Over the previous few years, I’ve watched AI content material creation instruments quickly achieve adoption throughout the Web optimization/GEO business. These instruments supply the promise of leveraging AI to automate content material creation, scale back headcount, minimize prices, and scale output.
As somebody who has spent the final decade serving to corporations get better from Google algorithm updates, my spidey senses began tingling the minute I heard the pitches for a lot of of those instruments. Even earlier than AI was a part of the dialog, Google already had a lengthy historical past of lowering the visibility of automated content material in its search outcomes.
Regardless of current developments within the high quality of AI outputs, I’ve remained skeptical that publishing AI-generated or AI-assisted content material at scale can drive sustained efficiency in Google’s search outcomes. That is very true now, given how Google up to date its rating programs in recent times particularly to demote overly optimized, Web optimization-driven content material.
Over the previous a number of months, I’ve been monitoring greater than 220 web sites that have been publicly recognized, both by themselves or by their AI content material distributors, as prospects of varied AI content material creation, automation, and scaling platforms. These instruments absolutely write articles, help with writing them, or use AI automations and workflows to assist content material creation. Many of those instruments additionally now give attention to driving visibility, mentions, and citations in AI search responses (AEO/GEO).
I needed to research what occurs after the claims of huge wins.
A constant sample emerged throughout the 220+ websites I’ve been monitoring, and I imagine it’s regarding sufficient to be value writing about: it really works, till it doesn’t.
Beneath, I’ll share among the developments I’m observing, plus quite a lot of widespread Web optimization/GEO approaches I imagine could also be inflicting declines in natural search (and consequently, AI search) visibility. As a reminder, what’s harmful for Web optimization will also be harmful for AI search, largely due to RAG.
Methodology & Disclaimers
Earlier than we dive in, it’s vital to set the stage with my strategy and supply some vital disclaimers.
This evaluation relies on third-party Web optimization measurement knowledge: natural site visitors estimates and natural web page rely time sequence knowledge from Ahrefs, corroborated towards the Sistrix Visibility Index knowledge to verify broader visibility patterns. High-traffic URLs have been recognized utilizing Ahrefs’ top-pages export. The place I describe URL patterns or proportion modifications, I’m quoting instantly from these third-party instruments as of Might 2026.
The dataset covers greater than 220 shopper domains tracked throughout the publicly revealed customer-stories pages of over a dozen AI content material platforms. For a lot of of those websites, I narrowed the evaluation to a particular subfolder the place the AI-assisted content material had been revealed, both recognized instantly within the case examine itself or inferred from a pointy enhance in new pages across the time of the case examine’s publication.
The evaluation, conclusions, and proposals all through this piece mirror my very own skilled opinions based mostly on greater than a decade of serving to corporations get better from Google algorithm updates. Different Web optimization/GEO practitioners might disagree with my findings and approaches, and particular person websites and techniques will all the time have their very own context.
3 Essential Disclaimers About This Knowledge:
First, these are third-party estimates, not first-party analytics. They’re well-validated instruments within the Web optimization business, however they don’t seem to be excellent measurements of natural search efficiency.
Second, the site visitors declines described right here might mirror many elements, together with however not restricted to algorithmic changes by Google, on-site modifications by the positioning operators themselves, off-site aggressive dynamics, model modifications, acquisitions, seasonality, and modifications to inner website structure. I’m not asserting that any AI content material device instantly brought about any site visitors end result described on this piece. I’m describing a correlation noticed throughout many listed websites that share comparable content material patterns and natural site visitors trajectories.
Third, distributors and particular domains are intentionally not named right here. The sample is the story, not the precise actors. Any resemblance to a selected firm, vendor, or case examine is incidental to the broader sample described.
What The Knowledge Exhibits: Speedy Development Earlier than A Steep Decline
If there’s one factor the information makes clear, it’s this: scaling content material manufacturing with AI will not be a low-risk technique for natural search. It could possibly produce actual short-term positive aspects in each Web optimization and AI search (LLMs use serps), however throughout this dataset, these positive aspects have not often held. In lots of circumstances, the eventual loss has exceeded the preliminary peak.
Throughout the group of 220+ websites and subfolders I analyzed:
- 54% misplaced 30% or extra of their peak natural site visitors.
- 39% misplaced 50% or extra.
- 22% misplaced 75% or extra.
