Fix the posts that are slipping

Fixing that post is often the cheapest traffic you can get. It already ranks, already has links pointing at it, and Google already knows what it's about. Writing a new post on the same topic usually makes things worse: now two of your pages compete for the same search.

The hard part is knowing which posts are slipping, and updating them without breaking what still works. Blog AI handles both.

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   Step 1: Start the refresh

   From your Actions list, the content audit or the post itself. Blog AI builds a brief from the post's findings: the searches it's losing or close to winning, and the content audit's checks, such as a post that's too short or has no Google description. The progress page shows what the refresh sets out to do.

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   Step 2: Blog AI researches and rewrites what needs it

   The writer reads the post section by section, researches what's changed, and marks each section as unchanged, updated, expanded or new. Sections that still work are kept word for word.

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   Step 3: The changes are fact-checked

   Only the changed text is checked against its sources, and any statistic that doesn't check out is flagged on the section it belongs to.

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   Step 4: You review each change

   A side-by-side view shows every section before and after, with the words that changed highlighted and a reason for each change. Accept all, accept some, or reject the proposal.

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   Step 5: Blog AI updates the live post

   Applying sends the accepted changes to WordPress or Strapi first, then saves them in Blog AI. The post keeps its address, and a marker goes on its performance chart.

A refresh doesn't only follow Search Console. It also uses the same checks as the content audit, so a post with little search data still gets a real update:

• •Under 600 words: expanded so it fully answers its main question, with the steps, examples and pitfalls a reader needs. No padding.
• •No Google description: one is written, including the main search and what the reader gets.
• •No links to your other posts: two or three links to genuinely related posts are added where they help the reader.
• •No search data yet: the post is worked to editorial good practice, answering the question early, with clear headings and sourced facts.

If you've told Blog AI what your site is for, the refresh writes for those readers and that goal. See what your site is for.

Rewrite post

When the writing itself is the problem, use Rewrite post instead (3 credits). Blog AI treats the old post as source material and writes every section again in your site's voice and for what your site is about. It keeps the topic, the facts that are still correct (checked again), your images and useful links, and cuts filler and vague claims. The proposal is marked “Full rewrite” and shows each section before and after, with word counts, and you review and apply it the same way as a refresh. The post keeps its address.

The review page is built for deciding quickly. For each section you see the old text, the new text with changed words highlighted, what kind of change it is (updated, expanded, new or removed) and a one-line reason. Above the sections are the title, SEO title, search description and excerpt, before and after, and a word count for the whole post.

• •Accept everything in one click, or tick the sections you want.
• •Sections you don't accept stay exactly as they are on your site.
• •A section with a fact-check flag can't be applied until the flag is dealt with. Reject that section and apply the rest.
• •Reject the whole proposal if it isn't right. Nothing on your site changes.

A refresh edits a real page on your site, so the rules are strict. Blog AI reads the live post first and refuses to write if someone changed it on your site since the proposal was made, or if it contains things a rewrite would lose (embeds, shortcodes, custom blocks, tables, special link settings). It then sends only the title, body and excerpt, and leaves the address, publish state, categories, tags and featured image alone.

The version before the refresh and the version after are both saved in the post's history, and the “refreshed” marker on its performance chart starts a before-and-after comparison. See performance tracking.

Sometimes the post is fine and the problem is what people see in Google. A post on page one that is shown often but rarely clicked (a click rate under 50% of what's usual for its position) gets a “Better title & description in Google” suggestion instead of a refresh, once it's at least four weeks old. So does a post with no Google description at all.

It's free. Blog AI shows you the current search title and description, then writes 3 alternatives with a Google preview of each, at most once a month per post. Pick one, tweak it if you like, and apply. Only the SEO title and description are sent to your site; the post itself isn't touched. On WordPress this needs Yoast (with the Blog AI Connector plugin) or Rank Math.

When two or more of your posts keep swapping places for the same search, neither does as well as one strong page would. SEO people call this cannibalisation. Blog AI spots it in your Search Console data and suggests a merge: keep the page with the most impressions (then the better position), and fold the best of up to 3 other posts into it.

What happens to the other posts

Blog AI never deletes or unpublishes them. The merged posts should redirect to the kept one, so their visitors and links carry over. If your WordPress site uses the Redirection plugin, Blog AI can create those redirects when you apply, if you choose to. Otherwise it gives you the exact list to add.

You're charged when the proposal is ready, not before. If it fails, the credits held for it are released. Reviewing and applying a proposal is free.

A refresh costs less than a new post because it keeps the parts that already work; a full rewrite costs more than a refresh because every section is researched and written again. See pricing.

• •It never changes a live post's address, and never deletes or unpublishes posts on your site.
• •It won't overwrite edits made on your site since the post was imported. You re-import first.
• •It can't rewrite posts built from embeds, shortcodes, page-builder blocks or tables, because it can't reproduce them faithfully. You can still fix their search snippet.
• •It doesn't send the post's FAQ to your CMS. An accepted FAQ change is saved in Blog AI only, and the review page says so.
• •It doesn't promise a recovery. It shows you the before-and-after, so you can judge.
• •It won't apply a change with an unresolved fact-check flag. Reject that section and apply the rest.