https://seonews.info/how-to-monitor-your-youtube-video-mentions/ Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:48:09 +0000 https://seonews.info/how-to-monitor-your-youtube-video-mentions/

Your brand is being talked about on YouTube right now—and you probably have no idea what’s being said.

YouTube is the second-largest search engine, where users spend roughly 50 minutes daily (and growing).

It’s also the 2nd most cited source by LLMs, meaning video mentions don’t just reach human audiences—they teach AI how to recommend your brand.

YouTube creators are shaping brand narratives in front of millions of viewers.

Take Canva: it picked up around 460 YouTube mentions this month (according to the YouTube report in Ahrefs Brand Radar).

That might not sound like much, until you realize those 460 mentions translate to 3.4 million views.

If you’re not monitoring your YouTube mentions, you’re leaving your reputation in someone else’s hands.

What are YouTube mentions?

YouTube mentions are any instance where your brand name appears in a channel name, title, description, transcript, or link.

There are two distinct types:

Tagged mentions

Tagged mentions work like social media tags (e.g. @channelname). They link to your channel, and trigger notifications in YouTube whenever you’re mentioned in titles, descriptions, or comments.

One thing to remember about tagged mentions is that the creator has to intentionally tag you—they aren’t just casual passing mentions.

Untagged mentions

Untagged mentions, on the other hand, are organic mentions. They don’t link back to your channel and you won’t get notified when you land one. Untagged mentions can appear anywhere: in channel names, thumbnails, titles, descriptions, transcripts, and links.

YouTube mentions can take the form of:

• References to your product/service even without using the exact brand name
• Comparisons or reviews that feature your brand alongside others
• Casual name-drops in tutorials, vlogs, or commentary content

How do you monitor your YouTube mentions?

You can monitor mentions in tagged posts natively within YouTube Studio.

Just head to “Community” in the menu on the left, and look for the “Mentions” tab on the dashboard.

But for untagged mentions, you’ll need a social media monitoring tool.

Brand Radar’s YouTube monitoring tool does exactly this—tracking your brand across ~15M videos (and growing) by scanning titles, descriptions, and transcripts.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through monitoring YouTube mentions with this tool, using real examples from Ahrefs.

1. Monitor your mention volume every month

YouTube mentions are a leading indicator of brand health.

When more creators talk about you organically, it signals awareness is growing around your brand.

Often that translates as increased search volume, AI citations and, ultimately, business growth.

If you monitor your mentions every month, you can see if awareness is growing or declining, find out what’s driving spikes in conversation, and prove the ROI of your brand-building with concrete data.

And there are tons more use cases and benefits…

• Measure brand buzz: Track mention volume month-over-month to see if awareness is accelerating or stalling. For example, if mentions doubled after your rebrand, you know it’s working
• Assess campaign impact: Compare mention spikes to campaign launch dates to prove which initiatives actually moved the needle—if mentions jumped 3x during your product launch week, that’s your proof of impact
• Benchmark against goals: Set quarterly mention targets (e.g. 500 mentions in Q1) to hold your team accountable and guide budget decisions
• Justify investment: Show stakeholders concrete evidence of growing brand presence (e.g. 150% YoY growth in impressions), to secure next year’s budget
• Identify breakout moments: Pinpoint what caused sudden mention spikes (e.g. product launches, viral videos, PR hits) to replicate that success again and again
• Forecast future visibility: Watch for sustained YouTube mention growth as an early indicator of rising search rankings and AI citations

How to monitor your YouTube mentions consistently

Add your brand name and variants to Brand Radar’s YouTube monitoring tool, then use the report view to track your total YouTube mentions month-over-month.

Start off by dropping your brand name—plus any pronunciation variations—into the “Your brand” field.

Track brand name variations

Check transcripts to find spelling variations based on how your brand name is pronounced. Luckily for us, we have a video on “how to pronounce Ahrefs”, where our global community of users have shared how they say our brand name. I mined the transcript, and found several “Ahrefs” variations (like “Arafs” and “Ah rifs”), to help me track down more YouTube mentions of our brand.

If your brand name is also tricky to pronounce, think about tracking for mentions of your brand’s features, products, or services.

For example, “Keyword difficulty” and “Domain rating” are both uniquely developed Ahrefs scores, so we might want to think about tracking those to get a better sense of where our brand is referenced.

You can save these variations by hitting the “Save report” button on the main Brand Radar dashboard:

In return, you’ll get a monthly view of your YouTube brand mentions, which you can track periodically to assess growth or decline.

Beneath that, you’ll see a list of videos organically mentioning your brand, ordered by “relevance”.

Results that are considered “relevant” are ranked based on a combination of mention frequency and view count.

2. Find organic word-of-mouth mentions

Unprompted brand mentions tell you what’s working, how people naturally describe your brand, and which use cases resonate so much that creators can’t help but share them.

And, best of all, none of it costs you a cent.

When you monitor organic brand mentions, you can:

• Get unfiltered perception: Read organic mentions to catch honest opinions (e.g. “clunky UI” or “amazing support”), then address recurring criticisms in product updates (e.g. fix UI issues) and fold praise into your marketing (e.g. homepage copy)
• Market the right use cases: Discover new and novel ways audiences use your product, then build campaigns around them. For example, if creators use your project management tool for podcast production, create a landing page targeting that niche
• Shape messaging: Note the phrases audiences use, then adopt them in your web or ad copy. For instance, if reviewers call you “stupid simple,” swap out generic lines like “intuitive platform” for their exact language
• Spot content gaps: See which topics appear alongside your mentions, then create content for them. For example, if “SEO audits” comes up frequently, publish a how-to guide on that topic

How to do find organic video mentions

Finding organic mentions is not just a case of searching for your brand name. You need to filter out partners and competitors, if you want to see mentions that are truly organic.

Start by adding a “doesn't contain” filter, to rule out:

• Your owned channels (e.g. Ahrefs)
• Sponsored keywords in descriptions (e.g. #spon, #ad)
• Partner URL fragments (e.g. /partner/)

For example, below I’ve excluded our owned YouTube channels with a channel name > doesn’t contain> Ahrefs filter.

Then I’ve ruled out certain elements our partners typically include in their video descriptions, like partner links containing yt., or specific products that we’ve been working with them to promote like awt (i.e. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools).

That filter takes us from 1,482 results to 229 word of mouth mentions. But we’re not done yet.

Some of these mentions are showcasing alternatives to Ahrefs, or pitting us against our competitors.

For now, we want to focus on UGC that is centered around our brand—not our competitors.

So, we need to add a Title > doesn’t contain > partial match > [competitor name]. This leaves us with 201 mentions.

If you’ve followed along so far, you can continue filtering even further to see which videos your brand is the primary focus of (e.g. Title > contains > partial match > [brand name])

Versus the videos that mention it in passing (e.g. Title > Doesn’t contain > partial match > [brand name])

This kind of analysis can show you how customers actually use your products and services.

For example, the video below shows that people particularly use our tool Brand Radar for AI competitor gap analysis…

While the next video shows that some users would like to see more actionable recommendations within the platform…

You can use these kinds of insights to shape your content, and pass them over to the product team to inform your roadmap.

3. Find influencer partnership opportunities

Instead of cold-pitching influencers, start with creators that are already discussing your brand or topics in your space.

This will help you track down high-potential partners whose audiences and niche naturally align with your own.

There are a ton of benefits to monitoring influencer mentions:

• Find creator fans: Track down influencers already mentioning your brand organically, then send them early access to features or paid partnership offers they’re likely to accept
• Assess audience fit: Before reaching out, see if their viewers match your target market, so you only pitch to channels where your product actually resonates
• Prioritize high-impact creators: Sort by view counts and engagement, then allocate your sponsorship budget to the top performers
• Tailor your pitch: Pull specific quotes like “I love how [Brand] handles X,” then open your email with “Saw you praised our X feature in your recent video—interested in test-driving the upgrade?”
• Save time and budget: Build a shortlist of pre-vetted creators who actually align with your brand, instead of cold-pitching dozens and hoping something sticks

How to find relevant influencers to sponsor

Find creators worth partnering with by sorting organic mentions based on your goals, then zero in on videos and audiences that actually align with your brand.

Start with the report you’ve already configured to find organic word-of-mouth mentions (i.e. the one that filters out your brand channels and the partners you already sponsor).

The aim is to discover the most visible creators, with audiences that are relevant to your brand.

As I said earlier, your YouTube mentions are sorted by “relevance”—which is a combination of mention frequency and view count by default. 

That means you should be able to find quality influencer mentions right off the bat.

But some great opportunities may be trickier to track down.

For instance, you might land just one mention in a highly visible video that ends up being hyper-relevant.

That’s why it’s important to test out different sorting options—e.g. order “By views” vs. “By relevance”.

Then, when you come across a creator that looks interesting, you can read the transcript and watch the video to better understand the context of your brand mention.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

I set the chart in Brand Radar’s YouTube report to Impressions, and found one mention that bumped up our brand awareness by 115% overnight.

I tracked it down in the list view (by sorting “By views”), then clicked the transcript timecode to watch the video and understand the mention context.

Ultimately, the creator briefly recommended Ahrefs as a long-tail keyword tool for solopreneurs looking to start SEO-monetized blogs.

