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

[mike_donovan]

Been noticing some odd stuff this week and wanted to see if it’s just me.

A couple of my affiliate pages held rankings pretty well, but CTR dropped hard on a few keywords even though positions barely moved. On one site I’m down about 18% clicks from the same average position, which is annoying because the pages are still sitting in the same spots.

What I’ve tested so far:
– rewrote titles to be less “SEO-ish”
– added a few comparison-style snippets in the intro
– swapped some meta descriptions to match intent better
– used AI to generate a few title variations, then picked the most natural ones

The weird part is that one page actually improved after I made the title more specific and less clickbaity. So I’m starting to think some of these old-school affiliate title formulas are just getting stale.

Also seeing mixed results with AI content lately. For informational posts it’s still fine if I edit it properly, but for money pages I’m leaning more toward writing the key sections myself and using AI just for outlines and FAQ ideas.

Curious if anyone else is seeing:
– CTR drops without ranking drops
– affiliate pages getting hit harder than info content
– title rewrites helping more than content tweaks

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

[Author]

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