r/webmarketing

I’ve been looking at our recent campaign data and the trend is pretty clear. Traditional CTR is dropping because AI Overviews and LLMs are just summarizing our content. It feels like we're providing the data for free and losing the traffic. Instead of fighting it, I’ve been trying to lean into it. If the AI is going to summarize my content, I want to make sure it’s citing me as the authoritative source. I’m experimenting with AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) to see if being the "recommended" entity converts better than just being a link on page 1.

I'm currently using HeyEmmett to automate the technical side of this. It focuses on a "scientific" blog structure and basically heavy-loading the specific citations and FAQ schema that AI models use to build their trust layers.

Has anyone here moved their KPIs from "Total Traffic" to "AI Visibility Score" yet? I’m curious if anyone has seen a real-world conversion bump from AI citations vs. traditional SERP clicks.

Google’s recent obsession with Reddit content is becoming a massive nightmare for brand reputation.

It used to be that a random complaint on some obscure forum would eventually sink to page 3. Now, a 3-year-old Reddit thread titled "[Brand Name] is a scam" or "Is [Brand] worth it?" can sit comfortably at position #2 for years.

The biggest problem? You can’t really "delete" a Reddit post. Unless there’s a blatant legal violation, reporting it to mods usually does nothing.

I’ve been testing some suppression strategies lately because the traditional ORM methods are failing against Reddit’s massive authority. Since you can't kill the thread, you have to build a "controlled opposition."

The goal is to build a moat of high-authority satellites - platforms like Substack, Medium, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn - and structure them to "shift the intent" of the search. If Google sees enough high-quality, professional content that answers the user's query better than a random thread, the Reddit post eventually starts to slide.

It’s not just about "posting more links"; it’s about creating a landscape where the negative thread loses its relevancy score. It’s essentially a battle of "intent suppression."

I’m curious to hear from others who are dealing with this - have you found any specific platforms that are actually strong enough to outrank Reddit threads in 2026? Or is the "Reddit era" making ORM twice as hard for everyone?