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Plan content refreshes for pages with falling clicks

Use a Search Console export comparing the last 3 months to the prior 3 months to rank pages with falling clicks and plan a fix for each.

Who it suits

Freelance SEO, small business owner, small agency owner

Time saved

About 2 hours per site review (estimate)

Level

Medium

Updated

Oct 13, 2026

Why this task

Clicks often slide on older pages for months before anyone notices. When someone does, the usual fix is to change the date and add a paragraph. A comparison export shows which pages dropped, by how much, and on which queries. An agent can sort that into a ranked plan with a specific fix per page.

You are helping me plan content refreshes for [SITE NAME], a [BUSINESS TYPE] in [LOCATION OR MARKET].

Input 1, a Google Search Console export comparing [DATE RANGE A] with [DATE RANGE B], by page. Columns: [COLUMN NAMES].
[PASTE PAGE ROWS]

Input 2, top queries for the falling pages. Columns: page, query, then clicks, impressions and position for each period:
[PASTE QUERY ROWS]

Input 3, known events in the period:
[PASTE NOTES, e.g. site changes, seasonality, tracking issues, or NONE]

Tasks:
1. Rank the pages by click drop. Show clicks, impressions and average position for both periods, plus the change.
2. For each of the top [NUMBER] pages, describe the pattern using the data only. Options: impressions down, position down, click-through rate (CTR) down with steady position, or one query causing most of the drop.
3. Suggest the most likely cause and mark it as a hypothesis. Options: lower demand or seasonality, ranking drop, results page change, intent mismatch, outdated content, overlap with another of my pages, or unclear.
4. Recommend one refresh action per page and list what I should check by hand first.
5. Mark pages where the drop is small or within normal variation as MONITOR.

Rules:
- Use only my numbers. Do not invent traffic, rankings or competitor data.
- Do not recommend changing a page's date unless its content changes substantially.
- Say UNSURE when the data cannot separate two causes.

Output a table with columns: page, clicks change, pattern, likely cause, action, manual checks, priority. Then a short list of MONITOR pages.

Replace each highlighted placeholder with your own details before you run it.

Steps

1. In Google Search Console, open the Performance report for search results and compare the last 3 months with the previous 3 months.
2. Export the Pages table and the Queries table. If you can, also filter by each top falling page and export its queries.
3. Add columns for click change, impression change and position change. Sort pages by the largest absolute drop in clicks.
4. Note any known events in the period: site changes, migrations, seasonality, tracking issues or new competitors. Seasonal pages need a year over year check as well.
5. Paste the top 20 falling pages, their main queries and your event notes into the prompt below.
6. Open each page the agent ranks highest. Check the live results page for its main queries and read your page as a searcher would.
7. Agree a refresh task per page: rewrite to match intent, add missing sections, update facts, merge with a similar page, or leave it.
8. Record the refresh date in your spreadsheet. Compare clicks again 2 to 3 months after each change.

What you get

A ranked table of falling pages, each with the data pattern, a labeled hypothesis for the cause and one concrete refresh action. Manual checks are listed before any work starts. Small or seasonal drops are set aside to monitor so effort goes to pages that need it.

What can go wrong, and the check for each

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