Inside these declines, a recurring trajectory seems: a speedy progress in natural pages over six to 12 months; an natural site visitors peak inside roughly three to 6 months of the content material peak; after which a steep decline in site visitors that erases many of the achieve (and often drops beneath the prior baseline) inside the following 12 months.
Most of those site visitors drops befell after the case research have been revealed (which additionally makes me ponder whether the case research themselves could possibly be contributing to the declines). Within the instance beneath, the case examine was revealed in January 2025, indicated by the the black star beneath:
I’m additionally constantly monitoring modifications to natural web page progress and natural site visitors to those websites and subfolders over time. Wanting on the up to date knowledge, a considerable variety of these manufacturers seem to have considerably decreased their content material footprints in 2025 and 2026, typically eradicating, redirecting, or 410’ing lots of the similar pages featured as success tales in revealed case research. This might clarify the current drop in pages (yellow line) proven within the above screenshot (and probably, the corresponding enhance in natural search site visitors).
In lots of circumstances, these case research stay revealed to at the present time, however the pages they reference don’t.
The Acquainted Rank & Tank Playbook
When a website begins seeing site visitors drops as a consequence of sitewide content material high quality points, it’s not often a mild decline. As Glenn Gabe refers to it, a greater label can be “Mount AI”: steep progress, adopted by a equally formed drop-off in natural site visitors, as soon as Google’s programs have gathered sufficient alerts to establish what’s going on.
Beneath are a number of examples of case examine websites that used AI to scale content material creation and noticed huge drops in natural site visitors after their case research have been revealed:
This sample is constant throughout industries, together with cybersecurity, journey, advertising, SaaS, healthcare, B2B companies, crypto, and client items, and it reveals up throughout distributors.
The form of the road within the chart is much like trajectories we have now seen amongst many websites affected by Google’s algorithm updates in recent times. It’s the similar boom-bust cycle the Web optimization business has watched repeatedly in numerous types, accelerated this time by the pace at which AI instruments have enabled website homeowners to scale content material.
The Web optimization Trade Simply Went By means of This
What is tough to overstate is simply how not too long ago the Web optimization business watched a near-identical cycle play out. Many SEOs and website homeowners are nonetheless licking their wounds from a brutal spherical of Google updates and new spam insurance policies that obliterated many websites’ site visitors just a few years again.
In September 2023, Google launched the Useful Content material Replace, essentially the most aggressive crackdown it had carried out in years towards content material that, in response to its announcement, “feels prefer it was created for serps as an alternative of individuals.”
Roughly six months later, in March 2024, it adopted up with the longest core replace in Google’s historical past, which Google states was designed to “scale back unhelpful, unoriginal content material in search outcomes by 45%.” Throughout two consecutive replace cycles, Google’s said goal was the identical factor: content material produced at scale, no matter whether or not the manufacturing technique was human, AI, or a mix of each.
Alongside the March 2024 replace, Google formalized a brand new spam coverage known as “Scaled Content material Abuse,” explicitly naming the observe it was working to suppress: producing many pages to govern search rankings, no matter authorship.
The Web optimization business remains to be working via the collateral harm from these updates, together with vital losses for a lot of small publishers, a few of whom have been publishing authentic, human-written content material however used extreme Web optimization frameworks that the updates doubtless flagged. The casualty listing additionally included some publishers who had partnered with advert networks and different rising instruments providing AI content material creation and scaling as a service.
Many websites affected by the HCU haven’t recovered to at the present time, regardless of their huge efforts. I spent vital time in 2024 working and talking with many website homeowners making an attempt to dig themselves out of that gap.
Having spent lots of of hours analyzing and presenting about these two main updates, I can say that the content material I’m seeing revealed with many of those new AI instruments typically appears to be like and feels lots like the precise sort of content material that was wiped off the map with these 2023 and 2024 Google updates.
8 Recurring Content material Patterns That Are Dangerous For Web optimization And AI Search
So, what kinds of content material am I seeing revealed by corporations utilizing AI instruments to construct articles that I imagine are in the end dangerous for Web optimization? I imagine the reply lies in web page templates that purpose to affect Web optimization rankings, AI search responses, and/or citations in AI search, however are extremely formulaic and simply repeatable by rivals.
