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Low click rate: a new title and search snippet

When one of CitedSEO's articles shows up on page one of Google but people pass it by, it suggests a new title and search snippet.

Written By Damian

Last updated About 2 hours ago

A Low CTR card means one of the articles CitedSEO wrote shows up on page one of Google, but far fewer people click it than usually click a result in its place. The title and search snippet are usually why, so when you approve the card, CitedSEO writes a new title and search snippet for the article and changes nothing else in it.

A Low CTR card: the article's click rate against the usual for 3rd, the title Google shows now, and the estimated gain

What CitedSEO looks at

It reads your Search Console numbers for the last 28 finished days: each search one of its articles shows up for in 1st to 10th place, how often people saw it, and how often they clicked.

A search counts when the article gets under half the usual click rate for its place. The usual rate is the one for a result under an AI answer, which is the lower of the two, so an article is never flagged for clicks an AI answer above it takes. It also needs to have been seen often enough that the usual rate would bring at least 5 clicks in those 28 days, so a click or two either way can't make it look low.

These are left out:

  • Searches off page one. There the article's place is why people don't click, and that's a striking distance card instead.
  • Searches for your brand or your site's name.
  • Searches another page of your site ranks higher for, since that page gets the clicks.
  • An article whose current version went live inside the 28 days, since its numbers are partly from the title before.

You get one card per article, led by the search it's seen for most. The card waits until you connect Search Console and your first article is live.

What the card shows

  • Your page: the article's click rate for that search, beside Usual at its place, for example Usual at 3rd.
  • Title in Google now: the title people see in the results. Google sometimes shows its own rewrite rather than yours.
  • Estimated gain: a range of extra clicks a month. The low end is people clicking it as usual under an AI answer, the high end as usual with none. It's an estimate, not a promise.

The Search Console label under the numbers shows the exact 28 days on hover. Search Console runs about two days behind.

What CitedSEO does when you approve it

CitedSEO writes a new title and search snippet from the searches the article is passed by on, what the article says, and the title and snippet it has now. Only those two change: the article's text stays as it is. The new version is checked like any other change, then goes live on its day. On WordPress, the post's title and excerpt are updated; your feed and webhooks get the new title and description.

Titles and descriptions in Autopilot lets these cards ship without waiting for your OK. Once one is live, Undo this change in Opportunities › Shipped puts the old title and description back.

The Click rate for your position chart on the Google page marks searches with the same rule, and says when a new title is queued.

What it never does

  • It never changes a page CitedSEO didn't write.
  • It never changes the article's text, only its title and search snippet.
  • It never raises a card for a page that isn't on page one, or for clicks an AI answer takes.

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