Ahrefs studied 75,000 brands: link metrics barely track AI mentions, while brand mentions do. What the data shows, where links still count, and what to do.
Ahrefs looked at 75,000 brands and checked which site metrics line up with being mentioned in ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews. Link metrics came back with what the study calls "very weak correlations". Branded web mentions came back between 0.656 and 0.709 depending on the platform. If a competitor with fewer links keeps showing up in AI answers ahead of you, this study suggests looking beyond link counts, though Ahrefs stresses that its figures are correlations. Here is what the data shows, where links still count, and a routine for tracking and winning mentions.
What the Ahrefs data shows
Ahrefs filtered for domains with a Domain Rating above 40 and took each one's highest volume keyword with at least 800 monthly searches. That gave it 75,000 brands. It then searched millions of AI responses for mentions of those brands and compared mention counts with a set of site metrics.
Branded web mentions correlated at 0.656 (AI Overviews), 0.664 (ChatGPT) and 0.709 (AI Mode). Ahrefs says brands with more mentions across different contexts, from blog posts and anchors to video transcripts, descriptions and titles, are more likely to appear in AI responses.
Link metrics barely registered. Ahrefs describes the link between number of backlinks, URL Rating and AI mentions as very weak on all three platforms. Content volume did no better: number of site pages correlated at about 0.194. Domain Rating sat in the middle, which Ahrefs calls "a mid-tier correlating factor".
YouTube mentions came out on top, at about 0.737. That held for ChatGPT as well as for Google's two AI surfaces, so it is not only Google favoring its own platform. Ahrefs notes that YouTube is ChatGPT's sixth most-cited domain, and that both Google and OpenAI have trained their models on YouTube transcripts. We cover that part of the study in more detail in what Ahrefs found about YouTube mentions and backlinks.
Ahrefs states plainly that correlation is not causation. The pattern still repeats across three AI systems and 75,000 brands.
Why links are no longer the whole story
Ahrefs explains that the most popular AI assistants use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which "pulls in information from the web through search engines." The assistant reads a set of pages and builds its answer from them, so your brand can come up when it appears in those pages: a comparison article, a Reddit thread, a YouTube review or a "best of" list. Search Engine Land makes the related point that AI platforms can use non-linked content to learn about a brand, and that "None of this information needs to be hyperlinked."
Ahrefs' Director of Content, Ryan Law, put the content side of this simply: it is not just a race to publish more. The study makes the same point about links: building lots of them just for volume is not enough.
Search Engine Land describes the shift as part of entity SEO: mapping relationships, not just links, to a brand, and keeping its brand signals consistent across the web. On that view, it says, an unlinked mention on Reddit could be as valuable as a dofollow link from a site with a mid-level authority score.
Don't overcorrect: links still count
None of this says links have stopped mattering. In a survey reported by Search Engine Land, nearly 70% of marketers said backlinks have a "big impact" on rankings. The same guide cites a Semrush analysis that found link quality has a large influence on which domains show up in AI search, most clearly in ChatGPT and less so in Perplexity. If you want the ranking side of the question, our piece on whether backlinks still matter in 2026 covers what Google and the ranking studies say.
What has changed is that links are one input among several. The platforms also differ. AI Mode leans hardest on established brands, with the highest branded web mention correlation at 0.709. ChatGPT shows the weakest correlations with classic authority metrics, and Ahrefs says it "may be the best entry point into AI visibility" for a brand with modest search volume, backlinks and web mentions.
A routine for tracking and winning mentions
If your link building workflow has no step for mentions, this routine adds one, using checks you can run without a large tool budget.
1. Find where you are mentioned, and where you are not. Ahrefs recommends, at the very least, setting up Google Alerts for your brand name; our comparison of Google Alerts and AI Mode monitoring covers what each one catches. Then look for pages that talk about your competitors but not you. Ahrefs calls these "perfect opportunities to pitch your solution".
2. Turn unlinked mentions into links where it makes sense. A page that already names you is a natural place to ask for a link. SerpCrest's Unlinked Mention Finder finds pages that name a brand but don't link to it, opens each one live, and shows the exact sentence and a contact page.
3. Ask the AI assistants what a buyer would ask. Ahrefs suggests manual checks with prompts such as "What are the best [your product category] tools?" and "How do I choose between [your brand] and [competitor]?" It adds that you should ask the same question a few times and see whether you are featured each time. Ahrefs warns that this is time-consuming and still misses most AI mentions, but it gives you a basic sense of how AI represents your brand.
4. Put third-party placements ahead of more pages on your own site. When Ahrefs audited its own AI mentions, none of its own pages appeared in the top 10 sources cited for its brand. Its guide to monitoring brand mentions in AI answers lists industry rankings, "best of" lists, reviews and PR coverage among the placements that can increase the chances of AI mentioning your brand.
5. Give YouTube and Reddit specific attention. Ahrefs found that YouTube, Reddit and Quora are among the top five domains cited across the six AI indexes it tracks. Search Engine Land reports that Reddit appears as a source in 3% of AI citations, and that more than 80% of those Reddit citations answer decision-seeking prompts, such as head-to-head brand comparisons. That is the moment a buyer is choosing between you and a competitor. A few product walkthroughs on YouTube and genuine, disclosed participation in relevant subreddits can be a starting point.
6. Keep building links, but stop treating the count as the goal. Aim outreach at sites that are also likely sources of mentions, such as industry roundups, comparison sites and trade press. Our view, for what it is worth: one placement on a page buyers read can earn both a link and a mention, so plan link building and mention building as one job.
The takeaway
Links are not obsolete, but in this study they line up only weakly with AI mentions. Across 75,000 brands and three AI platforms, branded web mentions correlated at 0.656 to 0.709 and YouTube mentions at about 0.737. Number of backlinks and URL Rating were very weak. If your plan is built only around link counts, keep it, and add a mention routine next to it: track where you are named, ask the assistants, and pitch the pages that cover your competitors but not you.
