Key Takeaways
Significant CTR Improvement: Optimizing post titles led to a CTR increase ranging from 37% to 640% across various articles on tomislavhorvat.com, demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy.
Methodology: The study focused on articles whose search engine ranking positions (SERPs) remained relatively stable, ensuring that the observed CTR improvements were due to title changes rather than changes in SERP positions.
Title Optimization Techniques: The most successful updates involved making titles more concise, incorporating the current year, and adding engaging phrases like “ultimate guide” and “complete guide” to convey comprehensive content coverage.
Content Updates: Alongside title changes, content within the articles was updated to ensure accuracy and relevance, supporting the credibility of the new titles.
Independent Effort: The title optimization was conducted manually without AI assistance, highlighting a personal skill test in effective SEO practices.
I dedicated January of this year (2024) to updating the existing content on my website (tomislavhorvat.com), which included optimizing titles of all the published articles.
The results of the title optimization effort were amazing.
In this SEO case study, I will showcase 10 articles that saw a CTR boost by anywhere from 37% to 640%.
State of Traffic from Google on the Website for the Last 16 Months
Here’s a chart of the traffic my site received in the last 16 months.
I’m showing this chart so you can see that the traffic basically flat lined in the 12 months prior to the title optimization (Jan 20th 2023 to Jan 20th 2024) and it jumped up significantly in the three months after (Jan 20th to Apr 20th 2024).
This means the site started receiving significantly more traffic.
Could this be simply because of a rise in rankings or more content published on the site? Well, no.
At least not for the 10 articles I’m going to feature in this case study.
Read the next section to find out why I chose these 10 articles and why I think they’re the best candidates for this case study.
Case Study Methodology
For a fair comparison in this case study, I only considered articles that maintained their positions roughly the same for the last three months year over year.
This is crucial because comparing the CTR of an article that significantly moved up or down in the SERPs isn’t fair, as SERP position alone greatly impacts CTR.
For instance, if an article moved from position 8 to position 2, its CTR would see a significant boost, regardless of any title change.
This is why articles that held their position about the same in the SERPs are the ideal candidates for this case study.
Case Study Results
Article #1: https://tomislavhorvat.com/how-to-write-a-real-estate-mission-statement/
Old title: How to Write a Real Estate Mission Statement (Examples Included)
New title: Real Estate Mission Statements in 2024: Ultimate Guide
Average SERP position: dropped from 9.4 to 10.4
CTR change: increased from 1.5% to 4.8% – increase of 220%
Article #2: https://tomislavhorvat.com/linkedin-document-posts-best-practices-included/
Old title: LinkedIn Document Posts: Best Practices Included
New title: LinkedIn Document Posts in 2024: Best Practices Included
Average SERP position: dropped from 21.9 to 22.7
CTR change: increased from 2.7% to 3.7% – increase of 37%
Article #3: https://tomislavhorvat.com/17-amazing-instagram-reels-statistics-what-marketers-need-to-know/
Old title: 17 Amazing Instagram Reels Statistics: What Marketers Need to Know
New title: 17+ Amazing Instagram Reels Statistics (Updated for 2024)
Average SERP position: increased from 16.8 to 14.7
CTR change: increased from 0.4% to 1.3% – increase of 225%
Article #4: https://tomislavhorvat.com/hospital-mission-statement/
Old title: How to Create a Trustworthy Hospital Mission Statement
New title: Hospital Mission Statements in 2024: Complete Guide
Average SERP position: increased from 19.1 to 17
CTR change: increased from 0.5% to 1.9% – increase of 280%
Article #5: https://tomislavhorvat.com/linkedin-newsletter-for-company-page-is-it-a-waste-of-time/
Old title: LinkedIn Newsletter for Company Page: Is It a Waste of Time?
New title: LinkedIn Newsletter for Company Page in 2024: Is It a Waste of Time?
Average SERP position: increased from 36.8 to 35.7
CTR change: increased from 1.9% to 2.8% – increase of 47%
Article #6: 14 Pros and Cons of Content Marketing in 2024
Old title: 14 Pros and Cons of Content Marketing in 2022
New title: 14 Pros and Cons of Content Marketing in 2024
Average SERP position: increased from 30.3 to 29.2
CTR change: increased from 0.6% to 1.7% – increase of 183%
Article #7: 7 Common Examples of Expectations vs Reality in Content Marketing
Old title: 7 Examples of Content Marketing Expectations vs Reality
New title: 7 Common Examples of Expectations vs Reality in Content Marketing
Average SERP position: dropped from 12.8 to 13.8
CTR change: increased from 0.5% to 3.3% – increase of 560%
Article #8: Average Number of Images Per Blog Post in 2024
Old title: Average Number of Images Per Post Across 7 Popular Blog Post Types in 2022
New title: Average Number of Images Per Blog Post in 2024
Average SERP position: increased from 23.8 to 19.6
CTR change: increased from 0.5% to 3.7% – increase of 640%
Article #9: 10 Quality Gardening Affiliate Programs for 2024
Old title: 10 High Quality Gardening Affiliate Programs That Convert
New title: 10 Quality Gardening Affiliate Programs for 2024
Average SERP position: increased from 33.2 to 29.9
CTR change: increased from 0.8% to 1.4% – increase of 75%
Article #10: Creating a Daycare Mission Statement in 2024: Complete Guide
Old title: How to Write an Excellent Daycare Mission Statement [Examples Included]
New title: Creating a Daycare Mission Statement in 2024: Complete Guide
Average SERP position: dropped from 7.7 to 12.1
CTR change: increased from 1.5% to 2.4% – increase of 60%
How I Optimized Post Titles for CTR
My goal was to create more concise post titles that felt fresh and promised the reader they’ll find everything they need on the topic should they click through to my site.
This was accomplished by:
- Cutting out unnecessary words
- Adding the current year and phrases like “updated for“
- Adding phrases like “ultimate guide” and “complete guide“
It’s important to note that alongside new titles, I also updated and refreshed the content of the articles so I was able to back up the claims from the titles.
The articles were indeed fresh and updated with the latest information and insights.
I wouldn’t recommend adding the current year in titles if you haven’t made sure the information in the article is indeed up-to-date.
It’s important to note that I did not use AI for title optimization even though AI is amazing for this use case.
I simply wanted to test my own skills, for better or worse.