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

[mike_donovan]

Hey folks,

Wanted to see if I’m the only one dealing with this.

I’ve got a couple of affiliate sites that were holding pretty steady for months, then after the latest Google update I started seeing some weird CTR swings. A few pages kept their rankings, but clicks dropped anyway. In Search Console the impressions are still there, so it feels more like snippet/intent mismatch than a pure ranking issue.

What I’ve tested so far:
– tweaking title tags to be less “SEO-ish” and more direct
– rewriting meta descriptions on top money pages
– adding more comparison-style sections for commercial intent
– changing a few H2s to better match the query wording

Results are mixed. One page bounced back a bit after I made the title more specific, but another one barely moved. Pretty annoying because the content itself hasn’t really changed much.

I’m also wondering if AI content is getting hit harder on the click side even when it ranks okay. I’ve got a few pages built with AI + heavy editing, and they seem more sensitive to small snippet changes than my older hand-written stuff.

For monetization, I’m testing a couple of different affiliate funnel setups too:
– direct “best X” pages
– softer informational pages pushing to a comparison table
– internal links from informational posts into higher-converting pages

The comparison table pages are still doing the best for revenue, but only when the CTR is decent. If the snippet doesn’t pull clicks, the whole thing falls flat.

Curious what everyone else is seeing:
– any CTR drops without ranking drops?
– are you changing titles/descriptions or just leaving them alone?
– anyone found a simple fix that actually sticks?

Would be good to compare notes. I’m trying to keep this stuff practical and not overthink it.

[Author]

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