Content maintenance
What to do with old posts that no longer rank
Investigate what changed before deciding whether to update, combine or remove an article.
Updated 10 October 2026
Confirm what declined
Separate a fall in search impressions from a fall in clicks or inquiries. Compare the affected URL and queries over a useful period, allowing for seasonality. Check whether the problem affects one article, a group of pages or the whole site.
Open the page and verify that it loads, is accessible to search engines and has the intended canonical URL. A broken page needs a technical repair before an editorial rewrite.
Read the article with today's question in mind
Check dates, prices, external links, screenshots and claims. Ask whether the answer is still useful and whether the title accurately describes it. A change to the displayed date alone does not improve the underlying information.
Write a short change brief: what is wrong, the evidence needed to correct it and the intended reader outcome. Preserve accurate material, useful examples and links that still help.
Choose the right action
Update a page when its purpose is still useful but its answer needs better evidence or clearer explanation. Consider combining two pages when they serve the same reader and one would be stronger with their best material together.
If a page moves, choose an appropriate redirect and update internal links. If information must be removed without a replacement, decide how the URL should respond. Do not redirect every retired article to an irrelevant home page.
Check what you published
Review the final title, description, headings, links and any changed figures. Confirm that the original URL or intended redirect works. Record the changes and compare performance after search engines have had time to revisit the page.
An update is a considered revision of the answer. It cannot promise a recovery in rankings, and a decline alone does not justify publishing a new version under another URL.