Anthropic updated its usage policy on October 8 to ban using Claude to build networks of fake sources that sway search results and AI answers. The rule takes effect November 12 and reaches every product built on Claude, which means a vendor running that playbook on your behalf puts your whole account at risk. Michael walks through why he reads this as good news, how the case that prompted it got caught, where faking still works, and what to build instead.

In this episode:

• What the new usage policy section on deceptive campaigns prohibits, and who it applies to
• The 70-site fake local news network that got caught by its hosting, registration dates, and publishing timing
• Why more automation makes a network easier to spot, not harder
• How you'd find out if a platform discounted sites that mention you (short answer: you probably wouldn't)
• Where faking still works, and why data voids are the real exposure for small and new companies
• Four things to do this quarter, including the questions to ask any AI visibility vendor

Chapters:
[00:45] Intro
[01:57] Why Michael is happy about this
[03:20] How AI answers get built, and why corroboration is the target
[04:57] What changed in Anthropic's usage policy
[09:46] The 70-site network and how it got caught
[12:43] Platforms closing in from both sides
[15:31] How you'd even know your brand was affected
[18:15] Where faking still works: NewsGuard, Harvard, and Cornell Tech
[22:06] What a durable presence looks like
[24:27] Four things to do now
[31:25] The November 12 deadline
[33:06] Outro

Sources:
Anthropic, 2026 Usage Policy update: https://www.anthropic.com/news/2026-usage-policy-update
Anthropic, Usage Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/aup
Anthropic, Detecting and countering misuse of AI, September 2026: https://www.anthropic.com/threat-intelligence-report-september-2026
OpenAI, Disrupting AI-enabled false front operations: https://openai.com/index/disrupting-ai-enabled-false-front-operations/
Google Search spam policies: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
Google Search ranking updates: https://developers.google.com/search/updates/ranking
Google, Using generative AI content: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/using-gen-ai-content
Google, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content
Google, AI features and your website: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
Reddit bot labeling and human verification (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/25/reddit-bots-new-human-verification-requirements/
NewsGuard, Pravda network audit: https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/moscow-based-global-news-network-infected-western-artificial-intelligence-russian-propaganda/
Alyukov et al., HKS Misinformation Review: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/alyukov_chatbots_kremlin_disinformation_20251015.pdf
Zhang, Triedman, Shmatikov, Cornell Tech (preprint): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.24245
FTC final rule on fake reviews: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials
Shared ChatGPT conversations in Search Console (GSQI): https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/chatgpt-links-in-google-search-console/

AI assistants decide whether to name your company based mostly on what other websites say about you. This week Michael lays out the three programs Victorious runs to get more of those websites talking, and the two things that have to be in place first.

In this episode:

* The three programs, broadest to most targeted: mention building, link building, citation outreach

* Why mentions beat links for AI visibility, per Ahrefs's 75,000-brand study

* The two foundations: an in-house expertise program, and co-occurrence

* Michael's case for paid placements, and the one word in Google's guidance it rests on

* How citation outreach starts: 20 to 50 buyer prompts and a monthly list of 50 pages

Find all the sources referenced in this episode on the Victorious website: [EPISODE PAGE URL]

Chapter Headings

0:00 Intro

1:32 News: Google says to review AI content before publishing

3:45 Google is paying some publishers for AI answers

4:56 AI Overviews on most branded searches

6:32 The three programs, defined

8:24 Why mentions beat links

9:18 Foundation one: an expertise program

13:07 Foundation two: co-occurrence

15:44 Mention building: nine ways to get on other sites

18:37 Press releases

20:53 The case for paid placements

23:25 Link building: the four-level review

26:07 Citation outreach

27:28 Four kinds of citations

28:45 Working the top 50 pages every month

Sources

Google Search Central, "Guidance on using generative AI content," updated October 1, 2026, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/using-gen-ai-content

Search Engine Roundtable, "Google: Manually Factcheck & Review AI-Generated Content For Accuracy," October 1, 2026, https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-ai-content-guidelines-factcheck-review-42217.html

Search Engine Roundtable, "Google Paying ~100 Publishers 0.1% Of Ad Revenue In AI Contribution Pilot" (citing The Information, September 29, 2026), September 29, 2026, https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-contribution-pilot-01-percent-42188.html

