Is Google Lastly Cracking Down On Self-Promotional Listicles?

Jump straight to examples of affected websites.

Over the previous 12 months, one in all the commonest techniques for gaining visibility in AI search has been for firms to publish “listicle” content material on their very own blogs – rating the greatest firms or merchandise of their area of interest and inserting themselves in the No. 1 spot.

There are variations of this strategy – the listicle may comprise an inventory of the greatest firms, or it may additionally listing the greatest merchandise in a selected business. The widespread thread is that the firm publishing the weblog put up ranks itself, and/or its personal merchandise, in the high place.

It has additionally turn into more and more widespread for firms utilizing this tactic to collaborate with others in the identical business, mutually selling each other of their respective listicles – a modern twist on reciprocal linking: you point out me, and I’ll point out you.

Over the previous 12 months or two, these self-serving listicles have confirmed to be efficient at influencing conventional search rankings – and, by extension, visibility inside LLMs that rely on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) – when customers seek for the high firms, merchandise, or providers in a given area of interest.

For instance, when you kind “greatest content material advertising and marketing businesses” into Google’s AI Overviews, you may see a consequence like this:

Whenever you dig into the listed sources, you’ll discover that the really helpful firms are utilizing listicle-style blogs to rank themselves as the No. 1 high content material advertising and marketing company (instance articles from Omniscient, Ten Speed, and Optimist are proven as sources above).

Search queries containing “greatest” have a tendency to return current outcomes each in the search outcomes and inside LLM responses. For instance, when a person is on the lookout for the “greatest accounting software program for small enterprise,” Google typically prominently ranks articles that had been revealed or up to date inside the final 12 months, and ChatGPT additionally generates fan-out queries containing “2026” to guarantee the person’s question pulls up current information:

Due to this fact, a part of this strategy is to make sure that the article is both lately revealed, and/or lately up to date with the present 12 months in the title, to profit from the search outcomes and LLMs prioritizing current outcomes for these queries.

The Grey Space Of search engine optimization

I take into account this tactic to fall into the “grey space” of search engine optimization. search engine optimization methods are typically labeled as “white hat” or “black hat”—shorthand for approaches that both adjust to search engine insurance policies or clearly violate them and are handled as spam. Some techniques, nevertheless, sit in between: they aren’t unlawful or overtly malicious, and not essentially unethical, however they are often deceptive to customers. In lots of instances, they are applied primarily for search engine optimization profit quite than to ship a genuinely worthwhile or genuine person expertise.

The idea of the “grey space” is one which search engine optimization knowledgeable Glenn Gabe frequently references in his analysis of Google updates. His definition intently aligns with mine: an area the place websites might not be explicitly violating Google’s insurance policies, however nonetheless lack robust high quality indicators or rely on dangerous techniques – leaving them particularly susceptible to volatility as Google’s core programs evolve.

When evaluating the place a given tactic may land, I typically refer to Google’s recommendations about avoiding creating content material that is written primarily for serps, not people. With this strategy, just a few of Google’s questions come into play:

• Does the content material present unique information, reporting, analysis, or evaluation?

Though these pages typically declare in depth analysis, that credibility is undermined by constantly rating their very own firm first and by the implausibility that they’ve actually employed and evaluated the different rivals they rank in the listicle. Google has long recommended that review content contains real evidence of getting examined the reviewed services or products. These pages virtually all the time lack this proof.

• Does the title keep away from exaggerating or being deceptive?

Utilizing “greatest” in the title implies an goal, unbiased analysis. When an organization ranks itself No. 1 with out clear disclosure or clear methodology, that framing may be deceptive – even when the claims aren’t technically false.

• Does the content material current information in a manner that makes you need to belief it?

Articles that rank the writer’s personal firm as the greatest firm introduce an inherent bias that undermines belief. With out third-party validation, reviewer credentials, or proof of unbiased, goal testing, the information lacks the indicators customers (and Google) anticipate from credible opinions.

