AI Search Optimization: How Backlinks and Mentions Help You Rank

AI is changing how people search for information.

Users don’t use ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini or the AI Overviews for simple informational queries, but also for product research.

While organic search remains the main medium, we expect AI search to grow in importance. So even if it isn’t affecting your business dramatically just yet, getting cited by LLMs (or not) will most likely affect your bottom line in the future.

In the article, I will explain how you can increase your visibility in AI search results, focusing on mentions and backlinks. You will also discover the most effective techniques for securing them.

Let’s get started!

How Has AI Changed User Search Behavior?

AI is changing how users search for information on a few levels.

First, some users have moved away from traditional search engines like Google or Bing in favor of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity.

Although their popularity is steadily increasing, Google Search still controls over 90% of the global search market.

According to SparkToro, it grew by 20%, and it received 373 times as many searches as ChatGPT in 2024.

The increase in Google use doesn’t mean an increase in organic traffic, though. Ahrefs has estimated that AI overviews, which appear for 99.2% of informational and 10% commercial/transactional queries and have grown by 116% since the March Core Update, reduce CTRs by 34.5%.

More zero-click searches mean less organic traffic.

According to Ahrefs, the average site has lost around 21% of its organic traffic over the last 12 months.

AI chatbots and AI overviews send referral traffic to websites.

Around 0.25% of websites’ total traffic on average, to be specific. This is nearly a 9.7x increase over the past year.

However, the overall balance is negative.

What’s worse, despite Google's claims, LLM referral traffic appears to be less engaged, a study by SALT.agency has found.

However, it isn’t all doom and gloom.

Semrush estimates that the average LLM visitor is worth 4.4 times as much as an average traditional organic search visitor, and AI overviews can increase CTRs for branded queries by 18.68% and homepage visits by 10.7%.

How so?

Customers use AI at the early stages of the buying journey - to discover and research products.

So when they click your link or search for your brand online, they already know what they need.

How AI Decides What to Show in Its Responses

Foundational LLM models, like ChatGPT or Claude, didn’t crawl the live web. They used information from training datasets to form their responses.

However, as these can quickly become outdated, LLMs increasingly use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

Instead of relying on their pre-trained knowledge, they retrieve fresh information from the web to construct their answers.

Different models prefer different sources:

1) Google's AI Overviews and Gemini draw from its powerful search index and favor content that already ranks well and exhibits strong signals of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

2) Historically, ChatGPT has relied strongly on Wikipedia, reputable global news outlets, and blogs. When it searches the live web, it uses the Microsoft Bing search index.

Interestingly, the Semrush study showed that these aren’t necessarily the highest-ranking results that get cited: in 9 out of 10 times, they rank in positions 21 and lower.

50% of links in ChatGPT come from Business/Service websites when generating answers about them.

3) Perplexity AI emphasises trusted, expert sources and specialised review sites like NerdWallet and Investopedia.

What does it mean for you?

To get cited in LLM responses, you need to find a way to get cited in the sources they use to form their answers.

And not just once.

The key is repetition. The more consistently your brand is cited across trusted, topically relevant websites, the more likely AI models treat it as credible.

Do Backlinks Still Matter in the AI Era?

In a recent survey we conducted, 73.2% of the 500+ respondents said they believed backlinks influence the chance of appearing in AI search results.

Backlinks affect search visibility in two ways.

First, they act as citations. So, a strong backlink profile means you’re more likely to be cited in authority sources that the LLMs are trained on.

Secondly, they are a major ranking signal in organic search. And if LLMs use search results in their responses, quality backlinks increase the chances that your content will be used.

So it’s safe to say backlinks remain one of the core levers for influencing both classic SEO and AI-driven visibility.

How important are unlinked brand mentions for AI search visibility?

Traditionally, a lot of effort went into converting unlinked brand mentions into links.

But this is where the game is changing, according to Pavel Buel:

LLMs don’t care whether your name is hyperlinked — they care that it shows up consistently, in the right context, and across trusted domains.

If your brand is mentioned 20 times across Reddit, Hacker News, industry blogs, and LinkedIn — you’ll show up in AI-generated answers. Even if none of those mentions are links.

And data confirms it: A study of 75K brands conducted by Ahrefs shows a strong correlation between brand web mentions and brand visibility in AI search results. In fact, the correlations are stronger than for backlinks (0.664 vs. 0.218).

What Actually Works: How to Get Mentions and Backlinks for AI Visibility

So, how do you get those highly coveted mentions and backlinks?

Here are strategies that we and other SEOs have found particularly successful.

1. Get featured in listicles

Listicles, like “Top X” or “Best Y”, are well-structured, easily-scannable, and entity-rich, often cited by LLMs.

For example, here’s a ChatGPT response to a query about the best SEO tools, where it pulled the information from listicle-style content.

We have seen really good results from listicles on our blog.

Here’s an AI overview for link insertion services citing our article.

Publishing your own listicles, like the one above, allows you to control the narrative and positions your brand alongside others in your niche.

But let's face it: there are only so many listicles that you can publish on your website.

The alternative?

Approach other websites and ask them to add you to their existing listicles.

That’s what we did to get featured in the Powered by Search article about the best SaaS link-building services.

The result?

The article gets cited in the AI overview for the keyword.

And so does Editorial.Link.

You can find existing “Best X” or “Top Y” articles in your niche via Google Search (look for those that are already cited.)

When you contact the publisher, keep your pitch short and specific. Highlight what sets your product apart, offer a short description, and suggest how it fits into the list.

