# Can Reddit fend off a new wave of AI SEO spam?

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/can-reddit-fend-off-a-new-wave-of-ai-seo-spam/
- Published: 2026-08-04T10:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-04T10:12:58+00:00
- Original publisher: The Verge
- Original article: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/973098/reddit-ai-search-seo-marketing-brands-spam
- Topics: AI, Americas, Technology, World

## Key points

- Reddit is now the most AI-cited website, ahead of Wikipedia and news sites
- Moderators are catching brands posting fake, AI-style promotional comments
- Marketers target Reddit because AI search tools quote it heavily to shoppers

## Summary

Reddit has become a prime target for covert marketing as AI chatbots increasingly cite it as a trusted source, prompting moderators on subreddits like r/SkincareAddiction to crack down on suspected brand-planted comments. In one case, a user repeatedly praised a skincare brand called Honeydew Labs across multiple unrelated threads, using language that read like promotional copy rather than genuine testimony, leading moderators to flag and filter the brand's mentions. The episode highlights a growing tension: as Reddit's authenticity becomes commercially valuable, it also becomes a target for the very SEO-style manipulation its users once fled Google search to avoid.

Data compiled for The Verge by Adobe-owned SEO firm Semrush found Reddit was the most-cited domain in May by AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's Gemini and AI Mode, surpassing news publishers, academic repositories and even Wikipedia. Semrush also found Google is now inserting AI Overviews far more often into commercially-oriented searches, such as product comparisons, than it did a year earlier, giving brands strong incentive to seed favourable-sounding "organic" mentions on Reddit that AI systems might later surface to shoppers.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.