Recent research suggests Google may be reevaluating how it treats self-promotional “best of” listicles in search results. The findings follow noticeable volatility after the December 2025 core update and significant visibility declines among several SaaS and B2B brands.
Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at Amsive, identified a pattern among companies that experienced sharp drops in organic visibility in January. Many relied heavily on review-style content that ranked their own product as the No. 1 “best” in its category. These pages often included the current year in the title to signal recency.
Visibility Declines After December Core Update
According to Barry Schwartz, Google search results showed increased volatility throughout January following the December 2025 core update. Google has not announced or confirmed additional updates in 2026. However, the timing aligns with steep visibility losses among several well-known SaaS and B2B brands.
Ray reported that in multiple cases, organic visibility dropped 30 percent to 50 percent within weeks. The declines were not domain-wide. Instead, they were concentrated in blog, guide, and tutorial subfolders.
Those sections frequently contained dozens or hundreds of self-promotional listicles targeting “best” queries. In most instances, the publisher ranked its own product first. Many articles were lightly refreshed with “2026” in the title, with limited evidence of substantive updates.
Ray also noted that declines in Google organic results could affect visibility across large language models that rely on Google’s search results. This reach extends beyond Google’s own AI products, such as Gemini, AI Mode, and AI Overviews, and likely includes platforms such as ChatGPT.
Review Trust Signals and Content Quality
Self-promotional listicles have served as a strategy to influence rankings and AI-generated answers. If Google is reassessing how it evaluates this type of content, strategies centered on “best” queries may face increased risk.
Ranking one’s own product as the “best” without independent testing, transparent methodology, or third-party validation has long been considered a questionable SEO tactic. Although not explicitly prohibited, the approach conflicts with Google’s stated guidance on reviews and trust.
Google has consistently emphasized that high-quality reviews should demonstrate first-hand experience, originality, and evidence of evaluation. Self-promotional listicles often fall short of these criteria, particularly when they do not disclose bias.
Additional Contributing Factors
Ray acknowledged that self-promotional listicles likely were not the only factor influencing organic visibility. Many of the affected sites also demonstrated rapid content scaling, automation, aggressive year-over-year refreshes, and other tactics associated with algorithmic risk.
However, the consistency of self-ranking “best” content among the hardest-hit sites suggests this signal may now carry greater weight, particularly when implemented at scale.
Ongoing Volatility
It remains to be seen whether self-promotional listicles will continue to earn citations and organic visibility. Google rarely applies changes evenly or immediately.
If recent volatility reflects adjustments to Google’s review system, the shift appears to favor content that prioritizes credible, independent evaluation over content designed primarily to influence rankings.
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