For these causes, I haven’t been recommending these kind of listicles as a sustainable technique for constructing long-term visibility in natural search or AI-generated solutions. They not often present an trustworthy or genuine person expertise, and techniques that sit in the grey space of Google’s content material and spam insurance policies have an extended observe document of ultimately creating issues for website house owners over time.

It Works, Till It Doesn’t

The problem with search engine optimization techniques that fall into the grey space is that they’ll positively drive robust outcomes – at the least for some time. Moreover, with the rise of AI search, we’re seeing that LLMs like ChatGPT are actually inclined to spammy techniques and at present lack Google’s degree of sophistication in detecting and countering manipulative search engine optimization approaches.

That mentioned, there’s a well-recognized line anybody who’s adopted my work has heard me say on repeat: It really works, till it doesn’t.

When a tactic proves efficient at driving search engine optimization visibility and turns into extensively adopted, Google (and different serps) virtually all the time develop methods to detect and suppress it. This sample is what I name “the cycle of search engine optimization” – an idea I explored in depth throughout my 2025 BrightonSEO keynote, proven beneath:

I shared a few times all through 2025 that I imagine the extreme use of self-promotional listicles might be a typical sample amongst web sites negatively impacted by upcoming Google core updates. I’ve additionally been theorizing that Google might develop new manual actions for this specific tactic (since it might be exhausting to determine algorithmically). Here’s a clip of me at the Profound Zero Click on Search occasion in NYC again in October, explaining how abandoning search engine optimization for GEO techniques may be harmful.

Moreover, I wasn’t the just one to warning in opposition to self-promotional listicles. Over the previous 12 months, Wil Reynolds, founder and CEO of Seer Interactive, has warned in conference talks and other resources that this strategy lacks authenticity and dangers undermining viewers belief.

Equally, Glenn Gabe, who additionally makes a speciality of Google core replace restoration, lately shared an example of a website probably shedding visitors due to extreme use of listicles. Glenn additionally cautioned against this approach in his 2025 December Core Replace article.

Nevertheless, many websites doubled down on self-promotional listicles as a result of, regardless of the dangers, they’ve confirmed extremely efficient at driving visibility in each natural search outcomes and AI solutions. Manufacturers featured in these self-serving listicles have clearly benefited in recent months. However early indicators from a current Google replace counsel the window for this tactic could also be closing.

SearchingFor Clues After Google Rating Volatility

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable reported significant Google ranking volatility in January 2026, a pair weeks after the conclusion of the December 2025 Core Update. When volatility like this surfaces, I evaluation affected websites to determine rising patterns – and this time, I used to be stunned to see sharp visibility declines throughout a number of giant manufacturers, all starting round the identical interval.

Whereas efficiency drops throughout confirmed and unconfirmed updates can stem from many elements, just a few patterns throughout lately impacted websites had been unusually constant this time. The primary development I seen is that a number of well-known manufacturers noticed substantial natural visibility declines starting round mid-to-late January. (I exploit the Sistrix U.S. Visibility Index to measure this.)

Primarily based on the kind of content material I noticed most closely impacted, it appears attainable this volatility displays ongoing refinements to Google’s opinions system, which has more and more targeted on detecting self-serving, biased, or low-evidence evaluation content material.

Typically, I additionally noticed that the weblog was the main driver of the visibility decline, accounting for the largest share of the losses, or an identical content material hub containing articles or assets.

The visibility chart beneath reveals an instance of a widely known $8B B2B model that noticed its natural visibility drop by a whopping -49% between January 21 and February 2, 2026.

Observe: I’ve redacted firm names and branded product names from all the screenshots beneath for the goal of defending the websites’ anonymity.

