--- name: google-search-console-low-ctr-pages description: "Twice a month: pages with many impressions and a CTR well below what their position earns on your site, each with a new title drafted from its top queries. Use when the user asks for this, or when it runs on a schedule." --- # Search Console low CTR pages Twice a month: pages with many impressions and a CTR well below what their position earns on your site, each with a new title drafted from its top queries. A page ranking third with a 3% click-through rate is telling you something: people see it and choose another result. Usually the title answers a different question than the one searched, or a year in it has gone stale. Nothing has to rank higher to fix it, which makes it one of the faster wins in search. The agent compares every page's CTR with what pages at the same position get on your own site, flags the ones far below, and drafts a new title and description from the queries the page actually ranks for. You review the wording; the agent does the digging. ## Two ways to get the data Use the API or MCP route when you have an MCP server, a CLI or an API token for the app. Otherwise, if you can drive a browser the user is signed in to (Claude in Chrome, a Playwright or Chrome DevTools MCP server), use the browser route. Say which one you used. ## Route A: API or MCP server ### What you need - Read access to the Search Console property; the agent never changes the site itself. - Search Console API credentials (`webmasters.readonly`) or a Search Console MCP server or connector, plus plain web access to fetch each page's current title. If something is missing, say what and stop; do not invent numbers. ### Steps 1. **Pull pages with their position** (Google Search Console): Call `searchanalytics.query` with `dimensions: ["page"]` for the 28 days ending 2 days ago, `type: "web"` and `rowLimit: 5000`, keeping clicks, impressions, CTR and position. 2. **Build your own CTR curve**: Bucket pages by rounded position (1-2, 3-4, 5-7, 8-10) and take the median CTR of each bucket. Published CTR curves vary too much; your site's own numbers, with your brand and your result types, are the fair benchmark. 3. **Flag the underperformers**: Keep pages with at least 2,000 impressions and a CTR below half their bucket's median. Skip pages whose top query is branded. 4. **Read what each page ranks for** (Google Search Console): For each flagged page, query `dimensions: ["query"]` with a `dimensionFilterGroups` filter `page equals `, then fetch the live page for its current `` and meta description. 5. **Draft new titles**: Write a title under 60 characters and a description under 155 that lead with the top query's wording and say what the page offers (a free template, a calculator, a list). Show old and new side by side. ## Route B: the browser ### What you need - Signed in to Google with at least Restricted access to the Search Console property, and the same Google account able to create a Google Sheet for the export. If something is missing, say what and stop; do not invent numbers. ### Steps Start at https://search.google.com/search-console/performance/search-analytics. The user is signed in already; never type passwords or codes, and ask if a sign-in page appears. 1. **Open the Pages tab for 28 days**: Pick the property, open Performance > Search results, set the Date filter to `Last 28 days` and Search type `Web`, turn on all four metrics and switch to the Pages tab. 2. **Export the pages with their position**: Use the filter icon above the table to keep `Impressions` greater than `2000`, then Export > Google Sheets. In the sheet, bucket pages by rounded position (1-2, 3-4, 5-7, 8-10) and take the median CTR of each bucket. 3. **Flag the underperformers**: Keep pages whose CTR is below half their bucket's median. Back in the report, click each flagged page (this adds a Page filter) and open the Queries tab; skip pages whose top query is your brand. 4. **Read the current title**: Open each flagged page in a new tab and read its `<title>` and meta description from the page source or the browser tab. 5. **Draft replacements**: A title under 60 characters and a description under 155 that lead with the top query's wording and say what the page offers. Show old and new side by side, biggest clicks-at-stake first. Note: The export carries the UI cap of 1,000 rows, which is plenty after the 2,000-impression filter on most sites. The median per bucket is a spreadsheet step; a browser agent that cannot use Sheets can estimate it from the sorted table instead. ## The report - **Flagged pages**: impressions, position, CTR, and the CTR pages at that position usually get on your site. - **Clicks left on the table** for each page if it reached the usual CTR. - **Proposed title and description** per page, next to the current ones, built from its top queries. - Which page to rewrite first. ## Post it to Briefkin When `BRIEFKIN_TOKEN` is set, or `~/.config/briefkin/env` exists (the installer from https://briefkin.dev/docs writes it), also send the result to the user's Briefkin board as one card. Keep the `item_key` the same on every run so the card updates in place, use a new `event_id` per run, and put today's real numbers in place of the example ones. If the request fails, say so once and carry on. ```bash [ -n "${BRIEFKIN_TOKEN:-}" ] || . ~/.config/briefkin/env curl -sS -X POST "${BRIEFKIN_URL:-https://briefkin.dev}/v1/events" \ -H "authorization: Bearer $BRIEFKIN_TOKEN" \ -H "content-type: application/json" \ -d @- <<'JSON' { "v": 1, "event_id": "google-search-console-low-ctr-pages/<date of this run, e.g. 2026-10-16>", "item_key": "google-search-console-low-ctr-pages", "project": "example.com", "source": "Search Console low CTR pages skill", "kind": "update", "title": "4 pages rank well and get skipped", "summary": "Four pages earn under half the CTR their position usually gets on this site. A better title on **/templates/invoice-pdf** alone is worth about 1,260 clicks every 28 days.", "widget": [ { "type": "Table", "props": { "columns": [ "Page", "Impressions", "Position", "CTR", "Usual CTR" ], "align": [ "left", "right", "right", "right", "right" ], "rows": [ [ "/templates/invoice-pdf", 21400, 3.4, "3.9%", "9.8%" ], [ "/blog/net-30-payment-terms", 14900, 4.1, "2.7%", "9.8%" ], [ "/guides/late-payment-fees", 9600, 6.3, "1.4%", "4.6%" ], [ "/templates/estimate", 7300, 2.3, "7.8%", "21.5%" ] ] } }, { "type": "Table", "props": { "columns": [ "Page", "Current title", "Proposed title" ], "rows": [ [ "/templates/invoice-pdf", "Invoice Templates | Example", "Free Invoice PDF Template: Fill In, Download, Send" ], [ "/blog/net-30-payment-terms", "What You Need to Know About Payment Terms", "Net 30 Payment Terms: What They Mean, With Examples" ] ] } } ] } JSON ``` Widgets come from the Briefkin catalog (https://briefkin.dev/v1/catalog). Without a token, just give the user the report. ## Run it on a schedule Suggested: 1st and 15th at 9:00 (`0 9 1,15 * *`). From cron, with the agent signed in on that machine: ```bash 0 9 1,15 * * claude -p "Run the google-search-console-low-ctr-pages skill" # Codex: codex exec, Gemini CLI: gemini -p, Copilot CLI: copilot -p, OpenCode: opencode run ``` Or use the agent's own scheduler (Claude Code routines, Codex automations, Claude or ChatGPT scheduled tasks): https://briefkin.dev/skills/google-search-console-low-ctr-pages#schedule Source: https://briefkin.dev/skills/google-search-console-low-ctr-pages