Backlinks vs. Brand Mentions: The AI SEO Shake-up 🤖 · AEO

Backlinks vs. Brand Mentions: The AI SEO Shake-up 🤖

For years, the SEO mantra has been "links are everything." A new Ahrefs study challenges this, especially for AI-powered search.

Their shocking discovery? Web mentions beat backlinks 3:1 for getting featured in AI Overviews. 🤯

This means AI cares more that people are talking about your brand across the web—on forums, in articles, on Reddit—than if they're formally linking to you. While links still matter for traditional organic traffic, the game is changing for AI visibility.

The takeaway is simple: don't just build links. Build your brand's presence and get mentioned. Authentic conversation now outweighs traditional link authority in the new AI search landscape.

Here's the source article:

https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-brand-correlation/

Are you tracking brand mentions as a key metric?

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