AI search tools like ChatGPT don’t just look at your best or most recent pages – they look at your entire website. That includes old, forgotten content you may not even realise is still live. If parts of your site are outdated, misaligned, or no longer reflect your business today, AI can surface the wrong version of your brand. That’s why website and content maintenance has become a visibility issue, not just an SEO one.
AI found the pages I’d forgotten
Recently, I noticed something odd happening with enquiries coming through our website.
A couple of people referenced a specific service page – one I hadn’t thought about in a long time. It wasn’t ranking in Google. It wasn’t linked prominently in our navigation. We weren’t promoting it on social media. In my mind, it was very much out of sight, out of mind.
Except it wasn’t.
That page had been surfaced by AI search tools like ChatGPT, and people were using it as a reference point when deciding whether to enquire. The problem? Some of the information on that page – including pricing – was slightly outdated.
We honoured it (thankfully the difference wasn’t huge), but it was a bit of a lightbulb moment.
For years, businesses have been conditioned to think: If it’s not ranking in Google, it’s probably not being seen. And for the most part, that used to be true. Google’s algorithm naturally deprioritises content that isn’t updated, maintained, or supported by fresh signals. Old pages quietly fade away into the internet abyss.
AI search doesn’t work like that.
Instead of ranking individual pages in isolation, AI tools build a picture of your brand, then review your entire website to support their recommendations. If a page exists – and especially if it’s accessible via your sitemap – it’s fair game. Even if you’ve long forgotten about it.
And that’s where the risk (and opportunity) lies.
Because as businesses evolve – our services, pricing, tone, positioning – our websites often don’t evolve at the same pace. The newest pages usually reflect the best, most current version of us. Older content? Not always.
In AI-driven search, those forgotten pages can resurface at exactly the wrong moment, and shape how your business is being perceived by prospective clients or customers.
That’s why website and content maintenance is no longer just “good practice”.
It’s now a core part of protecting (and improving) your visibility.
Why this wasn’t a problem (until now)
How Google quietly hid outdated content for us
For a long time, most businesses were protected from their own neglected content – whether they realised it or not.
Google’s algorithm has always placed a strong emphasis on content maintenance. Things like how recently a page was updated, how often fresh content is added to a site, how well a page performs over time, and whether it continues to meet quality and relevance thresholds all play a role in whether content stays visible.
When a page stops meeting those expectations, Google doesn’t usually make a dramatic announcement about it. It simply… fades. Rankings soften. Traffic drops. Eventually, the page stops appearing altogether.
In tools like Semrush, you can see this happen very clearly. Pages that haven’t been updated for months or years gradually lose visibility, decline in rankings, and eventually fall off the radar. From a Google-search perspective, that often felt like a natural clean-up process.
And that’s where many businesses – myself included – developed a false sense of security.
If a page wasn’t ranking, wasn’t getting traffic, and wasn’t being actively promoted, it was easy to assume it wasn’t being seen by anyone. So outdated pricing, older service descriptions, or messaging that no longer reflected the business simply sat there, quietly ignored.
In the pre-AI-search world, that wasn’t ideal – but it also wasn’t catastrophic. Less visibility meant less risk. If Google wasn’t surfacing the content, the chances of it influencing someone’s perception of your brand were slim.
That logic no longer holds.
Because while Google was quietly deprioritising outdated content, AI search tools were learning to look at websites very differently – not as a collection of ranked pages, but as a complete representation of a brand.
And that’s where the rules change.
How AI search works differently to Google
AI doesn’t rank your pages – it reviews your brand
This is where things start to feel uncomfortable for a lot of businesses.
Google’s job is to rank individual pages. AI search tools like ChatGPT are doing something else entirely – they’re trying to recommend.
Instead of asking, “Which page deserves position one?” AI tools are asking, “Which business seems like a good answer?”
To do that, they don’t rely on traditional ranking signals alone. They build a picture of your brand using a wide mix of inputs – things like reviews, brand mentions, social conversations, forums, articles, and other user-generated signals. Once they’ve identified you as relevant, they then look to your website to validate and support that recommendation.
And here’s the key difference:
AI doesn’t just look at your newest or best-performing pages. It looks at everything it can access to build a complete picture.
If a page exists on your website – particularly if it’s accessible via your sitemap – it’s effectively part of your brand’s knowledge base. AI tools aren’t checking when it last ranked, whether it’s still driving traffic, or whether you personally consider it “important”. If there’s nothing on the page that clearly signals it’s outdated, AI will often treat it as current and credible.