Understanding the context helps you get a better idea of whether an influencer is worth sponsoring. You can quickly assess:

• Is this an audience you want to reach?
• Is the recommended product/service valuable to your business?
• Does the channel or video topic align with your marketing goals?

In this example, the audience probably isn’t right for Ahrefs. The video primarily targets beginners who are more likely to be interested in our free keyword tools.

Our priority, on the other hand, is promoting our more advanced tools to mature SEOs and marketers in medium-sized to enterprise businesses.

Which brings me on to the next video…

While it has fewer views, it features Ahrefs in workflows that appeal to our actual target audience: mature marketers in corporate brands.

It also covers a topic that is a big product focus for us right now: AI.

Plus the creator shows off a use case that could be even better handled by our new ChatGPT SEO tool: Ahrefs MCP.

Diving even deeper, I can see the creator has ~98K subscribers, and that her channel aligns with our topic focus: Digital marketing, AI strategy, professional growth, tech & business.

So that’s an:

• Audience match
• Product match
• Marketing/topic match

To me, this looks like a much better partnership opportunity.

If you want to cast an even wider net, you can repeat this whole process, but remove your own brand mentions from the equation, and instead filter by the market/industry you’re aiming to get mentioned in.

For example, here’s a detailed filter I built to find relevant creators in the “AI marketing space”.

Use the filters to sort through your mentions until you find creators worth partnering with.

4. Find bottom-of-the-funnel mentions

Before people open their wallets, they’re on YouTube watching reviews and checking if your product or service actually solves their problem.¹

These mentions reveal what draws buyers to your brand, or sends them to a competitor.

Tracking bottom-of-funnel YouTube mentions helps you:

• Address common objections: Spot recurring concerns in reviews, then publish blog posts, update your FAQ page, or ship product fixes that directly counter them
• Double down on differentiators: When creators say one of your features beats your competitors, spotlight it on your homepage, product pages, paid ads, and sales decks
• Train your sales team: Give sales reps responses to the exact objections, questions, and problems appearing in these videos
• Mine testimonials: Find authentic customer stories in video mentions, then screenshot quotes for your website, repurpose clips for social proof ads, or build case studies around them
• Sponsor strategic comparisons: Find creators who position you favorably against competitors, then reach out with sponsorship offers or new talking points to reinforce
• Correct misinformation: Catch inaccurate comparisons in videos, email the creator with accurate info, or offer to collaborate on an updated video
• Improve feature priorities: See which competitor features consistently win over buyers, then bump similar capabilities up your product roadmap or sunset features nobody mentions
• Optimize comparison pages: Note what buyers actually care about in video comparisons, then rewrite your “Brand vs Competitor” landing pages to lead with those exact pain points and features

How to find high purchase intent mentions on YouTube

The easiest way to find mentions of your brand in buyer-focused content is to search for comparison videos featuring your brand and competitors.

Keep your earlier “doesn’t contain” filters active (i.e. the ones excluding your own brand channel and partners), then reintroduce the competitors that you filtered out.

In this example, I’ve simply removed the Title > doesn’t contain > partial match > [competitor name] filter.

I’ve also excluded mentions of the word “free” in the video title, just so I can focus on creators reviewing our paid tools.

Now all of our competitors are back in the game.

If you have a larger brand with more mentions, you can add extra keyword modifiers to zero in on comparison content—e.g.

• versus/vs
• alternative
• compares/compared/comparison
• review
• pros and cons
• worth it
• best
• top

This wasn’t necessary for us, as our most popular mentions tend to come from head-to-head reviews, so they’re pretty easy to find.

Analyze your video mentions in NotebookLM

Take your YouTube video mentions over to NotebookLM if you don’t have time to watch every review. You can get a super quick summary, gauge the sentiment of your mention, and decide whether you need to actually do something about it.

After setting up my filters, I immediately found two reviews pitting Ahrefs against Semrush.

The first came from “Marketing Island”, published back in May 2024. To date, it’s been viewed 10.2K times.

The second was from “Jaume Ros”, published back in August 2024 and viewed 3.4K times.

When you run them through NotebookLM, it becomes clear one recommends Semrush, and the other Ahrefs.

But in both cases, the creators review Ahrefs negatively due to our old “credits” based payment system, and the fact that we lack a broader range of marketing tools.

Our platform and pricing has changed a lot since these videos were created.

We’ve done away with credits, and added much more versatile marketing features like Brand Radar for AI monitoring, Social Media Manager for scheduling social posts, and Web Analytics—our GA4 alternative for analyzing all-site traffic.

One action we might take here is to reach out to these creators, update them on Ahrefs’ product developments, and ask if they’d be interested in filming new reviews.

This way we can improve the accuracy of the information surrounding our brand, and hopefully encourage more conversions.

5. Analyze sponsored mentions

Sponsored content often represents a big chunk of marketing investment.

Tracking your sponsored mentions helps you confirm whether content went live and measure which partnerships drove the best engagement.

Specifically, you can:

• Check deliverables: Confirm creators actually published the content they were paid for, and follow up on any missing or delayed content
• Assess the quality of the mention: Evaluate how authentically and prominently they featured your brand—did they mention you in the title and thumbnail or just once at the 8-minute mark in a 20-minute video?
• Track longevity: See if sponsored videos continue driving mentions over time or fade quickly. For example, if a video still generates mentions six months down the line, that creator delivered lasting value and is worth working with again
• Competitive intelligence: Track which creators your competitors are sponsoring, then learn from their strategy. Does it seem to be working? Could you go after similar influencers? Or differentiate your brand with distinct niche influencers?

How to analyze the YouTube mentions you sponsor

Once you’ve secured sponsorships, use Brand Radar to monitor them and make sure your budget is going to good use.

Remember all of the “does not contain” parameters you set up earlier (to filter out sponsored mentions)?

Switch them over to “contains”.

Make sure you’ve accounted for all the phrases or links you’ve asked your sponsors to include in their descriptions.

This will help you keep track on output, assess the relevance of your sponsored mentions, and compare the engagement generated by different partners.

You can also study how the partners of your competitors highlight their sponsor relationships (e.g. semrush encourages creators to promote their free trial).

Then use those findings to build out a query, so you can track rival sponsorships.

This kind of setup will help you find your competitors’ top creators and swoop in with better offers, or spot niches they’re ignoring, then own those spaces before they catch on.

6. Tie YouTube mentions to AI visibility

YouTube is the 2nd most-cited source by LLMs—so video mentions directly influence how AI assistants position your brand.

Here’s what you gain from monitoring AI-cited content:

• Spot AI-driving mentions: See which video mentions lead to AI citations. For example, if a tutorial from “MarketingPro” generated 180 ChatGPT citations while your other sponsored video landed <20, prioritize “MarketingPro” for your next campaign—or replicate their tutorial format in your owned content
• Understand AI preferences: Learn which topics, formats, or creators AI favors most. Say AI cites 10-minute tutorial videos 5x more than 2-minute product demos, then you need to shift your video strategy to prioritize longer, educational formats
• Find the best AI partners: Target creators whose content is frequently cited in AI. For instance, if “TechReviewer101” appears in 70% of relevant AI responses, add them to your top-tier sponsorship list and consider allocating more budget to that partnership
• Create AI-led video content: Produce more of the video types AI references. For example, if AI consistently cites “How to do X with [Your Tool]” videos, script and produce five tutorial videos with that exact title format
• Measure dual impact: Track how YouTube presence boosts AI visibility. You can do this by monitoring your total AI citations post-sponsorship. If visibility jumps from 200 to 500 mentions, for example, then your partner is worth working with again

How to see whether your YouTube mentions drive up AI mentions

Whenever you find a mention of your brand in YouTube, drop the video URL into Brand Radar.

This will show you which of your YouTube mentions are also responsible for AI visibility across seven different AI assistants.

For instance, while analyzing how Ahrefs appears in recent “best tool” videos, I spotted this LearnWire mention:

I took the URL over to the Brand Radar dashboard, and dropped it into the “URL > contains” filter:

As it happens, that one video triggered 254 mentions of Ahrefs in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

You can scale this analysis to find out which topics, formats, and creators AI cites most often—then run the same check on competitor mentions.

Then it’s just a case of producing and sponsoring more of that content.

Wrapping up

Your brand is being discussed on YouTube whether you’re watching or not.

Monitoring your video mentions will help you work out how creators position you, spot partnership opportunities, and connect your YouTube presence to AI visibility.

Start with monthly brand monitoring in Ahrefs Brand Radar to see where you stand.

 

 

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This shift happened fast. In 2024, AI Overviews rolled out to millions of searches, ChatGPT climbed into the top ranks of global websites, and the once-reliable #1 Google spot began losing a third of its clicks. Suddenly, SEO wasn’t just about rankings anymore.

Some marketers panicked, others brushed it off. But AI has changed how people discover brands and where visibility happens.

This isn’t the end of SEO, it’s the next chapter. The fundamentals still matter, but the strategy needs to evolve.

So, here’s what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how to stay visible in the age of AI search.

For years, Google has been moving away from simple keyword matching. But the inclusion of their Gemini large language model (LLM) took this to another level.

