Anyone else seeing weird CTR swings after the latest Google update?

[mike_donovan]

Hey folks,

Been noticing some odd stuff on a couple of my affiliate sites over the last 2 weeks. Rankings are mostly holding, but CTR is bouncing around way more than usual. One page dropped from position 4-5 to around 6-7, but the click rate fell way harder than I expected. Another page actually moved up a bit and still lost clicks.

I’m running a pretty simple setup:
– mostly informational content with affiliate links mixed in
– a few comparison pages
– AI-assisted drafts, then edited by hand
– basic title/meta testing
– nothing fancy on schema besides the usual stuff

What I’ve tried so far:
– rewrote titles to be more specific and less “SEO-ish”
– tightened intros so the page matches the query faster
– swapped a couple of meta descriptions
– checked SERP snippets against competitors

Results are mixed. One page got a small bump, but nothing dramatic yet.

Feels like Google is testing different layouts or just showing more junk above the fold on some queries. Hard to tell. I’m mostly trying to keep things practical and not overthink it.

Anyone else seeing the same thing?
Curious if you’ve had better luck with:
– shorter titles
– more direct commercial intent
– adding FAQ sections
– changing affiliate placement
– using AI content at scale vs. hand-edited stuff

Would love to hear what’s actually working right now, especially for affiliate sites.

[Author]

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