The SEO community is in a frenzy over recent data suggesting that ChatGPT has abruptly stopped citing Reddit in its answers nearly as often. For CMOs who have put time into cracking Reddit, the trend might not be as dire as it sounds.
AI visibility firm Promptwatch kicked off the debate last week by publishing data showing that Reddit’s share of ChatGPT citations plunged by 86% in mid-August. Three other AI visibility firms told me they witnessed similar drops.
The shift became a hot topic in the marketing world because it comes as more brands are investing in paid and organic Reddit strategies — some with an eye on boosting their visibility on AI platforms.
The headline number doesn’t tell the whole story, however.
AI SEO researcher Suganthan Mohanadasan, who runs the AI SEO agency Snippet Digital, examined the behind-the-scenes web requests ChatGPT makes when researching an answer.
He found ChatGPT was still regularly consulting Reddit when formulating answers — it was simply citing it less often in the final response users see. Per his findings, brand websites were credited more often. Hooray for inbound website traffic!
Still, Tim de Rosen, CEO of AIVO, a startup that measures brand performance across AI platforms, said the sudden drop should be a “wake-up call for CMOs.”
“If your AI visibility strategy is built on chasing citations from any single source, you’re exposed to exactly this kind of collapse,” de Rosen told me.
Duolingo CMO Manu Orssaud told me the company’s Reddit strategy focuses on what users are talking about, where they need help, and what they’re saying about his brand. He said Duolingo, which this year staffed its first team dedicated to Reddit, isn’t actively tracking Reddit’s visibility in ChatGPT.
“We don’t change our strategy every time an algorithm changes,” Orssaud said.
There are often swings in the data when an AI company releases a new model, or Google makes a core update to its search algorithm. Reddit’s share of ChatGPT citations also dipped last September, but later recovered.
Reddit’s sudden drop in citations is a reminder of how quickly the ground can shift in the constantly moving generative engine optimization dance. And the pace of new model releases shows no sign of slowing.
“As marketing professionals, it’s our responsibility to stay informed, remain agile, and adapt our strategies as technologies, consumer behaviors, and discovery platforms continue to change,” Kyle Lock, VP of marketing at Butterball, told me.
OpenAI said it regularly updates ChatGPT to improve its relevance and usefulness. The company added that it doesn’t target or set a fixed level of visibility for individual websites, and that Reddit continues to be cited in ChatGPT.
A Reddit spokesperson said while LLMs constantly change how they cite web content, what remains consistent is the unique value of Reddit’s data: 130 million real people having authentic conversations. For CMOs, it’s essentially a massive marketing focus group.
Trying to game Reddit was a risky marketing strategy long before LLMs entered the scene. Communities like r/HailCorporate have spent more than a decade calling out brands suspected of surreptitious shilling.
“If you’ve been abusing Reddit as a platform to promote yourself, a drop in citations may make it appear less enticing,” Glen Allsopp, head of marketing strategy and research at the AI marketing platform Ahrefs, told me. “Nothing should really change for those who view it as a place to legitimately interact with their audience.”
