How CitedSEO estimates clicks
Every click gain on a card is a range, from how often people click each place on page one, with and without an AI answer above it. It's an estimate, not a promise.
Written By Damian
Last updated About 2 hours ago
An Estimated gain on a card is a range of clicks a month. CitedSEO takes how many times a month people make the search, the place on Google the change aims for, and how often people click a result in that place. The low end assumes Google shows an AI answer above your page, which takes most of the clicks, and the high end assumes it doesn't. The line under the range says what it assumes. It's an estimate, not a promise.
How often people click each place
CitedSEO uses two curves of the share of searches that click the result at each place on page one, from First Page Sage's 2026 study of Search Console data from 1,184 sites. By then Google showed an AI answer on about four in five US searches, and a result under one gets far fewer clicks.
The low end uses the AI answer curve at the lower place a change aims for; the high end uses the other curve at the higher place. That's why a range can be wide: it shows how much an AI answer above the page changes things.
What each kind of card assumes
The searches a month come from CitedSEO's keyword data. Where a search has no number there, it uses how often your page was seen for it in Search Console. A content gap or striking distance that wouldn't bring even one click a month isn't raised.
How sure CitedSEO is
Under the range, each card says High, Medium or Low confidence. Pointing at it gives the number, for example "50% sure. This is my starting estimate for this kind of change, before I’ve measured how mine do." The places each change aims for and how sure CitedSEO is are its own starting values, not something it has measured on your site yet. Confidence is lower where the climb is longer, such as an article on page two or a harder search.
Where the ranges are added up
At the top of Opportunities, Waiting for your OK adds up the ranges of the cards waiting for you ("clicks a month, estimated"), and names how many aim for AI citations or for links instead, so they never read as nothing. Clicks waiting in the queue adds up every card not scheduled yet, "Estimated from each fix’s range".
The queue's own order uses the middle of each range together with how sure CitedSEO is, so a smaller gain it's surer of can come first. Most clicks sorts what you're looking at by the high end. See How the opportunity queue works.
After a change ships
The estimate is what the card aimed for. Once a change is live, CitedSEO follows the real numbers from Search Console and shows the result in its own unit, or "No change yet" when there's no gain. See How CitedSEO follows a change after it ships.
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