And offer to write the section for them.

Something like this will work:

2. Write guest posts

Another way to get featured in a listicle is to combine the two strategies above: write the listicle yourself and pitch it as a guest post.

The main benefit of guest posting is that you retain control over the article while still leveraging the authority of the hosting website. It also gets your brand in front of new audiences and brings referral traffic.

When prospecting, aim for websites with strong topical authority. Ideally, ones that get cited frequently for various queries in your niche.

For example, Monday.com, ProjectManager.com, and TeamGantt.com get cited in AI Overviews for “project management,” and they’re all open to guest posting pitches.

3. Use digital PR

Digital PR lets you get citations in authoritative media outlets and blogs that LLMs often pull data from.

There are three ways to go about it:

• Respond to journalist enquiries on HARO-like services, for example, Qwoted, Featured, or SourceBottle. 
• Share original data, industry trends, or product updates with publishers covering your niche.
• Respond to industry news with your commentary and distribute it to journalists.

Whether you’re pursuing proactive campaigns or responding to media opportunities (formerly known as HARO link building), these strategies provide natural and credible ways to earn brand mentions.

4. Get active on Reddit

Google has always used Reddit content in AIO and Gemini answers, and so did Perplexity.

In fact, it’s the second most-cited source in AI Overviews, according to Semrush, right after Quora!

OpenAI seems to be following suit. According to Josh Bryskal, Reddit citations in ChatGPT have increased by 400% in the last 2-3 weeks and account for nearly 6% of all sources.

Also, Reddit has always shaped AI citations indirectly: A lot of bloggers use it for research, so being mentioned in relevant threads increases your chances of getting featured in their articles, creating a kind of snowball effect, as Adam Yong, the Founder of Agility Writer, describes it:

Honestly, Reddit has been the surprise winner. I joined a few threads related to AI writing tools and gave actual examples using Agility Writer. Those posts got quoted later in industry writeups which then made their way into AI summaries. Not instant, but it snowballs.

5. Get reviews on third-party sites

Actively soliciting genuine customer reviews isn't just good for conversions - it directly enhances your visibility in AI-generated answer boxes.

To maximize their impact:

1. Encourage detailed reviews that mention specific features and benefits you want to highlight.
2. Implement Review and AggregateRating schema markup to help AI agents parse ratings and review counts directly.
3. Highlight top reviews on your pages; weave them into your product copy.
4. Respond to reviews promptly to signal freshness and trustworthiness.
5. Leverage multiple platforms to broaden the AI’s data sources.

The best citations have come from service reviews embedded on third-party platforms, not just our own site. Asking satisfied customers to drop a review with a brief service summary on pages like ProductReview or even Whirlpool Forum has had a compounding effect.

How to Tell If AI Is Actually Picking Up Your Brand

How do you make sure that your AI Search Optimization/GEO/AEO/LLMO efforts work?

Here are a few:

1. Check the AI citations manually

The simplest - but also the most time-consuming way - is by tracking AI citations for relevant queries manually.

Say you want to see if your project management tool gets cited as the best Monday.com alternative.

Simply search for it and check.

💡Pro tip: Inspect the sources that get cited and add them to your outreach prospect list.

2. Use dedicated monitoring tools

For a more methodical approach, try tools like Ahrefs Brand Radar, which tracks your visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews.

The tool allows you to gauge your share of voice and market share against competitors, identify visibility gaps, and even monitor brand sentiment.

Currently, SE Ranking is the only alternative for tracking AI Overview citations.

3. Track brand mentions online

Tracking brand mentions with tools like Brand24, Mention, or Talkwalker is an indirect way to measure the impact of your campaigns.

They help you understand where and how your brand gets mentioned across the web, so you can estimate your online presence and use the insights to shape it.

4. Track LLM traffic and CTRs in GA4

Tracking traffic from LLM citations allows you to assess the business impact of your optimization campaigns.

Here’s how to do it in GA4

• Create a new Exploration report.
• Set "Session source/medium" as a dimension and "Views" as metrics.
• In Segments, create a new session segment. 
• Use a regex filter to capture traffic from known AI and LLM referrers, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, etc.

Backlinks in AI Era FAQs

Let’s finish by answering a couple of frequently asked questions about AI search.

Which AI chatbot sends the most referral traffic?

ChatGPT is the one that sends the most referral traffic — 83% according to Ahrefs, followed by Perplexity (10%), Copilot (4%), and others, like Gemini, Claude, or Mistral (3%).

So if you’re optimizing your SEO strategy for AI visibility, ChatGPT is the one to target.

Are links and mentions enough to get cited in AI search results?

As in SEO, backlinks and mentions are just one part of the AIO/GEO/LLMA/AEO puzzle.

Here are other things that will help you boost your visibility:

• Build topical authority with deep content.  
• Create assets that demonstrate your experience, expertise, authority, and trust.
• Keep content fresh and updated.
• Use structured data and schema.
• Improve the user experience on the website (loading speed, intuitive navigation, etc.)

Without these, your content won't rank, and without ranking, you’re less likely to appear in AI search results.

Final Words

AI is changing how people get information. It is particularly noticeable for top and middle of the funnel queries - when they try to understand their problems and search for solutions.

The bottom line? You want your brand or product featured in AI overviews and chatbot answers.

Brand mentions and backlinks are essential “ranking” levers. They help LLMs understand your product and establish your authority.

If you need help securing mentions and backlinks that will help you appear in AI search results, get in touch!