Keywords: Does your web page refers to your main target keywords? Are all your keywords inserted organically? Can you add or replace some of your keywords with more quality and high-ranking options?
  • Meta description: Do your meta descriptions precisely describe your web page?

5. Check your links

Broken links will impact your SEO and make it hard for your users to navigate. So, go through your low-ranking web pages and find any outdated or broken links. Make sure to look for:

  • Pages that no longer exist
  • Links that often cause endless redirects
  • Links that lead to spammy websites

Additional Tip: Replace any questionable tops with an optional source to enhance the rankings of your web pages. We both know that doing all of this – from finding out what pages no longer exist and determining what links often cause an issue – is a huge work that requires time and immense effort. 

When collaborating with a trusted agency that offers a range of construction marketing services, including SEO checkups, link building and more, things get easier. An agency has experts that consistently track your links and pages and determine why you are losing traffic.

6. Update Publishing dates

After making some changes, you can go over updating your publishing date. This step helps you to showcase to your readers and even to Google the updated date of your page and that your content is relevant. If the page is time sensitive, it may appear in the most recent publications whenever the users will filter the search dates.

7. Conduct original research and get unique data

To prevent content decay, you should include original research and extract new data. For example, let’s say you run a survey and leverage your internal data that no one else has. This effectively enhances your content and makes it more unique than ever, as you are both including statistics, and your content is their original source. Moreover, your content attracts backlinks which are very helpful. Linkable content like yours can reinforce your position in the SERPs because the links can boost your rankings, especially if they are high-quality and relevant.

 

Revamp Your Content with ConstructionMarketing.io

 

Content is King. However, no monarch lasts forever. The increasing competition, the changes in user behavior, and algorithm updates can all dethrone your web page from the top spot in the search engine results page (SERPs). However, if you work your way around your content and nurture it continuously, it will stay ahead of the competition and perform much better for longer.

We hope you follow all the tips and suggestions we shared with you above. However, if you need more professional help in updating your old content, our construction marketing company is ready to help you.

ConstructionMarketing.io has the best content writers who can help you wrap around things about your content – whether for your blogs, pages, or all your existing content. In addition, we will help you not only understand content decay but also to devise a prevention strategy. We ensure to prevent your pages from failing and boost your rankings and ratings via consistent SEO checkups. 

Our agency provides digital marketing services, including SEO and content marketing services that help maximize your rankings and increase your ratings!

Get in touch with us and let’s start refreshing your content for better and greater results!