That’s how forgotten pages come back into play.
Old service descriptions. Superseded offers. Pricing that’s no longer accurate. Messaging that reflects a version of your business from three or four years ago. All of it can be pulled into AI-generated responses and presented as if it still represents who you are today.
This is why the shift matters so much.
AI search doesn’t reward activity in the same way Google does. It rewards consistency. Alignment. Clarity. A cohesive story across your digital footprint.
Which means your website is no longer just a collection of landing pages competing for rankings. It’s a reference document – one that AI tools are actively reading, interpreting, and using to shape how your business is recommended.
And if parts of that document are outdated, contradictory, or no longer aligned with your current positioning, AI won’t know that – but your prospective customers won’t either.
That’s the real risk.
Because in an AI-driven search environment, visibility isn’t just about being found. It’s about which version of your business is being surfaced when you are.
Why deleting pages isn’t the answer (and what to do instead)
When businesses realise AI search is surfacing outdated content, the knee-jerk reaction is often to delete anything that feels wrong, old, or embarrassing.
That usually creates more problems than it solves.
Deleting pages without a clear strategy can damage your website’s overall health. You lose existing authority, break internal and external links, and risk creating technical issues that impact the pages you do want ranking. It’s not as simple as turning a page back on later once you’re ready to “fix it”.
More importantly, deletion doesn’t address the real issue.
The problem isn’t that the content exists.
It’s that it hasn’t evolved alongside your business.
In most cases, the smarter approach is to review, refine, and update existing pages so they reflect your current services, positioning, tone, and priorities. That allows you to keep the structural value of the page while ensuring it represents the right version of your brand.
Think of it less like cleaning house, and more like renovating. You don’t knock the whole place down because a room feels dated – you update what’s no longer fit for purpose.
And if you’ve been putting off updating certain pages because they “weren’t getting seen anyway”, this is your sign to move them to the top of the list.
Because in an AI search world, just because Google isn’t showing a page doesn’t mean it’s not being read.
What website maintenance should look like now
Website maintenance doesn’t mean constantly rewriting your entire site or chasing perfection.
With AI search, it’s about making sure your website tells a clear, current, and consistent story about your business – no matter which page gets surfaced.
That starts with a mindset shift. Maintenance isn’t reactive clean-up. It’s proactive visibility management.
Practically, that means focusing on:
- Pages that explain what you do, how you do it, and who it’s for
- Service pages, pricing pages, and core offer descriptions
- High-intent content that helps someone decide whether to enquire
These are the pages AI tools are most likely to reference when recommending your business.
Maintenance also doesn’t need to be constant. A regular review cadence – even once or twice a year – is often enough to catch issues before they become problems. The goal isn’t to rewrite everything, but to sense-check that your content still reflects:
- Your current services and pricing
- Your positioning and tone
- The language your audience actually uses today
If a page still aligns, great. Leave it alone.
If it’s drifting, update it.
If it no longer serves a purpose, then you make a considered decision about what happens next.
In other words: maintain with intent, not panic.
Where to start: simple ways to stay ahead of AI search
If this all feels a bit overwhelming, the good news is you don’t need to overhaul your entire website overnight. A few focused actions will get you most of the way there.
Start here:
- Audit what already exists – Look beyond your main navigation and review the pages that are still live on your site. If it’s accessible via your sitemap, assume AI tools can see it.
- Prioritise high-risk pages first – Service pages, pricing pages, and “how we work” content should always reflect your business as it is today. These are the pages most likely to influence enquiries.
- Update for accuracy, not perfection– You’re not rewriting history – you’re making sure information is current, clear, and aligned with your positioning. Small updates go a long way.
- Sense-check tone and language – Older content often sounds like an earlier version of your brand. Make sure it still feels like you and speaks to the audience you want now.
- Set a realistic review cadence – For most businesses, a review every 6 to 12 months is enough.
Most importantly, resist the urge to delete content just because it feels old.
Final thoughts: visibility now means maintenance
AI search has changed what it means to be visible.
The riskiest content isn’t always obvious. It’s the forgotten pages you stopped worrying about because they weren’t ranking or getting traffic. AI tools don’t make that distinction – if a page exists, it can influence how your business is perceived.
That’s why website and content maintenance is now a visibility issue, not just an SEO one.
At BeKonstructive, we’re helping businesses audit and update their existing content so their websites accurately reflect how they want to be found across Google, AI search, and everywhere in between.
If you’re unsure which pages on your site AI might be reading, or whether they still represent your business the way you want, that’s a conversation worth having.
