Mark Williams-CookDirector, Candour · SEO and AI expert

Google exploit reveals click through models are made (and I have to apologise on stage) #seo #google

16 May 2026 · 0 min

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0:28

Google uses click-through rate data to train ranking models, and changing your page title can shift how likely users are to click. The speaker once dismissed this idea as nonsense on LinkedIn, then had to half-apologize when it turned out to be true.

which is what I was talking about earlier, which is Google uses click-through rate to build a prediction model. They've been doing this for years. Actually, I owe half an apology for Kez, who brought this up to me once on LinkedIn. I was like, nah, that's bullshit, mate. Turns out it wasn't. It appears that Google does factor in how likely it thinks someone is going to be to click on your result. This would change if we modified the page title.

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