How do you decide whether to refresh, merge, or retire content?

Look at the purpose of the page, its current usefulness, overlap with other pages, and the value of preserving the URL. A traffic decline alone does not tell you which action is appropriate.

For a refresh, identify what is outdated or missing. For a merge, choose a destination that serves the combined need. For retirement, consider users and existing links.

Share how you document these decisions.

Before retiring an older page, check whether low traffic reflects poor discovery, indexing status, a narrow audience or genuinely obsolete information. Those observations point to different actions.

For a merge, identify the relevant destination and the material being retained. A redirect is easier to review when the decision document explains what the replacement answers.