Content Refresh Brief (Rescue a Decaying Post)
Audits an old post that lost rankings and produces a surgical refresh brief: what to update, add, cut, and consolidate — preserving what still earns links.
Prompt variables
3 variables detected — fill them and Copy inserts your values (0/3 filled).
My post has been losing traffic and I want a refresh brief, not a rewrite from scratch. Analyze the post below and produce a surgical plan.
**Audit the post for decay in this order:**
1. **Stale facts** — dated statistics, prices, screenshots-by-description, version numbers, "as of 2023" tells, dead product names. List each with line reference and what to replace it with (or [RESEARCH: what to look up] if you cannot know).
2. **Intent drift** — based on the target keyword, has what searchers want likely shifted (e.g. from "what is X" to "X vs Y" or "best X tools")? State your hypothesis and what evidence in the SERP would confirm it.
3. **Coverage gaps** — questions a reader would ask today that the post never answers, especially anything that did not exist when it was written.
4. **Bloat** — sections that exist for word count, intro paragraphs restating the title, redundant examples. Mark for deletion; refreshes that only ADD usually lose.
5. **Answer position** — does the post answer the query in the first 150 words? If not, write that answer paragraph now (this is also what AI answer engines quote).
**Then output the brief:**
- Keep / Update / Add / Cut table, ordered by impact
- New heading structure with changes marked
- Title tag and meta description (rewrite only if the current ones are the problem — say which)
- 3-5 internal links to add from newer content
- Whether this post should absorb or redirect any overlapping post I listed
Target keyword: {{keyword}}
Overlapping posts on my site (if any): {{overlapping_posts}}
The post:
{{post_content}}
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