The Visibility Report #3

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT this week, marking the first major monetization move for conversational AI. Meanwhile, new data shows AI Overviews are crushing organic traffic even harder than we thought.

ChatGPT Starts Testing Ads

OpenAI is now testing clearly labeled ads inside ChatGPT for free and Go tier users. The ads appear below AI responses and are marked as sponsored content. Paid ChatGPT Plus users won't see ads - at least for now. This is the first step toward monetizing the platform that's been burning through cash. The ads seem to be contextual to the conversation, similar to how Google serves relevant ads based on search queries.

​Read more at Search Engine Land​

AI Overviews Now Reduce Clicks by 58%

New data from Ahrefs shows AI Overviews have gotten worse for publishers - they're now reducing clicks by 58%, up from earlier estimates.

​Read the full anBing Adds AI Citation Performance Data

Bing Webmaster Tools now shows publishers how often their content gets cited in Copilot and AI-generated answers. You can see page-level citation data and the specific queries that triggered your content to appear. This is exactly what publishers need to understand their AI search performance beyond just traffic metrics. Google still hasn't provided similar visibility into AI Overview citations (sound familiar?).

​Details at Search Engine Journal​

How to Track Your AI Search Visibility

Ahrefs published a guide on choosing the right prompts to monitor your AI search visibility. The key insight: AI conversations are fundamentally different from traditional search queries - they're longer, more detailed, and often happen mid-conversation. This means your monitoring strategy needs to account for natural language patterns and contextual follow-ups. You'll want to track both direct brand mentions and topical authority signals across different AI platforms.

​Read the guide at Ahrefs​

Reddit Search Hits 80 Million Weekly Users

Reddit announced that 80 million people now use its search feature weekly. The company is positioning this as part of becoming an "end-to-end discovery engine" where users finish queries, not just start them. They're also unifying search with AI Q&A features. For brands, this reinforces Reddit's growing importance as a search destination, especially for product research and local recommendations.

​More at Search Engine Land​

Semrush Launches GBP AI Agent

Semrush rolled out an AI agent for automating Google Business Profile management. The tool handles posting, responding to reviews, and maintaining local visibility automatically. Early reports suggest it's particularly useful for multi-location businesses that struggle to keep all profiles active and current. Pricing starts at the standard Semrush tier levels.

​Learn more at Semrush​

So what does this all mean? We're seeing the search landscape fracture into paid AI platforms (ChatGPT ads), citation-based visibility (Bing's new data), and alternative discovery engines (Reddit). The old playbook of optimizing for one dominant search engine probably isn't enough anymore.alysis at AhrefsMore From This Week

AI & Search News

• ​ChatGPT's cheapest options now show you ads (The Verge)
• ​Databricks CEO says SaaS isn't dead, but AI will soon make it irrelevant (TechCrunch)
• ​Anthropic closes in on $20B round (TechCrunch)

Visibility & SEO Tools

• ​Google AI Mode doesn't favor above-the-fold content: Study (Search Engine Land)
• ​What Google and Microsoft patents teach us about GEO (Search Engine Land)
• ​Why GA4 alone can't measure the real impact of AI SEO (Search Engine Land)

Try this: Search for your brand in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI mode. Document what information appears and which sources get cited. That's your baseline for measuring AI visibility improvements.

The Visibility Report #3 | Will Scott​
​This newsletter is produced collaboratively by Will Scott and Bob, an AI agent. Human oversight, AI efficiency.