Changing a title that already ranks is a real gamble, because the edit makes Google re-crawl and re-evaluate the page, and that re-evaluation can move the page down as easily as up. The most common outcome is a stretch of volatility while the new signal settles. Sometimes the page recovers or climbs; sometimes it drops and stays down. The single sharpest risk is removing the exact keyword the page is currently winning on, which can erase that ranking within days.
So weigh what you already have against what an edit might add. A page pulling strong rankings and steady clicks is earning right now, and a cosmetic or branding tweak to it is almost pure downside: you put real performance at risk for no clear gain. The math flips only when the current title is genuinely underperforming, a low click-through rate, a missing keyword, a mismatch with what searchers actually want, because then the potential upside is large enough to justify the gamble. The test is not “could this title be nicer” but “is this title costing me something I can measure.”
Treat the post-edit wobble as a likely pattern, not a certainty. A strong, authoritative site tends to absorb the change more gently, while a newer or thinner one can swing harder. Either way, do not flip-flop: changing the title again a few days later because you do not see movement yet just restarts the re-evaluation clock and stretches the instability.
Before you rewrite a title that ranks, write down what it is already earning and what the change is supposed to gain, and only proceed if the second clearly outweighs the first. Make the call with eyes open, on evidence that the current title is weak, not on a “just test it” reflex that ignores everything the page is already bringing in.