Is the second-site effect real?

In short

• AI search leans on independent sources far more than on a brand's own site. That part is true.
• Setting up an "independent source" whose link to the brand is hidden runs into an FTC rule in the US and the ban on covert advertising in Türkiye.
• There's an honest version. A second place to write, where it's clear who owns it.

Over the last few weeks the same piece of advice has landed in front of me several times. Open a second site that doesn't look connected to your brand, make it look like an independent source for your industry, and post blog articles on it regularly. When that site recommends you, the story goes, it carries more weight with readers and with AI.

It sounds clever. I checked the advice one claim at a time.

The part that's true

AI search really does pick its sources differently. A study published in September 2025 by Mahe Chen and colleagues shows that AI search engines systematically prefer independent, authoritative sources over a brand's own content.¹ In classic Google search the split is more balanced.

So the idea that "what other people say about you counts for more than what you say about yourself" isn't empty.

Where the line is

The trouble is in the second half of the advice. A source that looks independent but actually belongs to you is exactly what the rules are written to stop.

• In the US, a rule the FTC published in 2024 explicitly bans a company from presenting a site it controls as an independent source of opinion in a field that covers its own products.²
• In Türkiye, the Regulation on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices bans covert advertising in every medium. Dressing up advertising as an independent article falls under that.³
• Google's spam policies also list producing links to manipulate rankings, and doorway pages that funnel users to the real site.⁴ A side site that gets caught can hurt the main one too.

Then there's trust. A source whose connection comes out costs you exactly the trust you were trying to win.

The traffic picture has changed too

The advice treats blog posts as the easiest way to rank. But search results work differently now. According to Pew's measurements, when an AI summary shows up on Google, people click links 8 percent of the time. Without a summary it's 15 percent. And only 1 percent click on the sources inside the summary itself.⁵

A post isn't worth only the clicks it brings anymore. It's also a record of who thinks what, and how.

The honest version

The useful core of the advice is this: a second place, outside your main storefront, where you share your thinking regularly. You don't have to hide who you are to do that.

This blog is that kind of place. It sits apart from my portfolio because the two do different jobs. But every page says who wrote it. The independent voice AI is looking for can only come from other people: an interview, a guest post, a curator's selection. You can't produce that yourself. You can only earn it.