Block 1 - Weekly Scan (Monday 7 AM)
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger - scheduleTrigger
- Config choices
- Version 1.3
Detect stale website content with OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Gmail
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1. Workflow Overview
Stale Content Detector for Websites Who is this for Content marketers, SEO managers, and website owners who want to automatically find pages on their site that are outdated or need refreshing — wit...
Best for
- Market Research automation workflows
- AI Summarization automation workflows
- advanced n8n builders looking for reusable templates
Tools used
n8n-nodes-base.scheduletrigger, n8n-nodes-base.set, n8n-nodes-base.httprequest, n8n-nodes-base.code, n8n-nodes-base.if, n8n-nodes-base.html, @n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.agent, @n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.lmchatopenai
Source and attribution
This workflow is cataloged by N8N Workflows and links back to its original n8n.io source page by Alejandro Alfonso.
Original n8n.io source1.1 Workflow description
- Title
- Detect stale website content with OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Gmail
- Workflow name
- Detect stale website content with OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Gmail
Stale Content Detector for Websites
Who is this for
Content marketers, SEO managers, and website owners who want to automatically find pages on their site that are outdated or need refreshing — without manually auditing every page.
What it does
This workflow fetches your sitemap, identifies pages that have not been updated in a configurable number of days, fetches each stale page, and uses AI to assess whether the content is actually outdated or still accurate.
- Sitemap parsing: Fetches your sitemap.xml and extracts all URLs with their last-modified dates
- Staleness filtering: Flags pages not updated in more than X days (default: 180) and sorts by most stale first
- Page content extraction: Fetches each stale page and extracts the title and body text
- AI freshness analysis: An OpenAI-powered agent reviews each page and rates it LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, or CRITICAL with specific update suggestions
- Audit logging: Saves every reviewed page to a Google Sheet with the full AI analysis
- HTML email report: Builds a color-coded summary email showing each flagged page with its AI verdict and sends one consolidated digest
How to set up
- Open Site Configuration and set your
sitemapUrl,staleDays(default: 180), andalertEmail - Create a Google Sheet with a ContentAudit tab (columns: scan_date, page_url, last_modified, days_since_update, ai_review)
- Paste your Google Sheet URL into the Save to Content Audit Sheet node
- Connect your Gmail OAuth2 credentials on the Email Content Audit Report node
- Connect your Google Sheets credentials
- Connect your OpenAI API credentials on the OpenAI Chat Model node
- Activate — runs every Monday at 7 AM
Requirements
- n8n account (cloud or self-hosted)
- A website with a sitemap.xml (most CMS platforms generate one automatically)
- OpenAI API key (uses gpt-4o-mini)
- Gmail account with OAuth2
- Google Sheets
How to customize
- Change the
staleDaysthreshold in Site Configuration (default: 180 days / 6 months) - Increase the page limit above 20 in the Code node for larger sites
- Add specific URL path filters to focus on blog posts, docs, or landing pages only
- Replace Gmail with Slack for faster team notifications
- Connect to your CMS API (WordPress, Ghost, Webflow) to pull content directly instead of scraping
1.2 Logical Blocks
This catalog entry is organized from the workflow JSON. The node-level section below shows the executable blocks available for review before importing the template.
2. Block-by-Block Analysis
Block 2 - Site Configuration
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.set - set
- Config choices
- Version 3.4
Block 3 - Fetch Sitemap XML
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest - httpRequest
- Config choices
- Version 4.2
Block 4 - Parse Sitemap URLs
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.code - code
- Config choices
- Version 2
Block 5 - Any Stale Pages?
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.if - if
- Config choices
- Version 2.3
Block 6 - Fetch Page Content
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest - httpRequest
- Config choices
- Version 4.2
Block 7 - Extract Page Text
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.html - html
- Config choices
- Version 1.2
Block 8 - AI Content Freshness Analyzer
- Type / Role
- @n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.agent - agent
- Config choices
- Version 3.1
Block 9 - OpenAI Chat Model
- Type / Role
- @n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.lmChatOpenAi - lmChatOpenAi
- Config choices
- Version 1.3
Block 10 - Build Report Row
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.set - set
- Config choices
- Version 3.4
Block 11 - Save to Content Audit Sheet
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets - googleSheets
- Config choices
- Version 4.7
Block 12 - Email Content Audit Report
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.gmail - gmail
- Config choices
- Version 2.2
Block 13 - Combine Into One
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.aggregate - aggregate
- Config choices
- Version 1
Block 14 - Build Email Body
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.code - code
- Config choices
- Version 2
Block 15 - Sticky Note
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
- Config choices
- Version 1
Block 16 - Sticky Note1
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
- Config choices
- Version 1
Block 17 - Sticky Note2
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
- Config choices
- Version 1
Block 18 - Sticky Note3
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
- Config choices
- Version 1
Block 19 - Sticky Note4
- Type / Role
- n8n-nodes-base.stickyNote - stickyNote
- Config choices
- Version 1
3. Summary Table
| Workflow | Detect stale website content with OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Gmail |
|---|---|
| Complexity | advanced |
| Nodes | 19 |
| Categories | Market Research, AI Summarization |
| Author | Alejandro Alfonso |
| Published | 26 Mar 2026 |
4. Reproducing the Workflow from Scratch
-
1. Download the workflow JSON
Use the JSON export at /data/workflows/14375/14375.json as the source template for this automation.
-
2. Import the template into n8n
Open n8n, import the downloaded JSON, and review each node before activating the workflow.
-
3. Configure credentials and variables
Replace placeholder credentials, API keys, webhook URLs, account IDs, and environment-specific values with your own settings.
-
4. Test with sample data
Run the workflow manually or in a staging workspace, inspect node output, and confirm downstream systems receive the expected data.
-
5. Activate and monitor
Enable the workflow only after testing, then monitor executions, errors, and rate limits during the first production runs.
5. General Notes & Resources
Review imported nodes carefully before activation. This catalog entry is intended to help you inspect the workflow structure, understand required services, and find related templates faster.
Node names, credentials, schedules, webhook paths, and external service limits may need adjustment for your workspace.
Frequently asked questions
What does Detect stale website content with OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Gmail do?
Stale Content Detector for Websites Who is this for Content marketers, SEO managers, and website owners who want to automatically find pages on their site that are outdated or need refreshing — wit...
What do I need before importing this workflow?
Review the workflow JSON, configure any required credentials in n8n, and test the automation in a safe workspace before using it in production.
Can I customize this workflow?
Yes. Use the block-by-block analysis and the downloadable JSON to inspect each node, then adjust credentials, prompts, schedules, filters, or destinations for your Market Research, AI Summarization use case.