AI answers may skip brands that plant their own praise
One SEO watched ChatGPT drop his brand from a citation after it spotted a self-recommendation.
ChatGPT has started adding notes about "inauthentic mentions" in list style content, meaning mentions that look planted rather than earned. Metehan Yesilyurt (@metehan777) posted an example where this happened to him. He said he lost the citation even though he had ranked his own brand first in his own list.
Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) replied that she saw a similar pattern on Google months ago, where a post's other recommendations got picked up but the self-recommendation did not. Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) says he expects a bigger crackdown from Google this year, and points to a section on "inauthentic mentions" in Google's own guide to AI search experiences as a sign Google is already watching for it.
Nobody has confirmed how widely this is running yet. Only a handful of examples have shown up so far, so treat this as a signal, not a rule.
If you have a "best tools" or "top providers" post on your site that names your own business, add a clear line saying it is your company. If you have been paying for mentions in other people's roundup posts, stop.
I fully believe we will see a Penguin-like event targeting "inauthentic mentions" this year.