Win back clicks an article has lost

A Content decay card means one of the articles CitedSEO wrote for you has been getting fewer clicks for months: every one of its last three months is well below its best, and, when there's enough from a year earlier to compare, below the same months then too. CitedSEO suggests an update aimed at winning those clicks back. When you approve the card, it updates the article and leaves its address as it is.

What it waits for

Content decay reads your Search Console numbers, so it waits until you connect Search Console and your first article is live. Until then it's locked in the type filter. It only looks at articles CitedSEO wrote, and only once the version that's live has been up for three months, so a fall is judged on that version's own numbers. When you connect, CitedSEO reads up to 16 months of your Search Console history, so an older article can be checked straight away.

How it's found

Each day CitedSEO splits each article's Search Console numbers into months of 30 days, up to the last day Google has finished. An article is raised when:

• It had a good spell. Its best three months in a row, before the last three, had at least 10 clicks a month. Each three months is counted by its middle month, so one month's spike doesn't make a best.
• It's down every month since. Each of its last three months is at least a fifth below its best. An article that came back last month isn't raised.
• It isn't a seasonal dip. If it had at least 10 clicks a month in the same three months a year earlier, each of its last three months must be a fifth below those too, since a seasonal dip comes back every year. An article without a year of history to compare must instead have slipped at least one place since its best months, since a seasonal dip loses searchers, not places.
• Google still shows it. A page Google no longer shows at all isn't something an update fixes.

There's one card per article. Its title names the search that lost the most clicks: Win back the clicks for “…”.

What the card shows

• The article's clicks a month as a line falling from its best months to Now, with the numbers then and now, and its Position then and now. Hover over Search Console to see the months they're from.
• Estimated gain: winning back half to all of what it lost, measured against the same months a year earlier when it can compare with them, otherwise against its best months. The line under the number says which. It's an estimate, not a promise.
• How sure CitedSEO is, as Medium or Low confidence. It's surest when the article is down on a year earlier and has slipped places too.

What happens when you approve it

Approve lets CitedSEO make the change, check it and publish it on its day: "Approving lets me make this change, check it and publish it on its day. You can undo it." On that day it:

1. Updates the article, changing only the sections the steps under What we'll change name. Every other section stays word for word.
2. Checks the updated article, including that it does each step of the plan, before anything goes live.
3. Publishes the update at the next daily slot, at the same address.

The update is one change, so you can undo it from Opportunities › Shipped and the article goes back to the version before. With Page updates on in Autopilot, content decay cards are scheduled without waiting for your OK.

Note: CitedSEO only updates articles it wrote. A page of your own that's losing clicks is never raised, and no page is redirected or moved.

On the Google page

Pages moving up on the Google page lists your pages whose clicks rose. A page that's losing clicks shows there only once its fix is scheduled, with its clicks a month from its best to now and Fix queued: with the card's title, which opens the card.

Related

• How the opportunity queue works
• Lift articles ranking just off page one
• Read the Google page, and why its numbers lag
• Connect Search Console
• Undo something that went live