What they did
SearchPilot added the current month and year, such as 'in January 2020', to the title tags of listings pages on a client in a seasonal industry. They ran it as a controlled split test, comparing the dated variant titles against dateless control titles.
What they found
The test was a conclusive positive result, with the dated variant beating the control by 5% in organic sessions. Follow-up tests in other months confirmed the benefit held regardless of timing, while separate tests that replaced the date with price or extra keywords went negative.
How much weight to give it
The controlled design means the 5% is a measured effect for this site, and repeat tests across other months add confidence that it was not a one-off. It supports using a visible freshness signal in titles where recency matters to searchers.
What it doesn't prove
It is a single seasonal-industry site where a current date plausibly nudges the click. The 5% should not be treated as a universal number, and the negative price and keyword variants show the same title slot can just as easily lose traffic.