Classic SEO decay is measured in clicks. The new decay is measured in citations: your page still ranks — but when an AI answer resolves the query, the click never happens.
This audit scored 16 pages across 4 well-known content sites on both axes: 6-month traffic decay and live AI-answer citations from openrouter:minimax/minimax-m3:free. Four verdicts. Named evidence. Every number's provenance labeled.
A page loses 30–60% of its clicks over six months while its position barely moves. Classic SEO reads that as "content is fine, something else broke."
The query now triggers an AI answer. If the page isn't in the citation set, position #3 earns a fraction of its old traffic — and a rewrite fixes nothing, because the answer consumed the click.
Only the combination tells you what to do: refresh content, close a specific competitor gap, or concede the query entirely.