If you hadn't noticed, we get a little obsessed around here about all things organic visibility, and lately, the one keeping us up at night (in a good way): AI Visibility. 

Trouble is, this stuff is moving so fast that blink and you'll miss it. So we've decided to do the very thing LLMs are best at: hoover up everything worth knowing and hand it back to you in one tidy little summary. The difference? We promise not to hallucinate. 

Welcome to the first edition of Wired For Visibility - your fortnightly round-up of everything happening in AI Visibility, SEO, GEO and AEO. Consider yourself plugged in. 

Does AI have a handshake deal with Reddit? 

The AI's favourite expert is a stranger with a username.

Ahrefs’ latest Brand Radar study of Google AI Mode found the answers pull from a tiny set of sources. Reddit leads on 19.9 per cent of citations, then YouTube on 17 per cent, Google on 11.5, Facebook on 9.3 and Instagram on 5.3. Community and social platforms, not brand websites, are doing most of the vouching. A separate Ahrefs study found the share of AI citations coming from pages that rank in the top 10 has fallen sharply, so being cited no longer requires ranking first.  

But why Reddit? According to the Columbia Journalism Review, this platforms’ content is showing up everywhere in AI because it's licensed (Google's paying $60m a year, OpenAI $70m), it's already shaped like an answer, and it's basically one of the last places online where people say what they really think.  

Sources: Ahrefs - most-cited domains, Ahrefs - rankings and AI citations. Columbia Journalism Review - Reddit Is Winning the AI Game   

Our take: our own data says the same. In the prompts we track for our clients, Reddit and YouTube are cited more often than the brands’ own websites, with Digital PR taking the rest. So if your whole plan is your own site, you are polishing the one place the AI look at less. Owned, earned and social are not separate lanes anymore. They form part of what we call: One Visibility.  

Finally: Google shows how it sees your socials 

This. Is. Big. 

Google has quietly flipped a switch in Search Console. Next to your website, you can now add Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube, and watch how your content actually performs in Google Search; clicks, impressions and queries, all in one place. 

Sources: WiredCo. Plus Google Search Central, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land. 

Our take: For years Google said social was not a ranking signal (we knew different!). Now it is handing you a detailed dashboard for it. And, we are all for it! Plug in the new properties, see what is already pulling its weight, and use these insights to shape future strategies. 

No more claiming Claude’s work – they have just watermarked it!  

Invisible ink for the AI era.

Anthropic has started hiding an invisible watermark inside everything Claude writes, to be more open about what is AI-generated. You can't visually see it, and it doesn't change the words, but it stays with the text even when you copy, paste or lightly edit it, like a signature baked in. It is on by default for Claude’s newest models, and Anthropic says it will soon let others detect it, most likely Google among them. 

Sources: Anthropic, TechCrunch, Axios. 

Our take: Soon, Google will be able to spot when text was written by AI. So churning out piles of untouched AI content is about to get risky. The fix is not a clever workaround, it is simple: let AI help, but make sure a real person adds real expertise and opinions, along with a proper edit on top. That is what earns AI visibility anyway. 

ChatGPT is selling ads here in Australia. Google’s AI Mode isn’t (yet) 

AI and GEO. Boosted.  

As predicted, AI answers are opening up ad slots, with the two big players at very different stages. 

In the US, Google has started placing Search and Shopping ads (the same ones from your existing Google Ads account,) inside AI Mode, its chat-style search. Those ads aren't live in Australia yet, which in our opinion, is probably for the best. Early studies suggest the ads often don't match the sources the AI is actually citing. Yikes! There's clearly more testing to do before it reaches our shores. 

ChatGPT, on the other hand, is going full steam ahead with paid ad pilots — and we've got a seat at the table. We've been running ads for a number of clients since April. Still early days, but we're seeing promising results, particularly at the consideration layer. 

Sources: Search Engine Land, Google Marketing Live 2026, AdNews. 

Our take: the opportunity is to get in early (once the platforms have ironed out the basics of course). Each LLM is building its own ad system, different formats, rules and quirks, and the brands that get in early learn how each behaves before the slots fill and prices climb. That early read is the whole point of being in the ChatGPT pilot now. AI Mode ads will reach Australia eventually, and when they do, whoever already knows how AI ads behave starts ahead.  

Something spooked the rankings in late July (stay calm) 

Google. Observed across multiple trackers. 

Between roughly 18 to 19 and 23 to 24 July, the tools that watch Google rankings all twitched at once, the sort of pattern that usually means Google has changed something under the hood. Google has not confirmed a thing, which is normal, as it often stays quiet. 

Source: Search Engine Roundtable. 

Our take: Monitor, do not panic. Rankings shuffle around all the time, and a single jumpy week is not a red flag, but we do have some advice on what to check out. First, compare your traffic year on year, not week to week, and remember your own promos, a big media push or a recent site change can move the numbers just as much as Google can. Then, use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to pinpoint where any change or shift is really coming from. If nothing looks odd, keep doing the good work, keep half an eye on it, and let us do the watching for you. The one thing not to do is tear your site apart chasing a blip no one has even confirmed yet. 

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And, that's a wrap for this fortnight. Ranking still matters. Being the name the AI recommends matters more, and most of the market is only just catching on. See you in two.