Pre-LLM systems could recognize that “Apple” the company was different from “apple” the fruit. They could connect related concepts. But they couldn’t truly comprehend nuance, handle complex multi-step reasoning, or synthesize information across dozens of sources the way a human would.

LLMs changed that. Search engines with an LLM layer understand context at a depth that lets them interpret ambiguous queries, infer unstated intent, and connect disparate pieces of information in ways previous systems couldn’t.

So, when you search something complex like “gift ideas from California under $50 for people who already have everything,” Google’s AI Mode (based on the Gemini large language model) doesn’t just look for pages with those exact words. Instead, it uses what’s called “fan-out queries”, breaking out your question into multiple related searches behind the scenes (in this case, 10 different searches).

Those fan-out queries might look like:

• “California artisan gifts under $50”
• “California food products budget-friendly”
• “Experience gifts California affordable”
• “Hard to shop for people gift ideas”
• “California-made practical items”
• “Gifts for people who don’t want more stuff”
• “California specialty products budget”

Or, when someone searches “best laptop for video editing under $1000 that’s not too heavy”, modern AI doesn’t just look for keyword matches. It genuinely understands the trade-offs between processing power, portability, and budget constraints.

Google now understands the nuance of prompts and does the research legwork for users, rather than just handing you a list of links to click through.

Google’s AI Overviews now sit at the very top of search results, pulling insights from multiple sources to deliver instant, comprehensive answers. They occupy the most valuable real estate on the page—above every traditional result—and often satisfy the user’s query without a single click.

Because of that, even the #1 organic result has lost around 34% of its clicks when an AI Overview appears.

At first glance, being cited within an AI Overview might seem like a win, but the data tells a different story. A Pew Research Center study found that 99% of users who see an AI Overview don’t click any of the cited sources, and 26% close their browser entirely after reading the summary.

In contrast, about 8% of users click results in the traditional organic listings directly below the overview, meaning you may actually drive more traffic from those standard rankings than from being featured in the AI box itself.

All of this compounds the growing zero-click search trend. Over half of all Google searches already ended without a single site visit in 2024, and AI Overviews are only accelerating that shift. Users who do click through tend to be more motivated, but overall discovery is increasingly happening on the results page itself—not on websites.

Since 98% of AI Overviews are informational, content focused on “how-to” or educational topics has been hit hardest.

Searches that show clear buying intent or mention specific brands are less influenced by AI. Whether in Google’s AI Overviews, AI Mode, or within large language models (LLMs), when users already know what they want to buy or which brand they prefer, AI tools usually display traditional search results instead of summarizing or replacing them.

A recent study by Kevin Indig, which analyzed 250 search tasks, found that Google’s AI Mode has an almost 100% zero-click rate. Users are now discovering products, comparing options, and forming opinions entirely within the AI interface—only clicking through when they’re ready to make a purchase.

In other words, AI Mode consumes all top-of-funnel and middle-of-funnel activity, reserving clicks exclusively for transactions.

The keyword is “sometimes.” It depends on your specific situation. To illustrate, our analysis found that traffic from LLMs was responsible for 12% of signups, while accounting for only 0.5% of total clicks.

But another analysis by Amsive found that this can’t be extrapolated to all industry verticals.

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is the next stage in SEO’s evolution, driven by the rise of AI. It takes traditional SEO further by introducing a new channel, a new type of user experience, and an entirely new way to measure success.

While related terms like AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) are sometimes used, the idea is the same: ensuring your brand is visible, cited, and accurately represented within AI-generated answers.

For marketers, this represents a new “battleground” for visibility—one where AI assistants, not just search engines, influence consumer decisions. Some brands are surfaced and recommended as trusted authorities, while others are simply left out of the conversation.

That doesn’t mean GEO replaces SEO. In fact, it builds on the same foundation. The difference lies in where and how visibility happens. Search and AI results draw from similar content pools, but how they surface and summarize that content can vary dramatically.

To earn mentions and citations in AI-generated answers, marketers will need to adapt familiar tactics—not invent entirely new ones. Strategies like influencer marketing, reputation management, and structured, semantically clear content are seeing a resurgence.

[note]

A citation is when an AI attributes information to your content and includes a link to your site—usually for data, stats, or how-to content.

A mention is when your brand or product name appears in an AI-generated answer without a link, often in product recommendations.

Every industry—and every brand—experiences AI visibility differently. But what AI understands about your brand likely comes from the same place it learns about ours: other people’s websites.

At Ahrefs, most AI-generated answers reference us without citing our site directly. Instead, they draw from reviews, news articles, forums, some social media, and blogs, combining that with the AI’s built-in knowledge to form their understanding.

Interestingly, when we analyze potential reach across our Brand Radar indexes (reach = mentions x volume of keywords), the answers where Ahrefs is directly mentioned or cited perform significantly better in three of the six tracked AIs—specifically AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity.

The takeaway here is that your broader online presence—and what others say about you—matters more than ever for how AI perceives and represents your brand.

For example, Ahrefs’ Brand Radar can monitor your AI visibility across various major AI indexes.

And show the topics you miss out on so you can create new content for them and/or contact cited sites to feature you, so you can boost your AI visibility.

AI’s rapid rise in 2025 caught most marketers off guard. Budgets were cut, panic set in, and suddenly everyone needed to learn GEO—fast… or keep fighting to remind the world it’s still just SEO.

In one of my earlier posts, I called it what it is—a bit of hysteria. When you look at the data, traffic from all LLMs combined barely reaches 1%, while Google traffic has continued to grow during the same period that ChatGPT exploded in popularity. Yet many were already declaring the end of SEO.

Agencies and consultants rushed to offer GEO services, sometimes before fully understanding what it actually meant. It feels a lot like the early SEO days: plenty of hype, scattered experimentation, and very little consensus on what really works.

For example, for months, the main conversation on LinkedIn about LLMs and AI Overviews was that they were taking away website traffic. But more recently, I’ve started seeing the opposite perspective emerge, showing that AI referral traffic and organic search can actually grow together.

This shift reminds us that GEO is still taking shape — and those who stay curious, test often, and adapt early will be the ones to benefit most as it evolves.

The most comprehensive response is Search Everywhere Optimization (SEvO)—ensuring discoverability across all platforms where audiences search, including YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, Pinterest, and AI assistants like ChatGPT.

Just look at TikTok’s numbers—Gen Z is using it like a search engine, and many even prefer it over Google.

SEO has evolved from a “magic money tap” to a strong channel with new limitations. Sustainable growth now requires multi-channel resilience rather than Google dependency.

LLMs have lowered the barrier to content production, dramatically. You can now draft articles, generate ideas, and optimize copy faster than ever—and it shows. Nearly 74% of new web pages already include some form of AI-generated content.

It’s a toothpaste-out-of-the-tube moment. The shift has happened, and there’s no putting it back. I think that in a few years, no one will care that AI was used to create content—it’ll be as normal as cars being built by robots.

Sure, maybe one day AI will replace some jobs. But right now, the real risk is not using it and falling behind those who do.

The key is to lean into your human strengths—insight, strategy, creativity, unique human experience—and let AI handle the repetitive parts. That’s how you make yourself harder to replace by AI.

One of the most valuable uses of AI in SEO today is content optimization. Tools like Ahrefs’ AI Content Helper can dramatically reduce the time it takes to identify search intent, find topical gaps, and compare your coverage against competitors.

Check out how my colleague Louise used that AI tool to boost traffic by 72%.

This isn’t exactly a new trend in SEO—Google’s focus on EEAT has already pushed content quality to the forefront. But this time, it’s different. People are actively seeking a break from the flood of AI-generated content and turning to spaces where genuine, human-created content is more easily found.

At Ahrefs, we see this in action every day. My colleague Louise regularly breaks news about AI Search—almost every week—and her work is talked about, cited, linked and shared throughout the industry. That’s what real, authentic expertise looks like.

For example, you can use Claude’s MCP with Ahrefs to do things like:

• Finding good keywords for your blog that you haven’t targeted yet.
• Research international SEO expansion opportunities.
• Discover the top-ranking sites across any group of keywords.
• Get an idea of any unique, non-standard approaches to content from your competitors.

MCPs represent a shift from AI as assistant (helping you write after you do the research) to AI as analyst (doing the research, spotting the opportunities, and then helping you execute). For SEO, where data analysis is often the bottleneck between insight and action, this can change how SEO tools work forever.

Content that matches what people are actually searching for performs best.

AI systems, just like traditional search engines, are designed to serve users by providing the most relevant answers to their queries.

For example, as shown below, traditional Google Search, AI Mode, and ChatGPT all interpret the phrase “running shoes” in the same way.

What we used to call keywords or search queries are now often referred to as prompts in the world of AI, but that doesn’t mean keywords are no longer useful.

Keywords still play an important role in showing what people are curious about, helping you measure interest, demand, and growth trends for different topics you might want to target.

And since we don’t yet have reliable data on AI search volumes, keyword search volume is still a good way to estimate overall demand across both traditional and AI-driven searches.

Keywords also make it easier to monitor AI activity by grouping and summarizing similar prompts under a shared topic. Prompts people type into AI tools are often long and very specific to their situation.

For instance, a long prompt like “I’m trying to grow my small business blog and need some reliable content marketing tools that can help with keyword research, social media scheduling, and tracking results—what are some of the best options right now?” covers multiple sub-topics (keywords) within a broader theme.