DemandSphere, "AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September," October 1, 2026, https://www.demandsphere.com/blog/branded-ai-overviews-september-2026/

Ahrefs, "AI Overviews Currently Appear for 83% of Branded Searches," October 2, 2026, https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-on-branded-searches/

Ahrefs, "An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands Studied)," https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-brand-correlation/

Victorious, Q2 2026 Quarterly Search Report, https://victorious.com/quarterly-search-report/

BrandMentions, 2026 AI visibility study (240 brands, 410,000 mentions), https://brandmentions.com/blog/?p=4770

Octolens, "How B2B SaaS Wins on Reddit: 522M Mention Analysis," 2026, https://octolens.com/reddit-b2b-saas-study

Muck Rack, "7 FAQs about the May 2026 update of 'What Is AI Reading?'," 2026, https://muckrack.com/blog/what-is-ai-reading-new-insights-may-faqs

Google Search Central, "Optimizing your website for generative AI features in Google Search," May 2026, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide

When marketing leaders ask whether their technical SEO covers them for AI search, Michael's answer is mostly yes. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode run on Google's regular index, and most of a standard technical audit carries over to the other platforms. This week he sorts technical work into what to keep, what to start, and the short list of things to skip, including a training-bot decision that removes your own description of your company from what the next model learns.

In this episode

* Why indexability now means two things: a search index and a model's training data

* How OpenAI and Anthropic split their crawlers by job, and why blocking the training bot still costs you in answers that don't involve a search

* Which index each platform searches: Google's for AI Overviews and AI Mode, a mix led by OpenAI's own index for ChatGPT, Brave for Claude, and Bing for Copilot

* Two Google details teams miss: Google-Extended doesn't affect AI Overviews, and old nosnippet tags can keep pages out of them

* The six areas of a technical audit that carry over, and why schema facts also belong in visible text

* Why every important page should make sense as the only page an assistant reads

* How to block training narrowly by folder, and why robots.txt is a request your server may not enforce

* Why Michael recommends skipping LLMs.txt for most sites

* What could change: less live search, paid web search, agents that read pages visually, and agentic checkout

* The order to work through it with your team

Chapters

[00:00:00] Intro

[00:02:26] This week in search: Google's September 2026 spam update, Cloudflare's AI crawler defaults, Google's Web Search Service API docs disappear

[00:05:33] Does your technical SEO cover AI search?

[00:06:04] Keep, start, stop

[00:07:33] Crawlability and the two kinds of indexability

[00:09:31] Separate bots for training and search

[00:10:32] AI Overviews and AI Mode: Google-Extended and snippet controls

[00:12:11] ChatGPT's own search index

[00:14:13] Claude, Brave, and Copilot

[00:15:04] What to do for each platform

[00:17:00] Keep: the six areas of a technical audit

[00:17:54] Site architecture and internal linking

[00:20:16] What your server logs can tell you

[00:20:42] Rendering and page speed

[00:22:00] Structured data

[00:23:47] Start: make every page make sense on its own

[00:25:42] Start: make crawler decisions on purpose

[00:28:40] Blocking training narrowly

[00:29:12] Robots.txt is a request

[00:30:58] Stop: LLMs.txt

[00:33:46] Every black hat tactic was once white hat

[00:34:38] What could change

[00:39:13] Where to start with your team

Find all the resources from this episode on our website.

Sources

Search Engine Journal, "Google Rolls Out September 2026 Spam Update Globally," Sept. 2026, searchenginejournal.com/google-september-2026-spam-update/590828/

The Next Web, "Cloudflare gives AI crawlers a September deadline: pay publishers or get blocked," July 2, 2026, thenextweb.com/news/cloudflare-block-ai-crawlers-pay-publishers

Google Search Central, "AI features and your website," developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features

OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers," platform.openai.com/docs/bots

Peec AI, "ChatGPT built its own search index," Sept. 2026, peec.ai/blog/chatgpt-built-its-own-search-index

HasData, "AI Crawler Block Index," hasdata.com/blog/ai-crawler-block-index

Forrester, "What It Means That The Leader In 'Agentic Commerce' Just Pulled Back," March 2026, forrester.com/blogs/what-it-means-that-the-leader-in-agentic-commerce-just-pulled-back