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

[mike_donovan]

Been messing around with a few affiliate sites this week and noticed something odd.

One of my pages that usually sits around positions 3-5 for a decent keyword is still ranking in the same spot, but the CTR dropped hard. No big title change on my end, no major layout changes either. Another page in the same niche actually picked up clicks even though the rank barely moved.

I’m starting to think this update is shifting how snippets are being shown, or maybe Google is testing different SERP layouts more aggressively. Either way, it’s making some of my usual “safe” pages a lot less predictable.

A couple quick things I tested:
– rewrote titles to be more specific and less “SEO-ish”
– trimmed some fluff from meta descriptions
– added a more direct affiliate angle on a few money pages
– compared old vs AI-assisted title ideas using a simple CTR test

So far, the cleaner, more natural titles seem to do better than the keyword-stuffed ones. Nothing crazy, just enough to make me think CTR optimization matters more than ever right now.

Curious if anyone else is seeing the same thing:
– rankings holding steady but clicks dropping?
– any title/meta tweaks that actually moved CTR?
– are you using AI tools for snippet testing or just doing it manually?

Would be good to compare notes because this stuff feels way less stable than it did a few months ago.

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