Every prompt still has an underlying topic—or set of topics. Even when AI tools use query fan-out techniques (breaking down complex prompts into specific search queries), they’re ultimately organizing around core topics. Two prompts that seem completely different can actually be about the same thing at their core.

That’s why I like the approach that we took with Ahrefs Brand Radar. It gives you two levels of topic insights. You can see the exact keyword that triggered the AI query and optimize for that specific term. You can also look at the broader “parent topic” behind those keywords to reach a wider audience.

Last but not least, Google Search is still dominant and drives massive traffic. Based on our analysis of over 66k websites, Google is responsible for 40% of traffic to websites, compared to 0.24% from ChatGPT.

How you organize your content, and how easy it is for readers to skim and find key details, still play a big role in both visibility and readability.

Here’s an example: our SEO pricing study is one of the most frequently cited pages by AI on our site, even though it was published long before the whole AI craze began. I can say for sure that AI visibility wasn’t even a consideration when we created that page. What guided its structure was just optimizing for readability and basic on-page SEO best practices.

LLMs just love structure and clarity. It helps them cut or chunk large bodies of text into digestible, small parts that are easy to reference.

Strong credibility drives visibility and traffic indirectly, even in an AI-first search landscape. If you’ve built a reputable brand, that equity still pays dividends.

LLMs tend to reference trusted sources when generating answers. There’s a strong correlation between brand recognition and domain authority—established brands typically earn high Domain Ratings through years of accumulating quality backlinks, media mentions, and citations from other authoritative sources.

When I analyzed the top 1,000 websites most often mentioned by ChatGPT, one trend stood out: AI prefers high-authority sources. Most citations came from sites with a Domain Rating above 80, like Forbes, Mayo Clinic, and Harvard—brands that built trust through consistent quality and credibility.

This creates a reinforcing cycle: strong brands earn more backlinks and mentions, which boosts their domain rating, which in turn makes them more likely to be cited by AI systems.

What’s more, brand signals make up the three most important factors to be included in AI Overviews (according to our study). These are:

• Branded web mentions. The instances of the brand being mentioned on any page on the web (linked and unlinked).
• Branded anchors. The anchor texts in the links pointing to a website.
• Branded search volume. Search volume of keywords that include a brand.

The takeaway is that building brand authority remains as important as ever, perhaps even more so in an AI-driven search landscape where trust signals matter tremendously.

Final thoughts

Got questions or comments? Let me know on LinkedIn.

Citations

A citation is when the AI attributes information to your content, including a link to your site.

These usually appear when someone asks for data, statistics, how-to guides, or information about recent events. The AI pulls facts from your content and credits you as the source (not necessarily mentioning your brand in the main body of the answer).

In most AI interfaces, citations appear “in the background”; you’ll find them in a “sources” section, at the bottom of the response, or behind small numbered references you can click.

Mentions

A mention is when your brand or product name shows up in an AI-generated answer.

This typically happens when someone asks for product recommendations. For example, if someone asks “What’s the best project management software?”, the AI might list your product in its main response, but without linking to you.

Mentions are valuable because they build brand awareness. People see your name, remember it, and might search for you later.

The best of both worlds

Sometimes you get lucky and receive both: your brand is mentioned in the main text and linked in the citations list. These combined appearances are the most valuable because they give you visibility (the mention) plus authority and potential traffic (the citation).

They provide measurable, attributable traffic

Let’s be clear: traffic from AI citations is modest. Our data from roughly 60,000 websites shows that all large language models combined account for less than 1% of total traffic, compared to Google Search’s 41.35%.

And there’s another wrinkle: citations don’t automatically equal clicks. I analyzed 1,000 of the most-cited pages from ahrefs.com, and only about 10% also ranked among the top pages getting traffic from ChatGPT. Most traffic went to practical resources—homepages, product pages, and free tools.

But here’s why this traffic still matters: quality over quantity. The visitors who do click through typically have strong intent. They’ve already seen a summary but want more depth, which suggests genuine interest in your content.

When those visitors convert, the results can be exceptional. Buffer reported conversion rates 185% higher than organic search, while we’ve seen rates up to 23 times higher.

Also, this traffic serves as a crucial benchmark. It allows you to:

• Confirm which AI platforms are actually citing your content.
• Gauge the relative importance of different AI assistants to your audience.
• Track progress over time as you optimize for AI citations.
• Understand which topics and content formats generate the most AI-driven engagement.

They signal trust and authority

When an AI cites your content, it’s essentially telling users: “This source is reliable enough to stake my answer on.” That endorsement builds credibility, even if people never click through to your site.

Think about it—if someone asks ChatGPT about SEO pricing and sees your brand cited, you’ve just been positioned as an expert in their mind. That perception matters.

For example, here are some of the topics where Ahrefs is cited. The pattern is quite clear—Ahrefs is an authority in SEO.

They build brand recognition in a new marketing channel

AI tools are expanding quickly. ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any other app ever, and now has around 800 million people using it every week. As search behavior shifts toward AI platforms, this is fundamentally about reputation building in a new channel.

The brands that appear consistently in AI citations will build the same type of authority that early SEO leaders established in traditional search—they become the trusted names audiences encounter repeatedly when seeking answers.

To understand how to get cited, you first need to understand how AI tools actually find and reference content.

Two sources of information

AI chatbots pull from two different knowledge bases:

1. Training data. This is the information the AI learned during its initial training. Think of it as the AI’s “built-in knowledge.” It includes facts, concepts, and information that the AI “memorized” from millions of web pages, books, and documents before it was released.
2. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). This is when the AI searches the web in real-time to find current information and improve the answer.

Here’s the key point: typically, it’s RAG that produces citations. When an AI uses its training data, it doesn’t link to sources right away. But when it searches the web through RAG, it cites the pages it found.

So, if you want citations, you need to optimize for AI platforms that actively search the web. Fortunately, most major LLMs now use RAG.

When LLMs search the web

Why you might get different citations for the same question

Ask the same question a few times, and you’ll often get slightly different answers with different sources.

AI systems use probabilistic models, which means responses can vary even for identical questions. One reason is “temperature”—a parameter that controls how much randomness the model allows when choosing words. At higher temperatures, the AI explores more phrasing options, leading to different answers each time.

Other factors, like your location, the specific model version, and even the time of your query, can also affect which sources appear. Companies frequently update their models and retrieval systems, which can further influence citation patterns over time.

Additionally, the way you phrase your question matters. Slight variations in wording can lead the AI to prioritize different sources or interpretations, even when asking about the same topic.

My personal theory is that since LLMs are trained to satisfy the user’s intent, they sometimes end up “overoptimizing” or “overinterpreting” what’s being asked. When an AI notices that the same question is being asked again, it doesn’t just ignore it, but it tries to make sense of why. It might assume the user wasn’t happy with the first answer and adjust its response, much like a human would in the same situation.

Freshness is heavily weighted

Our analysis revealed a strong bias toward recently published or frequently updated pages. LLMs appear to weigh freshness as a key factor when selecting sources, particularly for time-sensitive topics.

And we’re not the only ones who found this to be true. Another experiment referred to this behavior in LLMs as a “recency bias”. This likely stems from patterns in their training data, where fresh content is often associated with higher relevance and quality.

Across seven models, GPT-3.5-turbo, GPT-4o, GPT-4, LLaMA-3 8B/70B, and Qwen-2.5 7B/72B, “fresh” passages are consistently promoted, shifting the Top-10’s mean publication year forward by up to 4.78 years and moving individual items by as many as 95 ranks in our listwise reranking experiments. (…) We also observe that the preference of LLMs between two passages with an identical relevance level can be reversed by up to 25% on average after date injection in our pairwise preference experiments.

This likely stems from training data patterns where fresh content correlates with relevance and quality, particularly for time-sensitive topics.

Domain authority matters (because ranking matters)

Semantic relevance to the query

Structured, extractable formatting

Microsoft’s guide on optimizing for AI search confirms what case studies have shown: AI systems favor content with clear meaning, consistent context, and clean formatting.

“Clarity is about more than just word choice, it’s how you phrase, format, and punctuate so AI systems can interpret your content with confidence. AI systems don’t just scan for keywords; they look for clear meaning, consistent context, and clean formatting. Precise, structured language makes it easier for AI to classify your content as relevant and lift it into answers.”

This makes sense from an LLM perspective—the easier it is to extract a relevant passage, the more likely that passage gets used.

Let’s look at a real example: Ahrefs’ “How Much Does SEO Cost?” page is one of our most frequently cited articles.

Here’s what, in my opinion, makes it work so well:

It answers a common question directly

“How much does SEO cost?” is one of the most frequently asked questions in the industry — and that demand keeps growing. The more popular the question, the more opportunities there are to earn citations.

Our page tackles the query right away with a clear, straightforward answer at the top; no filler or long-winded introductions.

It’s built on original data (with a timestamp)

The title itself—“439 People Polled”—signals original research that can’t be found elsewhere. When AI tools generate answers about SEO pricing, they often cite Ahrefs because it’s the primary source.

Survey-based content with a clear sample size builds credibility. It’s not opinion; it’s data.