The corporate weblog makes up 77% of this website’s visibility, and it reveals an enormous visibility decline since mid-January 2026:

Different subfolders and subdomains on the website confirmed a lot smaller declines, and even visibility positive aspects, throughout the identical time interval:

I dug by way of the weblog articles to search for widespread patterns employed by websites negatively impacted by algorithm updates, and did see a few of the widespread culprits: highly-similar programmatic content material templates, extreme informational content material focusing on varied “who, what, when” search phrases, and over-use of ‘2026’ throughout titles, regardless of the 12 months being solely 4 weeks underway.

However one thing else stood out: the weblog contained dozens of self-promotional listicles. 191 of them, to be exact. By self-promoting listicles, I imply an article containing “greatest” the place the firm lists itself as the No. 1 greatest. You possibly can simply detect this with the following search on Google (substitute together with your website’s details):

website:firm.com/weblog/ intitle:greatest “1. firm”

or

website:firm.com/weblog/ “greatest” “1. firm”

Now, I have to level out that this firm’s weblog has ~30,000 articles listed on Google, so 191 is a drop in the bucket. That mentioned, producing 191 self-promotional listicle articles feels extra like an intentional technique than an accident.

Right here is one other instance of a SaaS firm that was hit exhausting starting round January 19. The location dropped in total Google natural search visibility by -43% since the current rating volatility started.

Roughly ~85% of the website’s natural visibility stems from its /information/ folder, which noticed the most important visibility drop:

Wanting by way of the /information/ folder reveals dozens of academic articles associated to the website’s choices – about 2,780 listed articles on Google. However trying once more at whether or not the /information/ folder makes use of self-promotional “greatest” listicles the place the firm ranks itself No. 1, lo and behold – there are 228 such articles:

The subsequent instance is a B2B/B2C SaaS firm that dropped by -42% visibility since mid-January 2026.

The overwhelming majority of the website’s visibility comes from its /tutorials/ folder, which noticed the most important visibility decline, dropping to a visibility degree the folder hadn’t seen since 2021:

Amongst the 1,980 tutorials listed in Google’s outcomes, 76 of them are self-serving listicles, 38 of which have been up to date to embrace “2026” in the title:

Now, right here’s one other instance of a B2B SaaS firm that misplaced -38% of its natural visibility since the rating volatility began:

About ~80% of this website’s visibility stems from its weblog, which, as with different examples, noticed by far the biggest drop in visibility:

Amongst the 2,790 listed pages on the weblog, 267 of them are self-promotional “greatest” listicles the place the firm ranks itself or its personal merchandise as No. 1. 76 of them use “2026” in the title tag, which may additionally increase some flags, given the present date.

Subsequent up is a well-liked SaaS product that dropped by -34% complete visibility since the volatility began. On this case, the website had truly seen substantial search engine optimization progress all through 2025 and into early 2026, however the website is shortly reversing course over the final two weeks:

This firm’s weblog additionally represents about ~90% of its complete visibility, containing 7,700 listed articles on Google. The weblog additionally drastically contributed to the website’s fast progress in visibility over the final 12 months:

Digging into the use of self-promotional articles on this website’s weblog, it seems the website has 340 such articles on its weblog that listing its personal firm or its merchandise as the No. 1 greatest in the area:

The subsequent website is a software program firm that seems to have launched its firm weblog round July of 2025. The weblog represents about 93% of the website’s total search engine optimization visibility. Beneath is a view of the full website’s visibility trajectory:

And beneath is a view of simply the weblog subfolder’s visibility. For this website, the drop seems to have began throughout the December Core Replace, and was exacerbated by motion in current weeks:

the 1,420 articles on this firm’s weblog, 61 of them (4%) are self-promotional listicles:

Lastly, right here is an instance of one other SaaS firm and digital advertising and marketing supplier that misplaced -29% of its natural visibility since mid-January, 2026:

The /weblog/ folder on this website represents over 90% of the website’s natural visibility in Google search, containing 1,700 listed outcomes on Google:

This website had solely 10 self-promotional listicles, a particularly small quantity total. Even so, if pages like these are actually contributing to the visibility decline, it underscores how closely Google could also be weighting them in its evaluations.

