ChatGPT citations being throttled

Steptoe

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According to this recent study from March 2026 looking at data over 14 weeks, it appears that the number of citations being returned per response has gone down by ~20%. What's more, ChatGPT looks to be going down Google's route and favouring bigger 'trusted' domains, with site: searches on juicy domains mixed in with the usual fan-outs.

Screenshot 2026-04-13 154224.png

Looks like we'll be seeing a lot more uses for 'site reputation abuse'. Keep a look out for yet more creative parasites, or even more trusted sites offering paid placements.
 
According to this recent study from March 2026 looking at data over 14 weeks, it appears that the number of citations being returned per response has gone down by ~20%. What's more, ChatGPT looks to be going down Google's route and favouring bigger 'trusted' domains, with site: searches on juicy domains mixed in with the usual fan-outs.

View attachment 517448

Looks like we'll be seeing a lot more uses for 'site reputation abuse'. Keep a look out for yet more creative parasites, or even more trusted sites offering paid placements.
So ChatGPT too wants to hoard traffic and keep it all to itself. Anyway, that is expected since they started serving ads.
 
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