What begins as a real strategy to attempt to construct useful content material (and rating a point out/quotation) finally ends up being an simply detectable footprint by Google when sufficient websites are publishing comparable pages, and the index turns into flooded with tens or lots of of 1000’s of those comparable pages, which is less complicated than ever to do utilizing AI.
That is precisely what Google means when it talks about writing for serps, not people.
Reviewing top-traffic URLs throughout the declining domains, eight distinct content material templates seem repeatedly. Most websites seeing declines within the evaluation use some mixture of no less than three or 4. Probably the most aggressive ones use all eight. Usually, affected websites even have lots of or 1000’s of those articles, which amplifies the issue and usually results in steeper site visitors losses.
1. Comparability Pages At Scale
Sample: /weblog/[product-A]-vs-[product-B] revealed at scale throughout most cheap head-to-head matchups in a class. Noticed throughout the dataset for product-vs-product pairings, framework-vs-framework pairings, and, in no less than one case, concept-vs-concept pairings unrelated to the writer’s precise enterprise.
2. The “What Is X” Glossary
Single-term, single-question pages designed to be cited by AI engines. Sample: /sources/what-is-[term] or /glossary/[term]. Noticed throughout the dataset, together with programmatic glossaries scaled throughout a number of languages from a single supply template. Scaling translations with AI and with out human evaluate can even often result in sitewide content material high quality points.
3. The “Greatest [X] For [Y]” Listicle
Probably the most acquainted AI-content template, with origins within the affiliate-content period. This sample was noticed throughout the dataset in each broad-category and narrow-niche variants.
4. The Self-Promotional Listicle
A variant of No. 3 during which the writer is itself a competitor within the class being ranked, and often lists itself because the No. 1 greatest amongst rivals. These pages typically lack actual proof that the corporate genuinely examined all the rivals within the listing, which is beneficial by Google for evaluate pages.
I wrote about this “listicle” web page template inflicting Web optimization/GEO points in February 2026, when I discovered that many corporations publishing dozens, lots of, and even 1000’s of self-promotional listicles noticed excessive site visitors drops starting on the identical day (roughly Jan. 21, 2026). This sample was noticed throughout a number of websites within the dataset, most aggressively in B2B companies.
5. The Competitor-Vs-Alternate options Web page
Sample: /weblog/[competitor-brand]-alternatives, or, within the extra programmatic kind, devoted touchdown pages constructed for each named competitor in a class. This strategy was noticed extensively throughout the dataset, together with one case the place the majority of a website’s prime site visitors pages have been devoted to particular person competitor model names.
6. Programmatic Location And Language Scaling
This is without doubt one of the oldest methods within the Web optimization e book, and one which I’ve seen websites get in hassle for with algorithm updates for no less than 10 years. The strategy: Use one template multiplied throughout each geography or language a search engine will index, with little or no distinctive content material per native touchdown web page.
In lots of circumstances, the corporate publishing these pages typically doesn’t have actual brick-and-mortar areas in every of the neighborhood/metropolis/state pages they’re focusing on.
This web page sort was noticed throughout the dataset together with state-by-state content material, country-by-country service pages, and the multilingual programmatic glossaries described above.
7. The FAQ Farm
Every web page solutions precisely one query. Sample: /faq/[full-question]. Designed for extraction by AI engines: a transparent query within the URL, the reply within the first paragraph, bullet factors within the physique, schema markup on the backside.
The issue? This strategy creates numerous low-quality content material and baggage for the positioning when applied at scale. Scaling FAQs was additionally noticed extensively throughout the dataset, together with in industries the place the templated tone was a noticeable mismatch with the writer’s model context.
Here’s a screenshot of my March 2024 Amsive article advising towards the identical precise factor:
It’s additionally value noting that simply final week, Google introduced it was deprecating FAQ Wealthy Outcomes, which I imagine might need one thing to do with this new inflow of FAQ schema aimed toward making an attempt to earn citations and mentions in AI search.
8. Off-Matter Content material Revealed At Scale
Publishing off-topic content material, with no obvious connection to the writer’s precise enterprise, at excessive volumes, is without doubt one of the quickest methods to get in hassle with search engine algorithms. This was additionally an enormous downside through the Useful Content material Replace and March 2024 Core Updates, when many websites have been experimenting with publishing off-topic content material, like humorous quotes, jokes, child names, horoscopes, and different high-volume articles that weren’t really topically related for the writer.
