Google’s Lizzi Sassman and John Mueller responded to a question about Content Decay, expressing confusion about the phrase because they had never heard of it. It turns out there’s a good reason: Content Decay is just a new name created to make an old problem seem like a new one.
Googlers have never heard of content decay
Google tech writer Lizzi Sassman started a Google Search Off The Record podcast by stating that they were talking about Content Decay because someone submitted this topic and then commented that she had never heard of Content Decay.
She said:
“… I saw this, I think, on your topic comment form for the Search Off the Record podcast, that somebody thought we should talk about content decay, and I didn’t know what that was, so I thought that I should look into that, and then maybe we could talk about it.”
Google’s John Mueller responded:
“Well, it’s good that someone knows what it is. … When I looked it up, it looked like this was a familiar term, and I felt inadequate when I realized I had no idea what it actually meant, and had to interpret what it probably meant from the name.”
Lizzi then pointed out that the name Content Decay sounds like it refers to something not working with content:
“Like it sounds kind of negative. Kind of negative, yeah. Like, yeah. Like something’s wrong with the content. It’s probably rotting or something happened to it over time.”
Not only do Googlers not know what the term Content Decay means, seasoned SEOs with 25+ years of experience have never even heard of it, myself included. I contacted several experienced SEOs and no one had heard of the term Content Decay.
Like Lizzi, anyone who hears the term Content Decay will reasonably assume that the name refers to something not working with content. But this is incorrect. As Lizzi and John Mueller discovered, content decay isn’t really about content, it’s just a name someone gave to a natural phenomenon that’s been happening for thousands of years.
If you feel out of the loop because you haven’t heard of Content Decay either, don’t. Content Decay is one of those inept labels someone coined to give a new name to a problem so old that it predates not only the internet, but the invention of writing.
What is Content Decay?
What people mean when they talk about Content Decay is a slow decline in search traffic. But a slow decline in traffic is not a definition, it is just a symptom of the real problem that is decreasing user interest. Declining user interest in a topic, product, service or virtually any entity is something that is normal and can be expected to creep up affecting organic search trends, even for topics perennial Content Decay is an inept name for a real SEO problem. Just don’t call it Content Decay.
How does user interest wane?
Diminishing interest is a long-standing phenomenon that is older than the Internet. Fashion, music styles and topics come and go in the physical and internet realms.
A classic example of declining interest is how searches for digital cameras collapsed after the introduction of the iPhone because most people no longer needed a separate camera device.
Similarly, the problem with declining traffic isn’t necessarily the content. These are search trends. If search trends are the reason for the decrease in traffic, this is probably a decrease in user interest, and the problem to solve is to find out why the interest in a topic is changing.
Common reasons for declining user interest:
The perception of the topic has changed Seasonality A technological disruption The way words are used has changed The popularity of the topic has waned
When diagnosing a drop in traffic always keep an open mind to all possibilities because sometimes there is nothing wrong with the content or SEO. The problem is user interest, trends and other factors that have nothing to do with the content itself.
There are many reasons for a drop in traffic
The problem with inept SEO catch-all phrases is that because they don’t describe anything specific, the meaning of the general phrase tends to morph and practically the catch-all begins to describe things beyond what it originally described. inept way
Here are some other reasons why traffic could be declining (both slowly and precipitously):
Decay is happening to user interest in a topic (waning user interest is a better description). Traffic slows as Google introduces new navigation feature (as people also ask. Traffic slows as Google introduces new rich result (video results, shopping results, featured snippets) The slow decline in traffic from search could be a side effect of custom search causes the site to rank less often and only for specific people/areas (custom search) The drop in search traffic is because relevance has changed (Change of algorithm relevance) A drop in organic search traffic is due to an improvement in competition (Competition)
Catchall phrases are not useful
Content Decay is one of the many SEO labels that are put on problems or strategies in order to make old problems and methods seem new. Too often these labels are clumsy and cause confusion because they don’t describe the problem.
Naming the cause of the problem is good practice. So instead of using fake names like Content Decay, maybe make a conscious effort to use the real name of what the problem or solution is. In the case of Content Decay, it’s best to identify the problem (decreasing user interest) and refer to the problem by that name.
Featured image by Shutterstock/Blueastro
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