In 2005, if you wanted to rank on Google, you needed backlinks. Other websites had to point to yours. Each link was a vote of confidence, a signal that your content was worth referencing. The more quality links you had, the higher you ranked.
In 2026, if you want AI to recommend you, you need AI mentions. AI platforms need to encounter your brand in the right contexts, enough times, from enough credible sources, to confidently recommend you when someone asks.
The mechanism is different. The principle is identical. Third-party signals of trust determine your visibility.
The backlink parallel
Think about why backlinks worked for SEO.
Google needed a way to determine which pages deserved to rank highest. It couldn't just trust what a website said about itself (everyone claims to be the best). Instead, it looked at what other websites said. A link from a reputable site to your page was an endorsement. Accumulate enough endorsements, and you'd outrank competitors.
The quality of the linking site mattered. A link from The New York Times was worth more than a link from a random blog. Relevance mattered too. A link from an industry-specific publication in your niche was more valuable than one from an unrelated site.
AI recommendations work on strikingly similar logic.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI platforms need to determine which brands to recommend for specific queries. They can't just trust what a business says about itself. Instead, they evaluate what the broader web says. Reviews, editorial mentions, comparison articles, community discussions, and independent analyses all contribute to the AI's understanding of whether a business is credible and recommendable.
The quality of the mention source matters. Being featured in a respected industry publication carries more weight than being mentioned in a low-authority blog. Relevance matters too. A mention in a context directly related to your niche is more powerful than a passing reference on an unrelated site.
The parallels are hard to ignore.
What counts as an AI mention
An "AI mention" is any instance where an AI platform references or recommends your brand in response to a user query. But those mentions don't appear from nowhere. They're built from specific types of signals.
Review platform presence. When your business has genuine reviews on G2, Trustpilot, Capterra, or industry-specific review sites, AI systems treat these as credibility indicators. The volume and sentiment of reviews influence how confidently the AI recommends you.
Editorial coverage. Articles in industry publications, features in "best of" lists, and mentions in comparison content all feed into the AI's knowledge. This is the closest equivalent to a high-quality backlink. One feature in a respected publication can meaningfully impact your AI visibility.
Community mentions. Discussions on Reddit, industry forums, Quora, and other community platforms contribute to the AI's understanding of your reputation. When real users recommend your product in genuine conversations, AI takes note.
Content that others reference. If you publish research, frameworks, or tools that other content creators cite, those citations build your authority in AI systems. This is almost exactly like earning backlinks, except the benefit extends beyond Google to every AI platform that encounters those citations.
Consistent web presence. Your own website, social profiles, and directory listings create the foundational data that AI uses to understand what you do. This is more like on-page SEO than off-page, but it's a necessary foundation.
Why this shift matters
The shift from backlinks to AI mentions has significant implications for how businesses build authority.
The playing field is different. In the backlink era, earning links required technical SEO knowledge, outreach campaigns, and often significant budgets. Large companies with dedicated SEO teams had a structural advantage. AI mentions are driven more by genuine reputation and clear positioning. A solo consultant with great reviews and a strong niche presence can outperform a large company with mediocre reviews and vague positioning.
Velocity matters. Early link builders in SEO had a compounding advantage that was hard for latecomers to overcome. The same dynamic is forming with AI mentions. Businesses building their AI credibility signals now will be harder to displace once AI recommendation patterns solidify.
Manipulation is harder. Link schemes and paid link building were widespread in SEO. AI mentions are harder to game. You can't easily fake reviews at scale without getting caught. You can't fabricate editorial coverage. The signals that drive AI recommendations are harder to manipulate, which actually benefits legitimate businesses that deliver real value.
The diversity of signals matters more. In SEO, you could theoretically rank well with backlinks alone. AI recommendations draw from a broader set of signals: reviews, mentions, community reputation, content quality, and positioning clarity. No single signal dominates, which means you need a well-rounded presence rather than strength in just one area.
How to "earn" AI mentions
The strategies parallel the best practices of ethical link building, with some important additions.
Create content worth referencing. Original research, unique data, and novel frameworks give other creators a reason to cite you. In the backlink world, "link-worthy content" was a cornerstone strategy. The same logic applies to building the kind of presence that AI platforms recognize.
Build genuine review momentum. After every successful project or sale, make it easy for satisfied clients to leave reviews on relevant platforms. Don't game it. Don't incentivize fake reviews. Just systematically ask happy clients to share their experience. This is one of the highest-leverage activities for AI visibility.
Pursue earned media and editorial mentions. Pitch stories to publications your audience reads. Share unique insights, data, or perspectives that journalists and editors actually want to cover. One genuine editorial mention is worth more than dozens of self-published articles.
Participate in community discussions. Show up where your audience hangs out. Answer questions on Reddit, contribute to industry forums, engage in LinkedIn discussions. When you genuinely help people and your brand name appears in those contexts, you're building the signal that AI platforms detect.
Maintain impeccable positioning clarity. AI needs to understand exactly what you do and who you serve. Every touchpoint, from your website to your LinkedIn bio to your directory listings, should reinforce the same clear message. Consistency amplifies every other signal.
Tracking your AI mention profile
In SEO, tools like Ahrefs and Moz tracked your backlink profile. You could see how many links you had, where they came from, and how they changed over time.
AI mentions need similar tracking. You need to know: Does ChatGPT recommend you? For which queries? Does Perplexity mention you? How about Gemini and Claude? How does your mention profile compare to competitors?
Mentionable was built to answer these questions. It tracks your visibility across AI platforms for the relevant queries that matter to your business, giving you the same kind of visibility into your AI mention profile that backlink tools gave you for SEO.
Without tracking, you're building blindly. You might be earning mentions and not know it. You might be losing them and not know it. Data is what turns this from guesswork into strategy.
The compounding effect
Just like backlinks, AI mentions compound over time.
When AI recommends you, more people discover and try your product. Some of them leave reviews. Others mention you in their own content. Industry publications take notice and write about you. All of these create new signals that make AI even more likely to recommend you in the future.
The inverse is also true. If you're not being mentioned, you're not building new signals, and the gap between you and competitors who are being mentioned grows wider.
This is why starting matters more than perfecting. The business that begins building AI mention signals today, even imperfectly, will have a meaningful advantage over the one that waits for a perfect strategy.
Backlinks built the authority layer of the internet for two decades. AI mentions are building the authority layer for the next era. The businesses that recognize this parallel early and act on it will capture a disproportionate share of AI-driven discovery.
The playbook isn't complicated. Build something genuinely good. Make your positioning crystal clear. Earn independent credibility. And track where you stand so you can keep improving.
The rest takes care of itself.