This technique was used throughout a number of websites within the dataset, together with items on leisure subjects on a companies platform, lists of names and jokes, social-media memes on B2B web sites, and historic or biographical content material on business-focused websites.
The Late January 2026 Unconfirmed Google Replace
A secondary sample seems within the knowledge round late January 2026: a wave of web sites with explicitly GEO-optimized, self-promotional listicles, plus different dangerous Web optimization/GEO approaches, noticed natural site visitors declines between 40% and 95% over the January-April 2026 window.
Google didn’t announce or verify an replace by title in January 2026, however no less than 40 websites I recognized noticed a destructive development starting round Jan. 20, 2026. In lots of circumstances, the influence was remoted to the corporate’s weblog or different subfolder containing numerous new Web optimization-driven content material. My evaluation discovered that a few of these corporations have been scaling dozens, lots of, and even 1000’s of those self-promoting listicles, during which they named their very own firm the No. 1 greatest when in comparison with rivals.
I believe this adjustment on Google’s finish was simply the beginning of Google (and sure the LLM suppliers constructing on prime of search) starting to demote this sort of content material in search outcomes, and it seems that the influence was larger than simply the listicles themselves. For affected websites, the complete weblog or subfolder containing these articles typically additionally noticed declines. In different circumstances, the influence was carried over throughout the total area.
How To Use AI Content material Instruments Safely
I do imagine there’s a approach to make use of AI content material instruments safely, and a approach for these instruments to assist the creation of high-quality content material. The instruments themselves usually are not the issue, however the implementation will be. I imagine these instruments needs to be used and overseen by skilled Web optimization professionals who perceive the panorama of content material approaches that Google has grown extraordinarily refined at penalizing and demoting over the previous 10+ years. The issue typically stems from a “set it and neglect it” strategy, or when the purpose is to scale as many pages as rapidly as doable with out human evaluate.
Utilizing AI content material instruments for analysis, group, content material briefs, pulling in proprietary firm knowledge and insights, and extra will be invaluable for rushing up the content material creation course of. However when articles are merely revealed “for Web optimization/GEO” with out consideration of the dangers concerned with search engine rating programs, the well-intentioned content material can really backfire for each Web optimization and AI search.
To carry out effectively, I like to recommend that any AI-assisted content material ought to nonetheless display E-E-A-T, add authentic or distinctive info above and past what is obtainable by competing pages (info achieve), and take into account being clear about using AI to create the content material (which is beneficial by Google).
The Backside Line
If there’s one takeaway from monitoring these 220+ websites over the previous a number of months, it’s that the playbooks being bought as “AI-first Web optimization” or “GEO-optimized content material at scale” look remarkably much like the playbooks that acquired websites flattened by the Useful Content material Replace and the March 2024 Core Replace. The packaging is new, however the sample will not be.
Throughout the dataset, the manufacturers nonetheless rising are typically those whose content material doesn’t match the eight templates above. Many manufacturers that scaled into these templates are those now eradicating pages, redirecting subfolders, and taking different steps to attempt to mitigate current losses in site visitors.
For those who’re at the moment evaluating an AI content material vendor, or operating a program in-house, listed here are just a few sensible questions I believe are value asking earlier than publishing one other web page:
- Does this web page really exist as a result of an actual buyer or reader wants it, or as a result of a search engine or LLM would possibly cite it?
- May a competitor publish a near-identical model of this web page tomorrow utilizing the identical immediate?
- Would I be snug if Google, a journalist, or my very own prospects noticed the total listing of URLs on this subfolder?
- Is the article inherently biased, and in that case, is the web page clear with customers about these biases?
- Is there any first-party knowledge, experience, or authentic perspective on this web page that isn’t accessible on the primary ten outcomes already rating for the question?
None of this implies AI content material instruments are unusable. They are often genuinely helpful for analysis, briefs, inner knowledge synthesis, and accelerating workflows the place a human skilled remains to be within the loop. The difficulty begins when the purpose turns into quantity, or when the folks closest to the content material cease reviewing what goes out the door.
The Web optimization business has already lived via this cycle as soon as in the previous few years. The websites that got here out of it greatest have been those that prioritized high quality, originality, and topical focus over scale. I anticipate the identical to be true of this cycle, and I’ll preserve monitoring the information because it performs out.
Extra Sources:
This post was originally published on Lily Ray NYC Substack.
Featured Image: Stokkete/Shutterstock
