Moonrank

Content Decay skill

The playbook Moonrank's SEO Agent uses to find pages losing traffic year over year, name the cause, and give each one a single verdict: refresh, consolidate, or retire.

Download the methodology, see how the agent classifies decay, or run it live inside the SEO Agent.

Get the skill fileTry the Moonrank SEO Agent
Category
SEO
Agent
SEO Agent
Format
content-decay.md
Price
Free to download

The skill file

content-decay.md
---
name: content-decay
description: Find pages losing traffic over time and decide, per page, whether to refresh, consolidate, or retire them.
owner: Moonrank SEO Agent
---

# Content Decay
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Free to download · account requiredTry the Moonrank SEO Agent
About this skill

What is the Content Decay skill?

The Content Decay skill is how Moonrank's SEO Agent audits an ageing content library: which pages are slipping, why each one is slipping, and what to do about it — without refreshing pages that were never going to recover.

It's written as a SKILL.md, a plain-language instruction format that people and AI agents can both follow. Read it to audit your own archive, or let the SEO Agent run the year-over-year comparison and return a verdict per URL.

Downloading the playbook is free with a Moonrank account. Running it on a schedule, and shipping the refreshes and redirects it calls for, is what the SEO Agent does for you.

Example

See it in action

You ask

“We publish more than ever and traffic is flat. Where is it going?”

Agent does

Forty-two URLs are down year over year, and eighteen of them are cannibalizing each other — you have four separate posts targeting the same query, none of which wins it. Consolidate those into one page and redirect the rest. Nine more are stale rather than beaten: the answer changed, the page didn't. The remaining fifteen are seasonal and need nothing.

How it works

From input to fix list

  1. 1

    You connect Search Console

    Twelve months minimum, so decay can be measured year over year instead of month to month.

  2. 2

    Moonrank trends every URL

    The agent compares the last 90 days to the same period last year and flags real declines.

  3. 3

    It names the cause

    Seasonal, competitive, stale, cannibalized, or an intent shift — each needs a different response.

  4. 4

    It returns one verdict per page

    Refresh, consolidate, or retire, with the specific change and the redirect target.

What's included

Everything it checks

Year-over-year trending

The only comparison that separates real decay from a seasonal dip.

Decay classification

Seasonal, competitive, stale, cannibalized, or intent shift — named, not guessed.

Cannibalization clusters

Groups of your own URLs competing for one query, with a canonical winner picked.

SERP format check

Catches the queries where the result type changed and copy edits won't help.

Refresh / consolidate / retire

One verdict per page, with the redirect target when a page is being retired.

30-day review loop

Refreshes that haven't moved get re-judged instead of quietly forgotten.

Use cases

When to reach for it

  • Explain why publishing more isn't growing traffic.
  • Find the pages competing with each other for the same query.
  • Decide which old posts deserve a refresh and which deserve a redirect.
  • Recover a former top performer that slipped without anyone noticing.
  • Shrink a bloated content library without losing the traffic it earns.
Questions

Frequently asked questions

It's the SEO methodology Moonrank's SEO Agent follows — written out step by step, so you can read exactly how the work gets done rather than trusting a black box.

A plain-language instruction file that both people and AI agents can follow. Open it in any editor, paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, or drop it into an agent framework that reads skill files.

Yes. Every skill file is free with a Moonrank account — we ask for an email, not a credit card. Running the skill continuously against your site is what the paid product does.

Absolutely. The file is yours to adapt. Hand it to your team as a standard, run it manually, or point your own agent at it. Nothing in it depends on our platform.

The SEO Agent runs this methodology against your site on a schedule, prioritizes what it finds, and ships copy-ready fixes — no manual runs, no downloads to manage.

Related skills

Pair it with these skills

SEO

Quick Wins

Find the pages ranking 5–20 and ship the one change that moves each to page one.

Writer

Topical Map

Plan the full set of pages that makes you the obvious authority on a topic.

Find out what AI says about your brand.