Lift articles ranking just off page one

A Striking distance card means one of the articles CitedSEO wrote for you ranks 8th to 20th in Google for a search: just off page one, or low on it, where few people click. Google already sees the article as relevant, so CitedSEO suggests an update aimed at lifting it up page one. When you approve the card, it updates the article and leaves its address as it is.

What it waits for

Striking distance 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 28 days, so the numbers are that version's own and a new page has had time to settle.

How it's found

Each day CitedSEO looks at the last 28 days of Search Console for each of its articles, at every search where the article's average place is 8th to 20th. A search is left out when:

• It was seen fewer than 10 times in the 28 days, too few for its place to mean much.
• It's a search for a brand or a particular site.
• Another page of your site ranks higher for it. That page leads for the search, and two of your articles competing is a different card.
• The article already gets as many clicks for it as the higher place would bring.

There's one card per article, however many of its searches are near page one, led by the most searched one. Its title says Move “…” onto page one when it ranks 11th or lower, or Move “…” up page one from 8th to 10th.

What the card shows

• Where the article ranks now and the place the update aims for, on a strip of Google's first two pages, marked Now and Goal.
• Searches a month for the lead search, and Clicks you get now. Hover over Search Console to see the 28 days they're from; Search Console runs about two days behind.
• Estimated gain: the clicks a month the update could add, with what it assumes underneath ("If it reaches 5th to 8th, fewer under an AI answer"). If more of the article's searches are near page one, the basis says so, and the range counts them all.
• How sure CitedSEO is, as High, Medium or Low confidence.

How the clicks range is worked out

How high an update can expect to lift the article depends on where it is now:

For each search, CitedSEO takes its searches a month and how often people click each place on page one: the low end assumes an AI answer sits above the article at the lower place, and the high end assumes none at the higher place. It takes away the clicks the article already gets, and adds up its searches. It's an estimate, not a promise, and these starting values are CitedSEO's own until it has measured how its updates do.

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, striking distance cards are scheduled without waiting for your OK.

Note: CitedSEO only updates articles it wrote. A page of your own ranking just off page one is never raised, and no page is redirected or moved.

On the Google page

Where you rank on the Google page counts the searches you show up for on each page of Google. When some are on page two, it says how many and links to your striking distance cards: "The closest are already in your opportunities."

Related

• How the opportunity queue works
• Win back clicks an article has lost
• Read the Google page, and why its numbers lag
• Connect Search Console
• Undo something that went live