The short answer: in Search Console, open the Performance report, show impressions and average CTR, and look at the Pages tab. A page with lots of impressions but a low click rate is your quickest win. Rewrite its title and description.
This is episode 8 of SEO in 60 seconds, our series of one fix per episode for small business websites. The full series sits in our on page SEO basics overview.
What do the numbers mean?
- Impressions: how often your site appeared in Google results.
- Clicks: how often someone clicked through to your site.
- Average CTR: clicks divided by impressions.
- Average position: roughly where you appeared in the results.
How do you run the 5 minute check?
- Open Search Console and pick your site.
- Go to Performance, then Search results.
- Above the chart, tick Total impressions and Average CTR.
- Below the chart, open the Pages tab.
- Click the Impressions column to sort highest first.
- Look for pages with high impressions but a low CTR compared with your other pages.
- Rewrite that page’s title (episode 1) and meta description (episode 4).
What counts as a low click rate?
Compare like with like. A page in position 8 will always get fewer clicks than a page in position 2. Look for pages that sit near the top but still get fewer clicks than their neighbours.
How do you know if it worked?
Note the date you made the change. A few weeks later, compare the same page in Search Console with the same length of time before the change.
What are the common mistakes?
- Rewriting pages that already do well. Start with the gap, not the winners.
- Judging after a few days. Google can take days to weeks to show a new title.
- Comparing with a holiday period when searches were different anyway.
Read the transcript
“Let’s find the page Google shows but nobody clicks. Open Search Console, Performance, then Search results. Tick impressions and average CTR. Open the Pages tab. Sort by impressions, highest first. High impressions, but a low click rate? That’s your page. Rewrite its title and description. Episodes 1 and 4 show you how. And something new for small businesses is coming soon. Follow so you don’t miss it.”
Want a hand?
Something new for small businesses is coming soon. Follow us on Instagram so you don’t miss it. And from 3 November, SEM in 60 seconds starts: one Google Ads fix per episode.
Rather we did it for you? Book a free 20 minute call.
Sources
- Performance report (Search results), Search Console Help. Checked 27 October 2026.
- Control your snippets in search results, Google Search Central. Checked 27 October 2026.
- Influencing title links in Google Search, Google Search Central. Checked 27 October 2026.
Previous episode: readable URLs. Back to the series overview.