How AI’s ‘Hallucinated Links’ Can Damage Your Website’s SEO
AI content is everywhere. It’s writing blogs, generating citations, and even suggesting resources. But there’s a growing issue: many of these AI-generated links are fake.
They look real. They mention your domain. They even appear in AI answers, blog posts, and scraped content.
But they lead nowhere.
These are hallucinated links: URLs that have never existed but are treated like they do.
And if you’re not actively monitoring your website, they could be costing you traffic, credibility, and search visibility.
What Are Hallucinated Links?
A hallucinated link is a non-existent URL, often created by generative AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. These models are trained on billions of data points, but sometimes, when they “don’t know” the answer, they fabricate something that sounds plausible.
That includes links.
These hallucinated URLs usually look like:
- A blog article with a URL structure that fits your domain
- A service or landing page that AI thinks should exist
- A citation to a whitepaper or PDF you’ve never published
The link may point to your site. But it doesn’t lead to a real page. Instead, users hit a 404.
And that opens up real SEO concerns.
Why Hallucinated Links Matter for SEO
Hallucinated links may seem harmless, after all, no one at your company created them.
But they can cause problems in several ways:
-
Lost User Trust
If a link promising helpful content leads to a 404 page, the user’s experience is negatively impacted. If it happens repeatedly, it can damage brand trust.
-
Poor Crawl Efficiency
Search engines like Google use crawl budgets to explore your site. If bots hit too many broken or fake links, your real content might get overlooked.
-
Missed Traffic Opportunities
Some of these fake links come from high-visibility sources, including AI tools shown in search results. If the hallucinated link led to a real page, you might gain qualified traffic. But without a real page, the opportunity disappears.
-
Confusion in Backlink Profiles
Hallucinated links sometimes get picked up by spammy aggregators or scraped onto other domains. If you’re not actively auditing your backlink profile, these ghost links clutter your link data and make it harder to identify real SEO opportunities.
Should You Redirect Hallucinated Links?
Short answer: no.
Some SEOs have considered redirecting fake URLs to real pages. The idea is to “catch” the traffic and preserve link equity.
But Google’s stance is clear: don’t do it.
Redirecting hallucinated links doesn’t pass value. It confuses users, doesn’t support your long-term SEO, and creates messy redirect maps.
Instead, invest your time in monitoring and strengthening what matters.
How to Deal with Hallucinated Links
You can’t stop AI from hallucinating. But you can stay ahead of the fallout:
Audit Your Site Weekly or Monthly
Use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush to monitor for 404 errors. If the fake URLs are showing up consistently, create real pages that should exist—or clean up dead links in your internal structure.
Monitor Google Search Console
Watch for crawl errors or unexpected requests. If AI keeps hallucinating a certain page (Ex: /resources/guide-to-local-seo”), maybe it’s time to actually create it.
Track Mentions of Your Domain
Use brand monitoring tools to find where your domain is being cited. If an AI-generated blog links to a fake URL on your site, you can choose to contact the publisher or use it as inspiration for future content.
Avoid Redirecting to Irrelevant Pages
Instead of redirecting hallucinated URLs to your homepage or a catch-all page, let them 404. Or better, create a helpful 404 page that guides users back to relevant content.
Why Ongoing Website Auditing and SEO Management Matter
AI hallucinations aren’t going away.
In fact, with AI-written content increasing by the day, you can expect more fabricated citations and phantom links to hit your site.
That’s why active SEO management is no longer optional.
Having a marketing team or SEO expert monitor your site health helps you:
- Catch 404s and crawl errors before they impact rankings
- Discover unexpected brand mentions and link opportunities
- Identify patterns in AI hallucinations that point to content gaps
- Keep your sitemap clean and crawlable
- Improve your user experience through accurate navigation
SEO in 2025 isn’t just about keywords; it’s about site integrity. And hallucinated links are one more reason to take audits seriously.
Final Thoughts
You can’t control AI outputs across the internet. But you can control how your site responds.
Hallucinated links are a byproduct of a fast-moving digital world. Don’t chase them, but don’t ignore the signals either.
Make sure your website is equipped to handle the weird traffic AI brings. Regular audits, search monitoring, and strategic content planning are your best defense, and your clearest path to better rankings.
Need help managing your site health?
At FreshMove Media, we help businesses in Richmond, VA and beyond stay ahead of SEO issues, before they hurt your rankings. From technical audits to full-scale content strategy, our team is built to protect your digital presence. Reach out for a free exploratory meeting today.