He published 50,000 fake stats and ChatGPT still cites them: 10k AI sessions, 330+ backlinks
metehan777 · x · 2026-10-12
GEO researcher Metehan Yesilyurt details an experiment: 7 months ago he launched a site with 50,000 entirely fabricated statistics. Google has deindexed it, but ChatGPT keeps citing it — the site has received 10,000+ AI sessions, earned backlinks from 330+ referring domains including Shopify, Bluehost and DHL, and its made-up numbers ended up in an academic paper and a bank's investment research.
Key insight: as teams use LLMs for time-sensitive content, models hunt for "reliable-looking" statistics during grounding — exactly what his fake pages provided. Most GEO advice stops at getting into the AI answer; he studied what happens after, as people reuse the numbers in decks, lists and their own sites.
Both a credibility indictment of AI search and a replicable (and ethically fraught) GEO growth tactic.
Related event: 50,000 Fabricated Statistics Cited Widely by ChatGPT in GEO Experiment(2 posts)→
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