Content Refresher

Identifies outdated content, scores decay/freshness, prioritizes refresh work, and produces update plans with GEO and republishing guidance.

Quick Start

Find content on [domain] that needs refreshing
Which of my blog posts have lost the most traffic?
Refresh this article for [current year]: [URL/content]
Update this content to outrank [competitor URL]: [your URL]
Create a content refresh strategy for [domain/topic]

Skill Contract

Expected output: a scored diagnosis, prioritized repair plan, and a short handoff summary ready for memory/audits/.

Reads: candidate URLs/content, traffic and ranking history, publish/update dates, and competitor examples.
Writes: a user-facing refresh plan (and optional refreshed content) plus a reusable summary that can be stored under memory/audits/.
Promotes: blocking defects, repeated weaknesses, fix priorities, and pending decisions to memory/open-loops.md.
Done when: decay drivers are identified with evidence; a refresh plan lists specific updates with a republish-date strategy; a Changes Made block and handoff summary are produced.
Primary next skill: use the Next Best Skill below when the repair path is clear.

Handoff Summary

Emit the standard shape from skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format.

Data Sources

Use ~~analytics, ~~search console, and ~~SEO tool when connected; otherwise ask for traffic data, ranking history, publish dates, candidate URLs, and competitor examples. See CONNECTORS.md.

Instructions

Label every metric Measured (tool/export), User-provided, or Estimated (model inference); never present an estimate as measured; if a required metric is unavailable, mark it N/A — do not invent it.

When a user requests content refresh help:

CORE-EEAT Quick Score — Estimate all 8 dimensions, prioritize red/yellow areas, and hand off to content-quality-auditor for full scoring when needed.
Identify Refresh Candidates — Use age, dated claims, declining traffic, lost rankings, broken links, SERP shifts, and missing topics.
Analyze Page-Level Decay — Compare 6-month-old vs current performance, keyword deltas, SERP intent, competitor updates, and the why-refresh rationale.
Define Updates Needed — Capture outdated elements, competitor/PAA gaps, SEO updates, GEO updates, links, images, sources, and dates.
Create Refresh Plan — Specify title, structure, new sections, refreshed statistics, internal/external links, images, and validation requirements.
Write Refresh Content — Draft updated intro, replacement sections, refreshed facts, FAQ answers, and Changes Made notes.
Optimize for GEO — Add 40-60 word definitions, quotable statements, Q&A, dated citations, and standalone factual statements.
Set Republishing Strategy — Use published-date update for 50%+ new content, last-updated date for 20-50%, original date for <20%; update schema, sitemap lastmod, cache, Search Console, and 4-6 week monitoring.
Create Refresh Report — Summarize completed changes, expected outcomes, owners, next review date, and open loops.

Reference: references/refresh-templates.md has compact templates for steps 2-9.

Decision Gates

Stop and ask the user when:

A page is decayed enough that a rewrite may beat a refresh (e.g., outdated premise, intent shift, or >50% of content stale) — state the finding and ask: (1) refresh in place, or (2) rewrite as new content via seo-content-writer.

Continue silently (never stop for):

Missing analytics/ranking history — score decay from on-page signals (dated claims, broken links, stale stats), label findings Estimated, and proceed.
A request to "refresh" content that is actually net-new (no existing URL) — note the mismatch once and route to seo-content-writer rather than fabricating a prior version.
Which republish-date treatment to apply — follow the Step 8 thresholds without asking.

Example

User: "Refresh my blog post about 'best cloud hosting providers'"

Output: CORE-EEAT quick score flags weak Referenceability, Experience, and Trust; recommends pricing refresh, broken-link fixes, author credential additions, affiliate disclosure, and a Changes Made block ready for republish.

Reference: See references/refresh-example.md for the full worked example and checklist.

Tips for Success

Prioritize by ROI/search demand, make substantive improvements instead of date-only edits, add stronger evidence than competitors, track post-publish rankings/traffic, and treat every refresh as a GEO citation opportunity.

Reference data: references/content-decay-signals.md covers decay signals, lifecycle stages, refresh-vs-rewrite decisions, and content-type strategy.

Save Results

Ask to save results; if yes, write a dated summary to memory/audits/content-refresher/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md. Hand off veto-level risks to the auditor gate before any hot-cache marker.

Gate check recommended: Run content-quality-auditor on refreshed content before republishing.

Reference Materials

Content Decay Signals — Decay indicators, lifecycle stages, and refresh triggers by content type
Refresh Templates — Compact templates for steps 2-9
Refresh Example & Checklist — Full worked example and pre/post-refresh checklist

Next Best Skill

Primary: content-quality-auditor — re-score refreshed content before shipping.

content-refresher