# Content-refresh worksheet

Reusable worksheet reviewed October 15, 2026. Fill in your own dates; a quarterly review does not require a quarterly rewrite.

## Scope and diagnosis

- Page URL and preferred canonical: [URL]
- Owner: [name / role]
- Reader and decision: [who this page serves and what they should be able to do]
- Specific problem: [incorrect claim, missing example, changed intent, technical issue, or other evidence]
- Diagnosis evidence and date: [source / observation; distinguish facts from hypotheses]
- Decision: [refresh / leave unchanged / fix technical issue / investigate overlap]
- Reason: [why this action addresses the problem]

A traffic decline alone does not establish content decay. Inspect seasonality, query mix, demand, technical access and changes to the results before choosing an edit.

## Save the before version and baseline

- Before-copy location / screenshot / revision ID: [reference]
- Saved on: [YYYY-MM-DD]
- Search Console property and search type: [values]
- Country, device and query/page filters: [exact settings]
- Prior period: [YYYY-MM-DD through YYYY-MM-DD, inclusive; number of days]
- Export date and private evidence reference: [date / reference]
- Row limits, privacy omissions, unknowns: [notes]
- Conversion definition, attribution rule, timezone and evidence: [notes or not available]

| Measure | Before | After | Definition / evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Clicks | Not available | Not available | |
| Impressions | Not available | Not available | |
| CTR | Not available | Not available | Clicks / impressions; undefined with zero impressions |
| Average position | Not available | Not available | Observed average, not a fixed rank |
| Qualified conversions | Not available | Not available | Separate analytics / CRM source |

## Explain each edit

| Before passage / issue | After passage / change | Supporting source checked on | Reader benefit | Outcome status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | | Unmeasured |

## Publication and technical verification

- Published on: [YYYY-MM-DD]
- After-copy location / revision ID: [reference]
- HTTP status, canonical and robots directives checked: [date / evidence]
- Sitemap and relevant internal links checked: [date / evidence]
- Mobile layout, tables, downloads and next-step link checked: [date / evidence]
- Recrawl / indexing observation, if available: [date / evidence; a request is not confirmation]

## Follow-up plan and result

- Follow-up owner and review date: [name; YYYY-MM-DD]
- Later period: [YYYY-MM-DD through YYYY-MM-DD, inclusive; number of days]
- Why these windows are comparable: [same filters, weekdays, seasonal context; processing evidence]
- Other releases, tracking changes, demand or search-update context: [dated notes]
- Observed difference: [numbers and source, or “not available”]
- Interpretation and competing explanations: [hypotheses, not assumed causes]
- Next decision: [keep / investigate / revise; owner and date]

Use separate Search Console Pages CSV exports with Page, Clicks, Impressions and Position columns in the [free content-decay checker](https://www.rankcrab.com/tools/content-decay-checker). Confirm matching filters and enter nonoverlapping dates. Use equal windows or explicitly enable daily click normalization. Missing rows remain unknown. The tool compares your supplied rows; it does not fetch data or diagnose why performance changed.

A before/after difference alone does not prove the edit caused it. Preserve an honest “unmeasured” status when evidence is missing. Never replace unavailable observations with sample data.

Guide: https://www.rankcrab.com/guides/content-optimization/how-to-refresh-a-blog-post-for-seo

Sources checked October 15, 2026: [Google traffic-drop guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops), [recrawl guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl), [helpful content guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content).