SEOs have been practicing self-love in the form of self-serving listicles to influence LLMs, and Google is aware of it.
The Verge’s latest “SEOs are ruining the world” took issue with self-serving listicles (rightly so in my opinion) and mentioned that a Google spokesperson sent an emailed statement saying that they protect against this form of manipulation and are aware of the tactic.
The article reads:
“In an emailed statement, Google spokesperson Jennifer Kutz said the company applies robust protections against common forms of manipulation in search and Gemini; Kutz noted the company is aware of the low-quality listicle content and that it works to combat that kind of abuse.”
Still publishing self-serving listicles? Google provided a comment to The Verge. Again, BEWARE. BTW, Mia said SEO industry… Uh, it’s the GEO industry!! 🙂 -> Can AI responses be influenced? The SEO industry is trying
“Google spokesperson Jennifer Kutz said the company applies… pic.twitter.com/sdkRVMRvsN
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 6, 2026
Essentially, Google sees what is going on and is trying to stop it, so you should probably stop it on your own before Google stops you before you have the chance to stop yourself.
Clear?
Great. Now let’s talk about the Verge’s coverage for a moment. I know this is SERoundtable, but I’m going to go a little “Mordy” on you.
The Verge took aim at SEOs and all the hacks to manipulate LLMs.
You know what, there is a lot of truth to it.
The industry has been rife with all sorts of bad advice and spammy tactics like it’s SEO of yesteryear all over again.
My personal issue with all this nonsense is that it spills over to the general market.
It’s the same problem I saw at Wix. SEOs used to say Wix was bad for SEO (it is not), and it would trickle down to the general audience faster than you could say, “Ronald Reagan.”
The same thing is happening here. I can’t tell you how many people in the industry I speak with who now have clients asking them to implement all sorts of hair-brained hacks and schemes to improve LLM visibility that they have no way of actually valuating.
Brtiney Muller said it incredibly well in The Verge’s article:
“I think people are so panicked and under so much pressure to try to come up with performance metrics, because that’s what SEOs have been judged by over the years….How are we going to re-create this with AI search? We are just grasping at straws.”
Yep, pretty much.
I personally think the whole thing is insane. Do we really not think Google, which has clearly demonstrated the capacity to improve its ability to spot quality content over the years, isn’t going to eventually figure this out?
What happens then?
Ironically, SEOs such as Glenn Gabe and Lily Ray (and beyond) have been warning about these sorts of tactics for some time.
I covered this back on March 13th and Barry on February 4th .
These conversations are happening.
So the Verge’s vilification of the industry may be good for clicks, but it is not exactly accurate either. I’m not going to get too deep into that. We’ve all been called content goblins before.
Now that we can move past our feelings being hurt, I do think there is a serious problem with performance hacking tactics that won’t last, dominating far too much of the narrative.
Welcome to the internet, I guess. Old, not new.
Forum discussion at your nearest self-serving listicle.
#Google #Aware #Warns #SelfServing #Listicles1776478169
