I rewrote one menu page title to match what people actually search for
The new title raised the click rate by about half. Clicks held while impressions kept falling.
Click rate, or CTR, is the share of people who click your result after seeing it. If 100 people see it and 2 click, the click rate is 2 percent.
Why it matters
The title is the first thing people read in the results. If it does not match what they searched for, they skip it, even when the page has exactly what they want.
I changed only the title and description, so that any change could be traced back to them. In practice, the page was shown far less often in the same weeks, for reasons a title cannot explain. That is why this result is mixed rather than a clean win.
How to check your own site
- In Search Console, open Performance, click a page, then open the Queries tab.
- Compare the top searches with the words in your title.
At a glance
| Status | Done |
|---|---|
| Hypothesis | A title that names what people search for, such as prices, lunch and catering, will raise the click rate without changing the page. |
| Started | 2026-08-29 |
| Measured by | Search Console click rate on the menu page, 28 days before and after |
| Result | 28 days before the change (1 to 28 August 2026): 3,843 impressions, 33 clicks, 0.86 percent, position 10.6. 7 September to 4 October 2026: 2,517 impressions, 32 clicks, 1.27 percent, position 9.4. |
A higher click rate is not a win if fewer people see the page. I now report clicks, impressions and position together, and I avoid testing a title while other changes are going live on the same site.
- A hub page that named the same towns as its own sub-pages was competing with themToo early to tell16 Oct 2026
- The homepage title named a neighbouring town, not the town where the restaurant isToo early to tell13 Oct 2026