Some of the searches that bring the website the most clicks have slipped down Google’s results and now bring in fewer clicks. Lower positions cost clicks quickly, because most people click one of the first few results.
What it means
The website still shows for these searches, but further down. Usually a competitor’s page now answers them better, Google re-ranked results in an update, or something changed on your own page.
What triggers it
SaaSMaestro takes the website’s top 100 searches in Search Console for the current period (the workspace’s comparison period, 28 days by default) and compares each with the same number of days before. A search is flagged when it brought at least 20 clicks before, its average position fell by three places or more, and it lost at least 30% of its clicks.
It’s Medium severity. The title gives how many searches lost ground, and the details name the one that lost the most clicks, with its old and new positions.
Like the other checks on Google data, it’s paused while the website’s Google connection is broken or stale, or while GA4 tracking looks broken.
Common causes
- A competitor published or improved a page for the search.
- A Google core update or another broad ranking update.
- The ranking page changed: its title, content or address was edited, or it was merged or redirected.
- Another page of your website started competing for the same search. See Tip: merge competing pages.
How to fix it
- Search for the term yourself and compare your page with the results now above it: what do they cover, answer or show that yours doesn’t?
- Check what changed on your page around the time it slipped. If an edit made it worse, consider restoring what worked.
- Improve the page for what searchers want and strengthen internal links to it from related pages.
- Add a timeline note when you make a change, so you can see its effect on the charts. See Timeline notes.
When it clears
SaaSMaestro re-checks every time it analyses the workspace, using data synced from Google every six hours, and the issue clears as soon as the problem is no longer found.
Because it compares two periods, it can also clear once the numbers settle at a lower level, since the period before then looks the same. Check the trend chart before treating that as a recovery.
An action that stays clear for 7 days drops off the plan. If you marked it done but the problem is still found 14 days later, it returns as “Fix didn’t work”. See Using the action plan.