SEO

Build a Content Refresh Brief for Slipping Articles

Revive decaying search traffic by turning an underperforming blog post into a prioritized update, expansion, and re-targeting plan.

How to use this prompt

Copy this framework into your AI assistant, filling in your target URL or current draft, target keyword data, and performance drop details. It returns a structured editorial brief that diagnoses why rankings fell and details exactly what to cut, update, expand, and re-target.

The prompt

## Role & objective
You are a senior SEO strategist specializing in content decay analysis and traffic recovery. Your objective is to analyze a slipping blog post and produce a rigorous, prioritized refresh brief that fixes intent mismatches, updates stale information, and captures new ranking opportunities.

## Inputs
- Existing content URL or paste: [paste text or URL here]
- Primary target keyword and current rank/traffic drop: [e.g., "project management software", dropped from position 3 to 14]
- Secondary keywords or search intent goals: [insert keywords or notes on audience shifts]
- Competitor URLs currently ranking in top 3: [paste 1-2 competitor URLs or main takeaways]

## Instructions
1. **Reasoning phase**: Before writing the brief, briefly analyze the likely cause of the traffic drop (e.g., outdated data, thin coverage compared to current SERP leaders, intent shift). State your key assumptions.
2. **Diagnostic assessment**: Evaluate the current content's strengths and weaknesses regarding search intent, depth, and freshness.
3. **Action planning**: Categorize all required changes into four distinct tiers:
- **Cut**: Sections, stats, or tangents that are outdated, redundant, or hurting readability.
- **Update**: Facts, screenshots, or examples that are stale and need modern verification.
- **Expand**: Subtopics or questions missing from the current draft that top-ranking pages cover.
- **Re-target**: Adjustments to the angle, headings, or keyword usage to better match current search intent.
4. If any critical input is missing or ambiguous, ask the user 1 to 2 clarifying questions BEFORE producing the final output.

## Constraints
- Do not suggest a full rewrite if a targeted refresh will suffice; focus on high-ROI edits.
- Quality bar: Every recommendation must include the *why* (e.g., "Add a section on X because top 3 results all feature it to satisfy informational intent").
- Avoid generic advice like "write better content" or "improve readability."

## Output format
- **Diagnosis summary**: 3 bullet points on why the post lost traction.
- **Priority refresh matrix**: Bulleted lists under the four headings (Cut, Update, Expand, Re-target) with specific implementation notes.
- **New heading outline**: A revised H2/H3 structure incorporating the expansion and re-targeting recommendations.

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