u/azdoldio

so it's mid 2026 now and AI Overviews are showing up for like 68% of local searches according to Semrush data from last year. that's insane, especially when you think about how the traditional 3-Pack is basically getting replaced by enhanced GBP cards in those summaries. I've been tracking a few local clients and organic CTR has dropped hard when an AI overview is present, like 61% drop according to one study. zero-click searches are at 58% now too. but the thing that's getting me thinking is the whole Reddit manipulation angle. if Google's AI is scraping Reddit for local sentiment or social proof, could someone game that? like coordinated posts or fake reviews to inflate entity authority. I'm not sure Google's models are dumb enough to fall for it they probably filter inorganic patterns but businesses are already asking about it. seen a few threads where people claim they're trying to use Reddit posts as a ranking signal for AI Overviews. I work in compliance/data protection so this stuff makes me nervous. the real play still seems to be solid schema, verified GBP data, and actual reviews that aren't fake. anyone else noticed weird local SERP behavior lately or seen tools popping up that claim to manipulate Reddit for AI visibility? keen to hear what others are seeing.

Was digging into the Semrush AI Visibility Index the other day and saw that only about 12% of businesses appear in ChatGPT recommendations at all. For indie perfume brands it's even tougher fragmented scent data, low review volume, and no big PR machine. But the same report shows indie brands like The Ordinary already account for 31% of AI beauty citations, so there's clearly a path. I've been testing a few low-cost things for my own line got a Wikidata entry set up, added Organization schema, and started posting more in fragrance communities on Reddit. It's early days but I'm seeing Perplexity pick up some of those threads. Curious what others have tried is schema the real bottleneck or does niche community content matter more for getting cited by AI?

Been diving into AI Share of Voice for a few months now. Concept makes total sense track how often your brand gets cited or mentioned in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity responses vs. competitors. But the data is flaky as hell. Run the same prompt five times, get five completely different sets of brands. The Netranks/AthenaHQ State of AI Search 2026 report clocked the average mention rate at ~17.2%, which tracks with what I'm seeing most brands just aren't showing up in AI responses at all. I've been playing around with Semrush's Enterprise AIO tracker (launched late last year), and it's decent for establishing a baseline, but I'm still iffy on the methodology. Weighting makes sense on paper top recommendation vs. just a link but how do you even verify that consistently across different models? Curious if anyone's found a workflow that actually works, or are we all just vibing at this point?