It’s also best practice to include a date for your data and keep it updated regularly, showing both freshness and reliability.

The information is accessible, structured, and practical

The page includes concrete numbers—percentages, price ranges, and averages—and breaks them down by factors like location or service type. This structured layout makes it easy for AI to extract exactly what it needs for different queries.

Importantly, key stats are written in plain text (not buried in images), which helps AI systems access and interpret them.

Unlike theoretical SEO advice, this gives actionable numbers people can use for budgeting, negotiating, or setting their own prices. AI tools are often asked for practical guidance, and this delivers exactly that.

The content is scannable

Clear headings, distinct sections for each pricing model, comparison tables—everything is organized so both humans and AI can quickly find what they need.

Explores the data from different angles to cover the topic

The question also has multiple variations (agency pricing, freelancer rates, hourly costs, geographic differences), and the page addresses all of them. This means it can answer dozens of related queries from a single source.

Clear expert author byline

The page includes a visible author byline with credentials that establish authority on SEO pricing specifically. It shows someone with direct, relevant experience, instead of a “marketing expert”. What’s more, the data study has been peer reviewed, which adds to the trustworthiness.

1. Identify what’s already getting cited in your niche

You can use a tool like Brand Radar to see which pages from your competitors get cited most often. Look for patterns in the content types (guides, research, tools, data pages) and the Topics that consistently trigger citations.

Here’s how to find all that in Brand Radar:

1. Enter your competitor’s brand name, and make sure to add their website’s address, too.
2. Go to the cited pages report.
3. Limit the domain scope to your competitor’s domain.
4. Look at the results.

And here’s an example from our own turf. When I analyzed which of our pages get cited most, I found these patterns.

• Programmatic pages with industry data. Our “Top websites by traffic” pages (showing rankings statistics, purpose of the site, competitors, etc.).
• Free tools. Like our free Keyword Rank Checker. This type of content was both highly cited and highly visited in our case.
• Original research. Studies and reports where Ahrefs serves as the primary data source, providing insights based on its own unique datasets and analyses.
• Glossary pages. Clear definitions of SEO terms.
• How-to guides. Blog posts with step-by-step instructions.
• Help documentation. Product knowledge base articles.

These aren’t random successes. Each format gives AI tools something specific they need: structured data, clear definitions, or authoritative processes.

2. Find and fill citation gaps

It’s a quick and easy analysis if you’re using Brand Radar:

1. Enter your brand and competitors.
2. Switch to the Citations tab.
3. Hover over your brand under the AI index you want to check, and click on Others only.
4. Go to the topics report.

Scan the list of topics to spot strong content opportunities. The Volume column shows how popular each topic is, while the Brand Mentions column indicates whether your brand is already being referenced for that topic. So, you can focus not only on popular questions, but also on topics with few or no mentions to increase your visibility and reach new audiences.

Here are some other ideas.

• Ask AI tools directly. For instance, “What’s the average CAC for B2B SaaS?” If it cites 2022 data or only enterprise examples, publish fresh 2025 research on startups/mid-market.
• Look for unclear areas. For example, “Can you use HSA funds for gym memberships?” Confusing answer = opportunity to publish the definitive guide.
• Monitor customer questions. Find your most common support ticket question, ask AI the same thing—if the answer misses key details, write the guide AI is missing.

3. Become the original source

Instead of adding to the noise on crowded topics, create content that you alone can provide, then let others reference you.

Something that we’ve found effective at Ahrefs is original research. For example, Ahrefs’ “SEO Pricing” page (one of our most cited pages) works because it’s based on an original survey of 439 people. We’re the primary source of that data.

Other ideas:

• Share proprietary insights. Publish benchmarks from your data: “Software teams close 67% of sprint tasks on time” or “Daily standups = 23% faster projects”.
• Create new, useful frameworks or terminology. Coin actually useful terms like HubSpot’s “inbound marketing” or Ahrefs’ “Domain Rating” to become the definitive source.
• Go deep on one specific problem. Write “Instagram Carousel Performance: 47 Variables, 10,000 Posts” not “Complete Instagram Guide”

4. Optimize for EEAT to boost AI discoverability

As I already mentioned, AI systems like Perplexity and ChatGPT use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), meaning they pull real-time information directly from search engines before generating an answer. That makes your visibility in traditional search results the first step toward being cited by AI.

If your content doesn’t rank, AI tools are less likely to see and reference it. This is where EEAT comes in.

Google rewards pages that show clear signs of credibility and expertise. When your content demonstrates strong EEAT, it’s not only more likely to rank higher, but it also becomes part of the trusted pool of information AI systems rely on when assembling their responses.

So the chain looks like this:

Optimizing for EEAT includes things like:

• Be transparent about your process. Include methodology notes or explain how your data was collected or tested.
• Show real expertise. Highlight detailed author bios, qualifications, and hands-on experience.
• Get expert validation. For YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics, have certified professionals write or at least review your content.
• Earn backlinks from reputable sources. References from trusted domains amplify your authority.

There are no AI-specific shortcuts for this, as far as I know, and I wouldn’t bet on those who take advantage of AI’s immaturity (because that will change). The same principles that build authority in search also build credibility with AI systems. If you’re new to E-E-A-T, this guide breaks down what it is, why it matters, and how to apply it step by step.

5. Keep content updated and relevant

When AI tools process a query, they first interpret the user’s intent. If that intent indicates a need for up-to-date information, the system automatically searches for recent sources. This intent can be explicit (with words like “latest,” “current,” or “now”) or implicit, where the topic itself suggests a time-sensitive need, such as ongoing events, trends, or product updates.

To meet that intent, AI systems are designed to prioritize newer documents. This approach not only aligns with what users expect but also helps maintain accuracy and trust, since older information on fast-moving topics can quickly become outdated or misleading.

Here’s how you can put that into practice:

• Refresh important pages regularly. For YMYL topics (health, finance, legal) and industry trends, update at least annually.
• Add “last updated” dates. Make the freshness visible to both users and AI crawlers.
• Update statistics. Replace old data with current numbers at least once a year (quarterly for fast-moving industries).

6. Follow SEO best practices when structuring content

7. Amplify your content to get more backlinks and mentions

• Share on relevant platforms. LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Reddit, Medium, Quora, YouTube—wherever your audience actually hangs out.
• Focus on actionable insights. Share specific data points, surprising findings, or practical takeaways (not just “we published a new blog post”).
• Engage in authentic discussions. Answer questions in communities, contribute to forums, join industry conversations. Becoming part of the conversation helps your content get naturally referenced.
• Build relationships. Connect with journalists, industry influencers, and other experts who might reference your content. Use services like Help a B2B Writer.

Test prompts manually

Monitor your website analytics

Use a tool like Ahrefs Web Analytics (available for free in Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) to check where your referral traffic is coming from.

In Ahrefs, AI search traffic is already tracked as its own channel, so you don’t need to set up any custom filters or use regex like you might with other analytics tools.

While AI traffic is currently small, you can still track trends over time.

You can look at which pages receive AI referral traffic from being cited in AI answers and how that traffic behaves (time on page, bounce rate).

To view this data, choose AI Search as the channel, then click View more under the list of pages.

You can also examine whether the traffic from AI referrals converts.

If the goal is reaching a specific page, like a thank-you page or pricing page, simply set up the top-level filters like this:

You can track conversions for specific actions, such as sign-ups, downloads, or demo requests.

Start by setting up event tracking. Once you’re done with that, use the top-level filters like so:

Paid monitoring at scale

If you want comprehensive tracking without manually testing hundreds of prompts, try Ahrefs’ Brand Radar or a similar tool. Brand Radar monitors your citations across 150 million prompts in six major AI platforms.

The features include:

• Automatic tracking of where and when you’re cited.
• Filtering by AI platform, location, query, and overarching topic of the queries.
• Chart tracking citation trends over time.
• Competitor comparison data.

Just a quick glance at the dashboard already shows you where you stand against competitors.

For example, when we look at Asana’s performance, the data shows Asana heavily dominates in Google’s AI features (AI Overviews and AI Mode), which account for the vast majority of its citations. However, there’s a significant opportunity gap in standalone AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, where citations are much lower.

The trend graph shows sustained high visibility over the past few months with a slight recent decline, suggesting the need to maintain momentum.

Brand Radar does more than just track citations. It also lets you monitor where and how your brand or products are mentioned, and compare your AI “share of voice” across platforms like Google’s AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity.

Final thoughts

Got questions or comments? Let me know on LinkedIn.

https://seonews.info/67-of-chatgpts-top-1000-citations-are-off-limits-to-marketers-more-findings/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:52:49 +0000 https://seonews.info/67-of-chatgpts-top-1000-citations-are-off-limits-to-marketers-more-findings/

I analyzed the top 1,000 pages ChatGPT cited in September 2025 using Ahrefs Brand Radar, to understand what types of content AI is referencing right now.

You can repeat this analysis yourself pretty easily.

Just do an open database search in Brand Radar, head to the “Cited pages” report for your desired AI assistant, and export the top 1,000 cited pages.

Then run the cited pages through our Batch Analysis tool to grab more organic data on each URL.

You can use Claude to help analyze that data, and even write scripts for Google Colab to fetch and parse content freshness signals for each cited URL.

