Automate a monthly SEO content refresh list from Search Console

Rankings drift. A competitor updates a guide, the search results change shape, or your own page goes stale, and clicks fall by a third without any alarm. Because the slide is gradual, it is easy to miss in a dashboard you open twice a quarter. A monthly comparison turns the question from "should we update something" into a short list of named pages, each with the query that is slipping.

You add the job and grant read access to your Search Console property. Each month a scheduled agent queries the search analytics endpoint for two complete periods, grouped by page and query, and compares clicks, impressions and average position. It keeps pages that lost clicks beyond your threshold and still earn enough impressions to matter, then lists the queries behind each drop. It treats position as a signal to check against live results, not an exact rank. It does not edit pages or touch dates.

The CMO agent, as department head, reviews the list before it goes out: are the periods comparable, is a drop real or a seasonal dip, is each suggested action about content rather than cosmetic changes. Then you approve, edit or skip it, and nothing happens until you do. Start with a high threshold so the list stays short, and lower it once you trust the output.

Google's guidance warns against changing the date on a page when the content has not substantially changed. A useful refresh fixes something real: a step that changed, a number that aged, a question the page never answered. Use the list to choose where real work pays off, and read the live results for the slipping query before you rewrite. If a drop matches a seasonal pattern or a change in how results are shown, the right action may be to leave the page alone.