Refresh slipping pages and clean up pages no one finds
Each slipping page gets a cause and a fix. Each page that earns nothing gets a decision you approve first, and nothing is removed, merged, or redirected before that yes.
Example
You ask
Which of my pages lost the most clicks in the last 28 days, and should I refresh, merge, or remove them?
The assistant
Your assistant lists the pages that lost the most clicks, starting with the largest losses, and gives each a likely cause. For pages that earn nothing, it proposes refresh, merge, redirect, remove, or keep, and waits for your approval before changing anything.
Use it when
- You ask to refresh old content.
- Pages are sliding in clicks or in keyword positions.
- Your site has many pages that no one finds in search.
- Two of your pages seem to compete for the same keyword.
You give it
- Search Console connected, so clicks per page and the test for pages that earn nothing are available.
- A RankMySEO plan of Starter or above for
page_updates, or the Search Console numbers on their own. - The pages that do a job outside search, such as contact, legal, sign-in, thank-you, or pages linked from ads, email, or print.
It returns
- Slipping pages, sorted by the number of clicks lost.
- A refresh plan for each page: keyword, clicks before and now, cause, fix, and effort.
- One decision for each page that earns nothing: refresh, merge, redirect, remove, or keep.
- A change log row for each change, with a check date at least four weeks out.
How the skill runs
Find the slipping pages
Read
page_updatesfor refresh, rewrite, merge, and split rows. Runsearch_consolefor 28 days and read clicksChange when pagesComparable is true, then checkanalytics_pagesif Analytics is connected. Sort by clicks lost.Find out why each page slipped
Check the causes in order and stop at the first that holds: your own change, broken basics, a competing page, stale content, a rival, then falling demand. If none holds, wait one more check before rewriting.
Write a refresh plan per page
Update facts and dates on stale pages, reshape off-intent pages for what searchers want now, and add missing sections to thin pages. Merge a competing page into one owner page and redirect the other. Keep the URL.
Sort the pages that earn nothing
A page earns nothing when Search Console shows no impressions over the full window,
site_pagesshows no ranking keywords, and Analytics, when connected, shows no visits to it. Leave out pages that do a job outside search.Decide each page
Choose refresh, merge, redirect, remove, or keep. Redirect a retired page to a clear replacement, never to the homepage. Check whether other sites link to a page before you remove or redirect it.
Get your yes, then act
Your assistant shows the decision table, and nothing changes until you approve each row. It then prepares the internal link and sitemap changes and applies them if it can edit your site's files, or gives them to you, and logs each change with a check date.
Where it stops
- Pages that do a job outside search, such as contact, legal, sign-in, thank-you, or pages linked from ads, email, or print, are left alone. You name them.
- Pages published in the last three months are too new to judge.
- Without Search Console, no page is called one that earns nothing. Connect Search Console first.
- Bulk removal does not make a site look fresh to Google, so each removal needs its own reason.
Questions before you install
Should I delete a page that is losing clicks?
Find the cause first. Refresh, merge, or redirect the page, and remove it only when it has no replacement and no other job.
Do I need to change the URL when I refresh a page?
No. Keep the URL. A new URL resets nothing and adds a redirect. Change the visible updated date only when the content changed.
What status should a removed page return?
A real 404 or 410. A page that says not found with a 200 status is a soft 404, which Google reports as an error.