Widespread Traits Amongst Affected Websites

It’s vital to be aware that self-promotional listicles are just one tactic amongst many utilized by these websites of their content material methods, alongside different approaches that could be perceived by Google as prioritizing search engine optimization over “helpful, reliable information that’s created to benefit people.”

That mentioned, there are another commonalities amongst these websites that are price declaring:

• All of those websites are in the SaaS area, which may counsel that they are possible to be paying shut consideration to current search engine optimization/GEO tendencies.
  • Lots of the blogs and useful resource facilities truly contained particular steering round GEO and AI search.
• Many of those websites had lately scaled content material shortly, which may very well be a sign that they are utilizing (or over-utilizing) AI to shortly scale content material, maybe with insufficient human oversight.
• I dropped a number of of those articles into originality.ai’s AI detection software, and all returned a 100% confidence rating that the textual content is AI-generated.

• The blogs had been utilizing different techniques I’ve seen get websites in hassle with throughout Google’s algorithm updates: artificial refreshining (together with current dates when the article was not considerably up to date); Schema.org violations, similar to misusing AggregateRating Schema throughout ineligible pages; extreme informational/definition-based content material, content material that is overly salesy and/or strays from the fundamental goal of the website, and heavy automation/programmatic templates scaled throughout a whole bunch or 1000’s of pages

It’s additionally vital to be aware that I discovered examples of some websites that noticed heavy efficiency declines of their blogs, however had been not over-utilizing self-promotional listicles of their content material. That mentioned, they had been utilizing different techniques that might have an effect on efficiency, typically tied to evaluation articles and different articles leveraging highly-similar. programmatic web page templates:

Self-promotional listicles might solely inform one a part of the story. That mentioned, provided that this strategy was widespread amongst all the firms with the largest drops (and different firms not included on this article), it appears to be like to me like a main possible perpetrator price contemplating when evaluating the total high quality of those blogs and useful resource facilities.

The Affect Of Declining search engine optimization Visibility On AI Search

search engine optimization and AI search efficiency are closely tied together, particularly Google’s AI search outcomes and different LLMs that scrape Google. I spoke to Glenn Gabe, who has additionally been monitoring the identical websites, seeing declines, and he simply shared this article at the moment displaying how these 4 websites are quickly shedding visibility in AI Overviews. Observe that each one 4 of those websites had been included in the examples proven all through this article:

Presumably, these drops in Google natural outcomes will even impression visibility throughout different LLMs that leverage Google’s search outcomes, which extends past Google’s ecosystem of AI search merchandise like Gemini and AI Mode, however is also likely to include ChatGPT.

I’ll dig into these outcomes as a lot as attainable in the coming days and share what I discover.

Wrapping Up

Self-promotional “greatest” listicles have confirmed to be an efficient shortcut to visibility in each conventional search and AI-generated solutions (GEO) – however new knowledge means that shortcut could also be contributing to efficiency declines in search engine optimization.

Observe: Sure, it’s nonetheless attainable to discover examples of this strategy working. Like all search engine optimization hacks, it will possibly take some time for Google to demote the tactic throughout the board, and the outcomes are not all the time excellent. Some listicles will certainly proceed to carry out.

However as Google continues to refine the way it evaluates high quality, intent, and trust – especially in review-style content – techniques that prioritize self-promotion over real analysis seem more and more dangerous.

Whereas these pages should still drive short-term positive aspects and have proven success in AI search, the current volatility indicators that long-term visibility in each natural search and AI programs is extra possible to favor content material grounded in real-world expertise, clear methodology, and demonstrable worth to customers. As with many search engine optimization tendencies before it, what works at the moment might quietly turn into a legal responsibility tomorrow.

Extra Assets: 

This put up was initially revealed on Lily Ray Substack.

Featured Picture: Tetiana Yurchenko/Shutterstock