Publishing a new page against a query you already cover splits internal links and history across two URLs and usually leaves both weaker. But refreshing is not automatically right either - an existing page built for a different intent will not become the right page by adding sections. The judgement turns on whether the existing URL has equity worth keeping and whether its intent matches.
build-or-refresh-decision.md
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name: build-or-refresh-decision
description: Use when a target query is one you already have a page for and you are unsure whether to rewrite that page or publish a second one.
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# Decide Build New or Refresh Existing
Publishing a new page against a query you already cover splits internal links and history across two URLs and usually leaves both weaker. But refreshing is not automatically right either - an existing page built for a different intent will not become the right page by adding sections. The judgement turns on whether the existing URL has equity worth keeping and whether its intent matches.
## What you need first
- Search Console query and page data for the candidate URL over 12 months
- the current top 5 results for the target query
- the existing page's internal inbound link count
## Method
1. Check whether the existing URL has ever had impressions for the target query. If it has none in 12 months despite being indexed, Google does not consider it a candidate and rewriting rarely changes that.
2. Compare page types in the top 5. If they are all comparison tables and your page is a narrative guide, that is a format mismatch and a refresh means rebuilding it entirely, which costs the same as building new.
3. Count internal links and referring domains to the existing URL. Above roughly 10 internal links or any external links, refresh and keep the URL - that equity is expensive to rebuild.
4. If the existing page ranks for a different cluster that is also valuable, do not refresh it. Build new, and link from the old page down to the new one with the target phrasing in the anchor.
5. When refreshing, change the page substantively - restructure the H2s to match the questions in the SERP, replace stale figures, cut sections nothing ranks for. Editing the intro and updating the date does nothing.
6. Record the refresh date and the before-state positions, then leave it alone for at least 6 weeks before judging.
## What this produces
A per-URL decision of refresh, build new, or consolidate, with the reason recorded against each.
## Where this goes wrong
- refreshing by adding a paragraph and changing the published date, then concluding refreshes do not work
- building a second page on a query the existing URL already gets impressions for, so the two cannibalise
- keeping a page alive because it once ranked, when it now has neither impressions nor internal links
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From the QuQi skill library - https://www.quqi.io/skills/build-or-refresh-decision
Free to download · no account, no email
A per-URL decision of refresh, build new, or consolidate, with the reason recorded against each.