Find queries that fell off page one

Position 10 to position 11 is the most expensive single-place move in search: page two receives almost nothing. A query that just slipped over that line is usually recoverable with a modest update, while one that collapsed to position 40 usually is not. This playbook finds both and tells them apart.

Steps

1. Pull both windows. Two calls to google_search_console.query with dimensions: ["query", "page"] and rowLimit: 5000: the last 28 days ending 3 days ago, and the 28 days before that.

2. Join and filter. Join on query and page. Keep rows where the prior position was 10 or better and the recent position is worse than 10, and where the prior window had at least 50 impressions (state the floor). Sort by prior clicks descending so the list leads with what was actually earning traffic.

3. Separate the slips from the collapses. Recent position 10.5 to 14: a slip, the cheap-to-recover group. Recent position above 20: a collapse, usually a different problem (the page changed, was overtaken, or the query's results page was restructured). Report them as two groups.

4. Check whether the page is still the page. For each row, look in the recent window for the same query served by a different URL on the site. If one is, the site's own second page has taken over and this is cannibalization; continue with keyword-cannibalization-check. If the page received no impressions at all in the recent window, check with your browsing that it still returns 200 and is not noindexed; continue with technical-crawl-audit if it is not.

5. Report. Two tables (slips, collapses): query, page, prior position, recent position, prior clicks, prior impressions, and a one-word diagnosis (slipped, overtaken, cannibalised, technical). Recommend work only for the slips and the cannibalised rows; say what to verify for the collapses.

Gotchas

• Position is an average. A row moving from 9.6 to 10.4 may be the same rankings with a slightly different mix of impressions. Treat moves under one position as noise unless clicks fell too.
• The floor decides the list. Fifty impressions is a starting point; on a large site raise it or the list will be hundreds of rows of long tail.
• A month is short. Rankings fluctuate. If the user wants confidence rather than an early warning, compare 90-day windows instead.
• Brand queries do not belong here. Strip them; a brand query falling off page one is a different kind of emergency.
• Search Console lags 2 to 3 days. End the recent window 3 days back.