Reddit’s ChatGPT Citation Share Plummets 86% in August

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Reddit’s share of citations in ChatGPT searches experienced a dramatic decline in August, prompting data analysts to question explanations for the sudden drop.

Promptwatch, a data analytics firm, reported an 86.4 percent relative decline in Reddit‘s citation share, falling from an average of 3.83 percent between July 18 and August 7 to just 0.52 percent from August 14 to August 17.

The initial dip in Reddit’s visibility within ChatGPT occurred on August 8, coinciding with a significant change in OpenAI‘s fanout query behavior. On that date, ChatGPT’s use of the ‘site:’ operator in fanout queries surged from 0.37 percent to 16.8 percent of all such queries, Promptwatch observed.

However, the most substantial decline in Reddit citations was recorded on August 14, six days after ChatGPT’s ‘site:’ operator modification. This delay suggests that the change in operator use alone may not fully account for the sharp reduction, according to Promptwatch analyst Klaas Foppen.

The situation echoes a similar sharp drop in Reddit’s visibility within ChatGPT that occurred in September 2022. That previous decline was attributed by analyst Kevin Indig to Google‘s removal of the ‘num=100’ search parameter, which affected data providers.

Promptwatch is continuing to monitor the situation to determine if Reddit’s share of ChatGPT citations recovers. The firm is also investigating whether the August 14 drop could be an anomaly or a data artifact rather than a permanent shift.

Representatives for Reddit and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Source: Search Engine Journal