How do Google algorithm updates affect AI search visibility? Just got hit by an update

There IS a connection, but it’s not direct. Let me explain:

How Google rankings affect AI visibility:

Why your AI visibility dropped:

1. Google AI Overview = definitely connected to rankings
2. ChatGPT Search = Bing likely also saw your drop
3. Perplexity = uses authority signals that overlap with Google’s

The shared cause: The algorithm update flagged quality issues in your content. Those same issues probably make AI systems less likely to cite you.

The good news: If you fix the underlying quality issues, both should recover.

The order: Fix content quality → Google recovery → AI visibility recovery

It’s not “rankings OR AI” - it’s “quality issues affecting both.”

If you got hit by a core update, look at Helpful Content signals:

What Google’s Helpful Content system evaluates:

The connection to AI citations: AI systems are essentially asking the same questions Google’s Helpful Content evaluator asks:

• Is this content genuinely valuable?
• Does it demonstrate expertise?
• Would I want to cite this as an answer?

What to audit:

1. Thin content - Pages that don’t fully answer questions
2. Aggregated content - Just collecting others’ information
3. Keyword-stuffed content - Written for engines, not humans
4. Missing expertise signals - No author credentials, no real experience

The fix is the same for both: Make content genuinely helpful, demonstrate real expertise, provide complete answers.

To answer your question about “AI algorithms”:

Each AI platform has its own selection process:

Google AI Overview:

• Uses Google’s index
• Factors in E-E-A-T signals
• Prefers structured, scannable content
• Your Google rankings matter directly

ChatGPT Search:

• Uses Bing search integration
• Weights source authority
• Favors clear, direct answers
• Bing rankings matter

Perplexity:

• Has own crawler (PerplexityBot)
• Real-time retrieval
• Strong bias toward cited sources
• Values recency and clarity

Claude:

• Training data based
• No real-time search
• Not affected by current rankings

The pattern: While each has different mechanics, they all value:

• Authority/trust signals
• Content quality
• Answer completeness
• Source credibility

What this means for you: You don’t need to optimize for each AI separately. Fix the quality issues that got you penalized in Google, and you’ll likely improve across platforms.

We went through this. Here’s our recovery story:

The hit (September 2025 Core Update):

• Traffic: -45%
• Rankings: Dropped 5-15 positions
• AI visibility: Crashed (noticed a week later)

What we identified:

1. Too much thin content (50+ low-value pages)
2. Keyword-focused, not user-focused headlines
3. Missing author credentials on YMYL content
4. Outdated information on key pages

What we did:

Month 1:

• Audited all content
• Identified 40 pages to remove
• Identified 60 pages to improve

Month 2:

• Removed thin content
• Added author bios with credentials
• Updated outdated information

Month 3:

• Restructured remaining content
• Added schema markup
• Improved internal linking

Results:

Key insight: AI visibility followed rankings by about 3-4 weeks. As we recovered in Google, AI visibility followed.

What I’d do differently: Start monitoring AI visibility earlier. We didn’t realize the connection until too late.

Perplexity deserves special attention:

How Perplexity’s algorithm differs:

Unlike Google, Perplexity:

• Crawls in real-time
• Weights citation patterns from other sources
• Considers Reddit/forum mentions
• Has its own authority scoring

What we’ve observed:

Sites that get hit by Google updates sometimes maintain Perplexity visibility IF:

• They have strong Reddit/forum presence
• They’re cited by other sources Perplexity trusts
• The content is genuinely useful (even if Google demoted it)

But usually:

Google penalties correlate with Perplexity drops because:

• The underlying quality issues affect both
• Perplexity uses some overlapping authority signals
• Google rankings influence what other sources cite

Recovery in Perplexity:

Often faster than Google recovery because:

• Real-time indexing
• No waiting for algorithm refresh
• Picks up improvements quickly

Track separately: Use Am I Cited to track Perplexity visibility independently. Sometimes it tells a different story than Google rankings.

Let’s talk about preventing this in the future:

Update-proof content characteristics:

1. Genuine expertise

   • Real author credentials
   • Actual experience shared
   • Original insights, not just research

2. Complete answers

   • Fully addresses the question
   • Anticipates follow-ups
   • Provides actionable value

3. Fresh and maintained

   • Regularly updated
   • Outdated info removed
   • Current statistics

4. Structured for extraction

   • Clear headings
   • Scannable format
   • Key points highlighted

Content that tends to survive updates:

• Expert-written, credential-backed
• Comprehensive but focused
• Regularly maintained
• Genuinely useful to readers

Content that gets hit:

• Thin, aggregated content
• Keyword-stuffed
• Outdated/stale
• Missing expertise signals

The principle: Content that AI systems WANT to cite is also content Google WANTS to rank. Build for quality, survive updates.

Set up monitoring to catch this earlier:

What to track together:

Alert thresholds:

• Rankings drop >20%: Investigate immediately
• AI citations drop >30%: Check if correlated with rankings
• Traffic drop >25%: Full audit

The correlation dashboard: Plot Google rankings against AI visibility on the same chart. Look for:

• Do they move together? (correlation)
• Does AI lag behind? (typical)
• Are they diverging? (platform-specific issue)

Our setup: Weekly report comparing:

• Google position changes
• AI citation rate changes
• Correlation coefficient

This helps us see patterns and respond faster.

This clarifies a lot. My recovery plan:

Immediate (this week):

1. Set up Am I Cited to track AI visibility
2. Correlate ranking drops with AI visibility drops
3. Identify specific pages most affected

Month 1: Content audit

1. Identify thin/low-value pages
2. Flag pages missing author credentials
3. Find outdated content
4. Prioritize by traffic impact

Month 2-3: Content improvements

1. Remove or consolidate thin content
2. Add author credentials and expertise signals
3. Update outdated information
4. Restructure for better answers

Month 4+: Monitor recovery

1. Track Google rankings recovery
2. Track AI visibility recovery (expect lag)
3. Adjust strategy based on what’s working

Key takeaways:

• AI visibility is connected to rankings (not direct, but correlated)
• Fix quality issues → Fix both problems
• AI recovery lags Google recovery by a few weeks
• Need to track both to see the full picture

Mindset shift: I was treating SEO and AI visibility as separate. They’re connected through content quality. Fix the root cause, fix both.

Thanks everyone!