Is the Reddit End Near? AI Citation Drops, Google Deal, and Mass Account Bans

MoMarketing · Saturday at 5:50 PM

Hey BHW,

I've been seeing some massive shifts over the last 2-3 months, and I’m starting to wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end for Reddit as a viable marketing/SEO playground.

For a long time, Reddit was goldmine for easy traffic and GenEngine Optimization (GEO). But lately, everything is hitting now. I wanted to start a discussion and see if any other IMers/Digital Nomads or agencies are seeing the same writing on the wall.

Salamouna · Saturday at 9:07 PM

yea agreed, the algo got way better at catching farms now. even aged accounts are getting hit harder if they slip on posting patterns. been running a lot of accounts but lately fingerprinting and ip rotation is key to even survive a month. reddit really cracked down on the bot farms hard last quarter

lucax3 · Saturday at 9:32 PM

MoMarketing said:
Hey BHW,

I've been seeing some massive shifts over the last 2-3 months, and I’m starting to wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end for Reddit as a viable marketing/SEO playground.

For a long time, Reddit was goldmine for easy traffic and GenEngine Optimization (GEO). But lately, everything is hitting now. I wanted to start a discussion and see if any other IMers/Digital Nomads or agencies are seeing the same writing on the wall.

I’m seeing an increase in AI citations. Reddit is still the top source, at least when it comes to ChatGPT.

Salamouna said:
yea agreed, the algo got way better at catching farms now. even aged accounts are getting hit harder if they slip on posting patterns. been running a lot of accounts but lately fingerprinting and ip rotation is key to even survive a month. reddit really cracked down on the bot farms hard last quarter

I agree with you, but the punishment seems to be exclusively the human verification, which takes two seconds and actually strengthens the account. Haven’t you noticed?

praetserge · Saturday at 11:00 PM

It's actually better for the real users so it will stay.
And less spammers, more room for IM'ers who do it right.
I run a few sumbreddits and I ban and reject a lot of spam, thankfully, reddit filters help a lot, still way too many naive spammers there.

High Score · Sunday at 2:03 AM

Reddit is unfortunately full of AI and spam nowadays, its actually crazy. It used to be bulletproof against these types of things. Wonder what caused it. Different moderation?

JunglePence · Sunday at 2:45 AM

High Score said:
Reddit is unfortunately full of AI and spam nowadays, its actually crazy. It used to be bulletproof against these types of things. Wonder what caused it. Different moderation?

It sounds like you're making this post from 2025. It certainly was full of AI and spam, but they've really clamped down on it the past couple of months, and they've done so using ai themselves.

spaciousabhi · Sunday at 3:49 AM

i think there are 2 different things getting mixed together here.

reddit losing some seo/AI citation value wouldnt necessarily mean reddit marketing itself is dying. i'd track referral traffic and conversions separately from how often reddit pages show up in google or AI answers.

if real discussions are still sending buyers/leads, the channel can still be valuable even if the easy SEO/GEO side gets harder.

MoMarketing · Sunday at 4:43 PM

Salamouna said:
but lately fingerprinting and ip rotation is key to even survive a month. reddit really cracked down on the bot farms hard last quarter

did you noticed new updated where we comment and it gets like a message removed by mod and then the account gets banned instanly?

praetserge said:
And less spammers, more room for IM'ers who do it right.

Yup that's true but the question is what will be the future for people who provide reddit marketing services?

bhoyebinika · 2026-09-21T02:09:36+0100

maybe its less about reddit for dying and more about reddit becoming harder to exploit for quick traffic.

sveretaph · 2026-09-21T03:22:02+0100

You just have to try and stay ahead of the curve, their algo is definitely getting better and more strict but it’s still doable.

valac1993 · 2026-09-21T03:40:03+0100

Yeah, reddit will suck it very hard.
They deserve to go down because they banning for no reason, removing comments for no reason...

rocknlight · 2026-09-21T09:01:28+0100

will revisit this thread same time next year ,Reddit is the future

SkadooSkade · 2026-09-21T09:16:02+0100

My guess is they are preparing to only have UGC for new AI deal

NoirOptic · 2026-09-21T10:29:27+0100

Reddit is changing but it is too early to say it is ending. Search changes may affect how people find posts. For now, it is worth watching how things develop

MoMarketing · 2026-09-21T17:44:31+0100

praetserge said:
It's actually better for the real users so it will stay.
And less spammers, more room for IM'ers who do it right.

That;s true

SkadooSkade said:
My guess is they are preparing to only have UGC for new AI deal

Maybe maybe not but we will have to wait

rocknlight said:
will revisit this thread same time next year ,Reddit is the future

Time will tell

NoirOptic said:
For now, it is worth watching how things develop

But they are literally cracking down on promotional activities and making things worst for reddit marketers

valac1993 said:
Yeah, reddit will suck it very hard.
They deserve to go down because they banning for no reason, removing comments for no reason...

I have the same instinct as you

sveretaph said:
You just have to try and stay ahead of the curve, their algo is definitely getting better and more strict but it’s still doable.

Thanks for this motivation

bhoyebinika said:
reddit becoming harder to exploit for quick traffic.

It is truly becoming harder and harder

curdoc · 2026-09-22T05:08:15+0100

Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing lately. Reddit still has value, but getting accounts and posts to stick seems way harder than it was even a few months ago.

bigvision · 2026-09-22T05:19:24+0100

around 2 years ago reddit went public. and now there will be alot more incentives to make sure reddit makes more money.
i wouldn't be surprised if they started asking for phone verifications and selfie checks soon.

Venusaur · 2026-09-22T05:21:10+0100

I hope so.
X and Reddit can be buried in the same hole: two pieces of shit for the last few years

sickminds · 2026-09-22T06:04:00+0100

Only way is to create real aged accounts and grow steady. You cant buy in bulk anymore. Any weird IP access, proxies etc, it will get sniped.

MoMarketing · 2026-09-22T06:29:28+0100

curdoc said:
Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing lately. Reddit still has value, but getting accounts and posts to stick seems way harder than it was even a few months ago.

And this is happened in the last 6 months before that everything was fine

bigvision said:
around 2 years ago reddit went public. and now there will be alot more incentives to make sure reddit makes more money.
i wouldn't be surprised if they started asking for phone verifications and selfie checks soon.

I don't think thats going to happen soon it requires a lot of coding and all

Venusaur said:
I hope so.
X and Reddit can be buried in the same hole: two pieces of shit for the last few years

I think X is even worst than reddit but seeing the actions of reddit algo it seems like to me especially

sickminds said:
Only way is to create real aged accounts and grow steady. You cant buy in bulk anymore. Any weird IP access, proxies etc, it will get sniped.

But that takes a lot of effort and patience and then reddit bans without giving clear reasons that thing really hurts

Is the Reddit End Near? AI Citation Drops, Google Deal, and Mass Account Bans

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