I did exactly that. Here’s what I found…

1. Only a third of ChatGPT’s most-cited pages are pitch-worthy or influenceable

ChatGPT’s citations aren’t confined to encyclopedic or editorial pages—but Wikipedia stands out as the single most-cited content type, far ahead of all others.

The rest of the citations are spread across educational content, homepages, app listings, blogs, and other formats.

I used Claude to categorize this data. It may not be 100% fool-proof, but it gives a directional understanding of ChatGPT’s most-cited pages.

Here’s what the top 1,000 cited URLs look like broken down by content type:

Wikipedia plays a central role in ChatGPT’s citation behavior. The assistant is clearly looking for structured, reference-style sources that summarize topics comprehensively and predictably.

Educational and homepage pages also crop up regularly.

But what’s most interesting is the lack of opportunity to actually get mentioned in these high-visibility citations.

Our Director of Content Marketing, Ryan Law, refers to Wikipedia, homepages, app store pages as “dead” citations, in that you can’t easily influence them.

Going by the above categorization, only 32.3% of the top 1,000 citations in ChatGPT are pitch/outreach-worthy—or at least off-site and influenceable.

In other words, roughly two-thirds of ChatGPT’s top citations are effectively off-limits to traditional outreach tactics—they’re organizational pages, reference sites, and other “dead” citations you can’t realistically influence.

2. Fresh pages are prominent—but older ones still appear

The pages ChatGPT cites are often newer and less established in search, suggesting recency influences citation visibility, though it’s not the only factor.

Among pages with detectable dates (~40% of the total) the median age was 55 days (just under two months).

Updated	%
30 days	31.00%
1-6 months	14.50%
6-12 months	8.70%
>1 year	18.40%

The data indicates a clear recency bias, consistent with findings from Metehan Yeşilyurt’s recent research.

Yeşilyurt identified a URL_freshness_score in ChatGPT that favors newer content, and cited studies showing that artificially refreshing publication dates can improve AI ranking positions by as much as 95 places.

That said, my data showed nearly one in five cited pages were over a year old—suggesting that useful, well-structured older content can still maintain visibility in AI.

3. 28% of ChatGPT’s most-cited pages have zero organic visibility

Nearly one-third of ChatGPT’s citations point to pages with no traditional search visibility.

Here are some possible explanations for this:

Freshness: Some zero-keyword pages are potentially fresh content not yet ranked by search engines. ChatGPT may discover and cite new content before it accumulates search rankings.

Niche topics: Citations may cover specific, long-tail topics with minimal search demand. They answer questions accurately but don’t attract significant search traffic. This also applies to fan-out queries—even when someone asks ChatGPT about a popular topic, the conversation often branches into more specific subtopics where few pages directly target those angles.

Different discovery: ChatGPT tends to access and evaluate content differently than search engines, seemingly prioritizing accuracy, freshness, and relevance over popularity signals like backlinks.

The reality is it’s likely a combination of all three. Fresh content, niche topics, and alternative quality signals all contribute.

4. The cited pages that do rank have a median DR of 90

The pages that do rank display some interesting patterns. Here are the key takeaways:

1. Site authority really matters: 65.3% are DR 81+, median DR 90
2. But page authority doesn’t: 67.3% have UR 0-10 and a median UR only 6. ChatGPT cites pages from authoritative domains, but not necessarily the most linked-to pages on those domains.
3. Pages are keyword-rich: Median 279 keywords
4. Most have strong backlink profiles: Median 70 referring domains
5. Half have high search visibility: 52.1% rank in top 3 for keywords
6. Low-authority exceptions exist: 11.7% have DR 0-20

ChatGPT heavily favors pages from high-authority domains that have strong backlink profiles and rank well in search, but will cite low-authority sources for specific relevant content.

Wrapping up

ChatGPT’s top citations skew toward newer content, include almost a third of pages with no organic visibility, and are dominated by reference sites you can’t easily influence.

The data suggests your best bet for ChatGPT visibility is getting mentioned in fresh, specific content that falls into those influenceable categories.

To find outreach opportunities, you can use Brand Radar. Just drop in your market or niche, head to the cited pages report and look out for the top blogs, publications, and review sites.

 

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Final thoughts

1. Set up your brand’s online foundation: Create a logo, brand colors, and messaging doc, and ensure that they are used consistently everywhere you have an online presence. Ensure your brand story and product categories are clearly connected.
2. Create branded profiles on alternative platforms: Ensure your profiles are consistent across social media, directories, apps, and niche platforms. Doing so expands your brand recognition beyond Google and Bing, including on Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms where people search.
3. Create or update Wikipedia pages related to your brand: For big brands, ensure your Wikipedia entry is complete and accurate, providing one of the most trusted references for both search engines and AI models.
4. Protect your branded real estate in search: Ensure that your branded search results are filled with pages you own, such as your website, social profiles, and listings. This stops competitors or negative results from taking valuable positions.
5. Apply for awards and industry recognition: Submit to relevant industry awards and recognition programs to enhance your perceived authority, credibility, and visibility in traditional and AI search results. Feature these prominently on your website to build trust and increase conversions.
6. Encourage happy customers to leave reviews: Build trust and develop a strong online reputation with positive reviews on Google, Trustpilot, and recommendations from users in online communities like Reddit.
7. Build your experience, expertise, authority, and trust (EEAT) signals: Strengthen EEAT signals at a brand, website, and page level to win favor with search engines and AI platforms. Start by adding clear author bios, publishing expert credentials, and showcasing trusted reviews.
8. Check your Home and About pages for brand consistency and EEAT: Consider redesigning your homepage (and other core pages) to ensure branding is consistent and you showcase clear trust signals, such as reviews, testimonials, awards, or certifications.
9. Invest in paid ads and bid on competitive keywords: Google Ads and SEO can work together to increase brand awareness and demand, ensuring your name appears alongside (or above) competitors in key searches.
10. Promote your brand to build awareness: Spark branded searches on Google by running social ads or email campaigns that highlight a unique offer and prompt people to search for your brand directly.

11. Audit current brand visibility around the web: Review how your brand appears across search, directories, and platforms to uncover inconsistencies like: 
    • Different brand names (e.g., Domain vs The Domain Group)
    • Old logos or inconsistent taglines
    • Old addresses or phone numbers
12. Benchmark your current visibility in AI search: Track how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers to establish a baseline for future growth.
13. Audit links and mentions around the web: Use tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to find lost, unbranded, or broken links and reach out to the website owners to reclaim them. You can also use Brand Radar to audit your brand mentions. Benchmark the number of mentions and compare with competitors to spot gaps you can fill.
14. Audit your top pages visible in AI responses: Improve those that are underperforming, update those doing well, and improve their accuracy and business value.
15. Audit your content completeness and topic coverage: Use AI Content Helper to evaluate whether your content fully covers subtopics and intents, ensuring comprehensive topical authority.
16. Identify decaying content and update it: Refresh outdated pages with new information and links to recover rankings and preserve visibility in search and AI. To find decaying pages, look for:
    data-nobefore
    1. Dropped rankings for relevant keywords
    2. Fewer mentions in AI responses for key terms
    3. Decreased organic and AI traffic in analytics
    4. Outdated data or information in the body content
17. Audit competitors to find gaps or new opportunities: Analyze competitor keywords, content, and formats to uncover areas where you can differentiate and outperform. Reverse engineer competitor visibility to find gaps to fill or new untapped opportunities. 
    1. Do a brand gap analysis 
    2. Do a content gap analysis
    3. Do a link gap analysis
18. See what AI says about your brand and if it’s true: Check the accuracy of AI answers about your brand to catch errors or misinformation early.
19. Do an AI brand gap analysis to close gaps against competitors: Compare your AI visibility with competitors and prioritize strategies to strengthen your presence.

Build topical authority

20. Publish original data like research and statistics: Release proprietary studies and benchmarks that attract authoritative backlinks and establish subject authority.
21. Keep your most cited pages fresh and improve their business value: Regularly update pages that AI frequently cites and strengthen the business value of those pages to convert more visitors who find you in AI search.
22. Close topic gaps to win visibility for new queries: Expand into emerging or missing subtopics to reinforce topical relevance and AI recognition.
23. Create content hubs around core topics and long-tail keywords: Start by identifying your main pillar topic (e.g., ‘email marketing’) and then list related subtopics (e.g., ‘subject lines,’ ‘A/B testing,’ ‘deliverability’) to build cluster pages that link back to the pillar.
24. Find questions to answer in your content: Find questions your audience is actively asking to capture demand in both traditional search and conversational, AI-driven search. 
    • Use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to find common questions searched on Google
    • Mine Google Search Console data for the questions people ask that lead to your site
    • Use Answer the Public and Also Asked to find questions related to a given topic
    • Analyze People Also Ask questions on Google for core keywords
    • Review internal call transcripts and support tickets to find FAQs that existing customers ask
    • Gather ‘voice of customer’ data via surveys and interviews
25. Create an SEO topical map that extends beyond keywords: Start by identifying your core topics and related subtopics that have strong relevance to your brand and potential to drive traffic to your website. Map these topics to existing pages on your website or plan new pages to close topic gaps.
26. Update your content strategy for AI search: Adapt planning and content strategy processes to prioritize AI-specific opportunities alongside SEO, like: 
    • Identifying pages or content hubs that should be cited in AI responses but aren’t
    • Finding topic gaps against your competitors
    • Uncovering untapped topics your competitors have yet to discover

