Decaying Tutorial Library at a B2B SaaS
Northstar is a B2B SaaS company selling project-management software to agencies. Its content library contains 340 tutorials and blog posts. Sixty-two percent were published more than 18 months ago. Organic sessions to the library are down 28% year over year, and the library converts at 1.9% to demo request versus 3.4% sitewide. The product UI has changed four times, and screenshots are stale. Forty-one pages still describe "Boards Classic," a feature retired nine months ago; sales reports that prospects cite an outdated pricing article. The team has two writers, one SEO analyst, and about 20 hours per week for content work. Leadership wants a six-month plan that raises qualified demo requests without simply publishing more new posts. No budget for a large agency.
1. How should the team triage the 340 pages in the first 30 days? Name the data you would use and the decision rules.
Read the worked answer
Build a scored inventory rather than a traffic-only list. For each URL pull 12 months of Search Console impressions, clicks, CTR, and position; organic entrances; demo-request assists or path-to-demo data; internal links; backlinks; last-updated date; and whether it mentions a retired feature. Classify intent as tutorial, comparison, pricing, integration, or troubleshooting.
Decision rules:
- High impressions plus high assist rate plus stale content = refresh first, starting with pricing and the top 20 tutorials by assisted conversions.
- Deprecated-feature pages = rewrite or 301 to the replacement; do not leave pages describing a feature that no longer exists. Keep a page only if it has strong backlinks, and then add a migration banner.
- Low impressions, no assists, no backlinks, and overlapping topic = consolidate or prune.
- High impressions but weak CTR = rewrite title and meta and update screenshots before adding new posts.
Pair one writer on refreshes and one on consolidation. The SEO analyst validates redirects, canonicals, and cannibalization. New posts wait until the refresh queue is under control. Track impressions, CTR, and assisted demos weekly, not just sessions.
2. Sales says prospects cite an outdated pricing article. What exactly would you do with that page and its internal links, and what would you measure?
Read the worked answer
Treat the pricing article as a high-intent page, not a routine blog update. First confirm whether the URL has rankings, backlinks, and internal links; if so, keep the URL and rewrite in place rather than creating a new page. Update packaging, limits, add-on costs, and any retired feature references. Add a visible "last updated" date and a short changelog. Add a current comparison table and a clear demo CTA. Remove or redirect references to "Boards Classic."
Then fix the internal-link graph: update links from the blog, navigation, help center, and sales enablement pages that still point to old pricing language. Check for cannibalization with any newer pricing page; if two pages compete, consolidate with a 301 to the stronger URL and update all links.
Measure demo requests from the page, CTA clicks, scroll depth to pricing table, assisted conversions, and organic rankings for pricing terms. Compare four weeks before and after, but flag seasonality and sales-cycle lag. Ask sales to log prospect objections so content changes can be tied to actual buyer feedback, not just pageviews.
3. After six months, how do you show whether the plan improved qualified demo requests rather than just traffic?
Read the worked answer
Set the primary KPI as qualified demo requests attributed to organic content, with assisted conversions as a secondary KPI. Use CRM source fields and a consistent qualification definition agreed with sales. Separate branded from nonbranded organic traffic, because brand demand can mask content effects.
Create a comparison group: refreshed pages versus similar untouched pages matched on intent, traffic band, and conversion rate. Track the refreshed cohort before and after, and use a difference-in-differences view if the data supports it. Report completion rate of the refresh queue, indexation status, rankings, CTR, and conversion rate alongside sessions.
Avoid claiming that all demo growth came from content. Show leading indicators: impressions and CTR improvements on refreshed URLs, reduced exits to deprecated pages, and fewer sales mentions of outdated pricing. At month six, report qualified demos per 1,000 organic sessions and total qualified demos, with a caveat about sales-cycle lag. If traffic rises but qualified demos do not, diagnose intent mix and CTA alignment before publishing more.