Content quality and credibility

27. Provide clear author or team bios and create dedicated pages: Publish detailed bios showcasing expertise to strengthen EEAT signals.
28. Interview experts and quote them in your content: Add unique, authoritative perspectives that make content more trustworthy and AI-citable. Include expert quotes, cite and link recognized experts in your field, and reference authoritative sources in your content.
29. Adapt your writing tone to match the content format: Tailor voice for blogs, guides, or sales content to improve resonance and engagement. For example, opt for a conversational tone where possible. Use a declarative tone when answering a question. Lean into an authoritative or expert tone for a ‘how to’ section and so on.
30. Optimize content for actions or jobs-to-be-done instead of just questions: Frame content around outcomes and tasks, not just query-based answers. Then, instead of just writing an article that answers a query, give users a resource that helps them complete the action (e.g., a template for ‘creating a content calendar,’ or a calculator to ‘track ROI’).
31. Define technical terms the first time you use them in content: Explain jargon concisely to make material accessible for broader audiences. It also sets the scene for AI systems to interpret and categorize your content correctly.
32. Enrich content with original multimedia, like video, images, or audio: Add engaging formats that enhance experience and provide additional AI-referenced material. This can help secure visibility across more search surfaces that lean toward different types of content.

Structure and readability

33. Emulate content formats AI frequently cites for your topic: Study successful content in AI responses and mirror those structures, such as step-by-step guides, comparison tables, checklists, FAQs, or how-to tutorials.
34. Start your content with a TL;DR summary section: Provide condensed key takeaways upfront to help users and AI grasp value instantly. Here’s an example of what that looks like: 
35. Make sure your content is logically structured and scannable: Use clear sections, short paragraphs, and an information hierarchy that naturally leads from one section to the next. This helps readers (and AI) follow the flow of ideas without hitting dead ends or jarring jumps.
36. Implement answer-oriented writing with one idea per section: Write clear, direct content with each section focused on a single point. Lead with the bottom line, then support it with context, anecdotes, or examples. This timeless writing approach now also improves visibility in both SEO and AI search.
37. Use headings to create a logical content hierarchy: Organize content with a single H1 containing your primary keyword, supported by H2s and H3s that reflect the natural flow of topics. Headings should guide readers through the topic, making complex material easier to scan, while also helping search engines and AI understand context and relationships between sections. Do not apply heading tags purely for visual effect.
38. Use bullet points, numbered lists, and tables to provide clarity: Present data in concise, structured content formats that improve both readability and snippet eligibility. For instance, avoid uploading tables as images. Use HTML or text-based tables so search engines and AI can read them.
39. Add relevant FAQs for which you can write an original answer: Create FAQ sections that answer common user questions and that you can provide original, worthwhile answers to. The more your responses add information gain to the content, the more likely they will appear in AI search responses, too.

Classic on-page SEO

40. Include a keyword in your page’s URL slug: Use short, descriptive slugs with the target keyword to strengthen relevance signals.
41. Add a compelling title tag with the main keyword included: Write concise, keyword-rich titles that maximize click-throughs and topical alignment.
42. Add a conversion-optimized meta description: Craft persuasive descriptions that highlight benefits and encourage clicks from SERPs.
43. Internally link related pages and articles to each other: Add internal links between topically related pages on your website.

Content distribution & repurposing

44. Repurpose your content and distribute on multiple platforms: Repurpose your top content into multiple formats (e.g., videos, carousels, podcasts, infographics) and distribute them across platforms that are gaining visibility in AI and search, like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit. In short, squeeze multiple formats out of one winning piece of content and get it in front of more audiences.

45. Build links and brand mentions around the web: Earn references from trusted publications to strengthen authority and AI recognition.
46. Get links and mentions near topics that matter to your business: When backlinks and anchor text are tied to your core topics, they strengthen your topical authority instead of diluting it. Focus your outreach on sites, articles, and conversations where your brand naturally fits the topic, so search engines and AI associate you with those themes.
47. Partner with writers already getting cited in AI responses: Collaborate with authors frequently surfaced in AI answers to boost visibility in content already surfaced by search systems and discovered by humans. You can use the Cited pages report in Ahrefs’ Brand Radar to find top pages for your topic and then reach out to the people who wrote or edited them
48. Publish guest posts on publications with strong visibility in AI responses: Contribute content to outlets often cited by AI.
49. Create shareable assets that naturally attract links and mentions: Design tools, visuals, or templates people want to reference. Or share original thought leadership, thought-provoking opinion pieces, and data studies that can naturally attract links. For example, this data study by a marketing agency led to multiple links earned from major news outlets sharing news and updates about Taylor Swift’s jet emissions. 
50. Clean up inconsistent brand information or misinformation on third-party sites: Fix errors like outdated addresses, old logos, broken links, or incorrect descriptions to maintain trust and entity clarity.
51. Reclaim lost backlinks and mentions to maintain visibility: Track down broken or removed links on partner sites, news articles, or directories, and ask site owners to reinstate or update them.
52. Contribute to relevant conversations on forums and discussion threads: Join industry-specific spaces (e.g., Reddit communities, LinkedIn groups, or specialist forums) and answer questions where your expertise is useful. Be authentic and helpful so mentions of your brand feel natural.
53. Find the most cited pages for your topic and get mentions in them: Find pages AI frequently cites in its responses and add these to your link outreach so you can get mentions and links on them. Doing so could lead to faster increases in AI visibility for your brand.

54. Set up Ahrefs’ Site Audit and schedule ongoing crawls: Run automated audits to catch issues before they impact visibility. The tool flags hundreds of potential problems and ranks them by importance, so you know what to fix first. Enterprises with large websites can also use Patches to resolve issues affecting search visibility without needing developer involvement.
55. Use HTTPS for content and website security: Secure your site with SSL to meet baseline ranking and trust signals.
56. Check robots.txt allows AI bots to access your content: Ensure you’re not accidentally blocking AI or search crawlers.
57. Update your XML sitemap and submit to Google and Bing: Keep sitemaps fresh to improve the discoverability of important pages.
58. Create a clean and crawlable site architecture: Organize navigation and hierarchy for better crawling and indexing.
59. Ensure fast-loading pages: Optimize performance for both user experience and rankings. Try optimizing file sizes, minifying CSS and JS, using browser caching, and implementing a content delivery network like Cloudflare.
60. If you use Cloudflare, check that it’s not blocking LLM access: Cloudflare has added many new settings controlling how AI platforms can access your website, often setting the default to block AI platforms. Check that these defaults aren’t applied to your account; otherwise, your website likely won’t surface in AI responses.
61. Measure and improve Core Web Vitals: Track and optimize loading, responsiveness, and stability metrics.
62. Implement structured data: Add schema to improve machine understanding of your content and how your pages appear in traditional search results. Semantic HTML can also help turn your content into structured data that search engines and AI systems can interpret more accurately.
63. Apply hreflang for multilingual and/or multiregional content: Use hreflang to deliver correct content versions internationally.
64. Optimize your images for speed and performance and add alt text: Compress and label images for accessibility, SEO, and AI recognition.
65. Use server-side rendering for visibility to search and AI crawlers: Pre-rendered pages ensure search engines and AI systems can index everything, even if your site relies heavily on JavaScript.
66. Prioritize mobile-first and responsive design on mobile devices: Build mobile experiences as the default for indexing and AI.
67. Redirect broken pages and URLs hallucinated by AI: Catch errors and direct users to relevant content.

68. Create and optimize business profiles on Google, Bing, and Apple Maps: Claim and complete listings with accurate information.
69. Create location pages on your website: Publish content for individual cities or regions to strengthen local rankings.
70. Ensure consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP): Keep NAP data standardized everywhere your business appears online.
71. Build localized citations in your region: Submit consistent NAP information across trusted directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, or industry-specific sites.
72. Keep your business profiles updated and post on them regularly: Maintain active listings to improve visibility and AI trust, as well as to provide accurate information to searchers in your area.

73. Set up Ahrefs Web Analytics to measure your website traffic: Track organic, paid, and AI performance. Find pages earning the most traffic and conversions.
74. Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools: Gain insights into indexing, crawling, and performance issues.
75. Set up your internal reporting dashboard to measure brand awareness: Centralize reporting on branded search and mentions.
76. Monitor your top pages and organic traffic from SEO and AI: Track performance of priority content across both ecosystems. You can do this using Ahrefs’ Web Analytics:

    Check out the list of top pages by each channel to see which perform best in traditional SEO results vs in AI search specifically.

    

77. Track rankings in the top 20 organic positions: Monitor keyword movement in the top ranking spots to assess meaningful gains and losses.
78. Track growth in links and mentions around the web: Use Ahrefs’ Brand Radar > Web visibility report to see whether your brand is earning more backlinks, citations, and references over time. 
79. Measure your AI Share of Voice compared to competitors: Benchmark your presence against rivals in AI search. 
80. Measure your brand’s appearances in AI answers: Track frequency of AI citations, including your brand across platforms. You can do this in Ahrefs’ Brand Radar > AI responses report: 
81. Track how closely AI connects your brand to key topics: Use tools like Brand Radar to filter queries and responses by your brand and topic, and see how often they co-occur. The stronger the overlap, the stronger the association.
82. Track hallucinations and inaccurate brand info in AI responses: Catch and correct false information before it spreads widely.

Final thoughts

But even if you’re our most loyal fan, there will still be plenty of insights that you’ve missed or have forgotten already. Many of these ideas are too good to let vanish.

So we went back through our catalog and rescued the insights from our guests that deserve to be referenced over and over again.

The best part? Many of our guests will also be on stage at Ahrefs Evolve in San Diego on October 14 and 15.

So, think of this as both the director’s cut of our podcast and your front-row preview to Ahrefs Evolve.

Mark Schaefer is a globally-recognized author, keynote speaker, futurist, and business consultant who blogs at {grow}, one of the top five marketing blogs in the world. He also teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University and has written 10 best-selling books.

When he came on the podcast, he didn’t sugarcoat it.

“If you’re just competent, you’re going to be eaten alive by AI. AI is already competent. It’s more than competent. It’s magical. So we’ve got to dig deep and do better.”

How do we do better? Mark says we should make marketing more human, more like art.

“I’m not going to buy tickets to hear AI play a Stephen Wilson song. He means something to me. There’s an emotional connection to his humanity and the stories he tells in his songs. our marketing in some way must approach art. It must unleash and highlight this human element.

we need to teach through our stories, our experiences, our education. We have to talk about what makes us happy, what makes us excited, what makes us angry, because that’s what will connect with people. It’s this expression of the human experience. That’s what art is. It’s an expression of the human experience.”

Mark will be speaking on “How Humans Win in an Al Marketing World” at Ahrefs Evolve. See Mark live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

Emily Kramer is a leading voice in B2B startup marketing. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly and has been the first-ish marketer 4 times, leading teams through hypergrowth and at scale.

On the podcast, she explained why so many founders misdiagnose their marketing problems.

“Founders often think they have an engine problem: they’re not doing enough channels, not sending enough emails, not running enough ads. But really their fuel sucks. They’re pushing bad messaging into channels that could work if the content was better.”

Emily breaks startup marketing into three parts:

• Foundation: your ICP, your positioning, your market.
• Fuel: the ideas, content, and creatives you produce.
• Engine: the channels you use to distribute that fuel.

“You’re not going to bring a Tesla to a regular gas station. The wrong fuel for the wrong engine won’t work. Startups need the right fuel and the right engine, and they have to match.”

She also urges startups to look for what she calls marketing advantages: the unfair edges that only your company has. At Carta, that meant using their proprietary data to publish a landmark report on the gender equity gap. The campaign was provocative, press-worthy, and put Carta on the map.

“Copying another company’s playbook won’t get you there. I’m always asking: what advantages do you have that nobody else does? That’s where you should double down.”

Emily will be speaking on “Lessons for Small Content Teams: How I Manage My Content Strategy As A Two-Person Team And A Newsletter With ~70k Subscribers” at Ahrefs Evolve. See Emily live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

Peep Laja is a 3x founder (Wynter, CXL, Speero). Today, he’s a recognized expert in strategy, messaging, and market research.

On the podcast, Peep was blunt about why so much content marketing fails:

“Mediocre content is dangerous. Fine content destroyed us at CXL. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. And that’s the worst place to be. Bad content people ignore. Fine content wastes everyone’s time and erodes your brand.”

For him, content that wins needs to be either:

• Exceptionally useful (unique insights, data, frameworks), or
• Exceptionally opinionated (a strong, even contrarian, point of view).

Everything else is noise.

Peep will be speaking on “B2B Brands Don’t Have A Pipeline Problem, They Have A Recall Problem” at Ahrefs Evolve. See Peep live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

Delbert Ty is a fractional CMO who is the ex-CMO at Coffee Meets Bagel, a popular dating app. Before joining CmB, Delbert worked as Head of Marketing at Circles.Life—a Singaporean telco—where he grew revenue to 9 figures in 5 years.

Having been behind some of APAC’s wildest marketing stunts, he’s honest:

“All the great ideas start as bad ideas. Do the opposite of what you’re ‘supposed’ to do, then make the narrative tie back to your brand.”

Some of his best stunts (and misses):

• The “vandalism” reveal (Singapore) — Delbert seeded a fake telco campaign in MRT stations, then doodled over the ads with creators before revealing Circles.Life and its 20GB for $20 offer. In pristine Singapore, it hit a cultural nerve. Result: 10× new-user run rate overnight, CAC down by ⅓–⅔, and brand awareness jumping from single digits to 30–40%.
• $3 Baller “vending machine” — Pay $3 and get $50 from a human inside a faux vending machine. It got tons of viral attention and press covered it extensively. The police showed up.
• CMB’s “send casuals away” feature — CMB wanted to prove that it was an app for serious relationships. So, if a user selected “casual” during sign-up, the app pointed you to competitors instead. A contrarian gesture that most companies wouldn’t make.

How Delbert decides what to ship:

• Aim for expected value, not heroics: Budget small, take many shots, and don’t count on a stunt to hit the forecast.
• Account for hidden costs: Stunts are “cheap” in cash but expensive in team energy and courage.
• Exploit the cultural erogenous zone: What shocks in Singapore won’t budge Manila. Context is king.
• Distribution helps, but the idea is king: Seeding and outreach are icing; a meh idea won’t travel.

“If 10% of your wild ideas land, that’s a win if each roll of the dice is affordable.”

Delbert was part of a panel at Ahrefs Evolve 2024 and also spoke at Ahrefs Evolve Mini 2025 in Singapore.

Madhav Bhandari is CMO at Storylane, an AI-native platform for creating interactive demos in minutes, giving buyers a hands-on way to test-drive products.

On the podcast, he shared his biggest insight: Early-stage marketing isn’t about following a playbook. It’s actually about building a portfolio of experiments.

“I always think of myself as a fund manager. The budget is my fund, and the stocks are my marketing channels. My job is to pick the right portfolio mix, based on what the company needs, what’s already been tried, and the CEO’s risk profile.”

Instead of searching for one silver-bullet channel, Madhav runs dozens of small experiments quickly, then doubles down on the two or three that work.

“At Hubstaff, I tried 80 or 90 tactics in six months. Out of that sprint, maybe two or three emerged as real growth drivers. That’s the job: run many ideas fast, find your hits, and build around them.”

He also warns against overcomplicating attribution too early: what matters is trust and directional signals, not perfect data.

Madhav will be speaking on “How We 7x’d Brand Awareness in 6 Quarters Using ‘Pattern Interrupt Marketing’” at Ahrefs Evolve. See Madhav live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

Glen Allsopp is the Head of Marketing Strategy and Research at Ahrefs. He’s also the founder of Detailed.com and the Detailed SEO extension, which we acquired in September 2025.

Before joining Ahrefs, he was on the podcast sharing his vast SEO and business wisdom with the world.

His edge comes from obsessive depth: doing the work others won’t.

“I’ve written 300 articles that nobody cared about. The only way I get attention now is by doing the work no one else will: manually checking 10,000 queries, analyzing thousands of websites, and putting out research that’s bulletproof.”

That level of rigor has earned him mentions in TechCrunch, Financial Times, and Business Insider.

His lesson for marketers is simple: go deeper than anyone else in your industry. True differentiation comes from effort others aren’t willing to invest.

Glen is notoriously private and will likely not be found speaking at any events. But look forward to his articles on our blog!

Chris Cunningham is the Head of Social Marketing at ClickUp and one of its four people who started the company. During his time at the company, ClickUp has grown to over 1,400 employees, raised $535 million at a $4 billion valuation, and run major campaigns including a Super Bowl commercial.

He also built ClickUp’s content into the best in B2B SaaS, surpassing 1 billion impressions in 2024.

What’s his secret? Treat content like a creative studio.

Instead of pushing product updates, Chris hired actors, writers, and comedians to make workplace sketches that are funny, relatable, and endlessly shareable. Then, when the audience is warmed up, ClickUp retargets them with product-led ads.

But Chris believes this isn’t just ClickUp’s advantage. It’s the future:

“All B2B companies are going to have a full-time creator. 100%.”

His advice to marketers is simple: stop following “best practices,” study what actually entertains people, and invest in talent that can pull it off. Because in a world where attention is scarce, every SaaS company is competing with Netflix and TikTok.

Chris will be speaking on “The SaaS Social Playbook: Turning Organic Content Into a Growth Channel” at Ahrefs Evolve. See Chris live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

Melissa Laurie is one of the leading voices on EGC (Employee Generated Content). Through her agency Oysterly Media, she’s helped brands like SEPHORA, Salesforce, and even the Singapore Police Force, turn their employees into a powerful marketing channel.

Her big idea flips the usual “employee advocacy” script: have employees create short videos that go on your brand’s channels, because authenticity beats polish and scales across recruiting, culture, and sales.

Short video is now how people search and discover. That means your brand feeds can’t be occasional press releases; they need a steady cadence of human clips from real teammates: product tips, day-in-the-life, quick stories, green-screen explainers. But it only works if you treat it like a program, not a one-off.

“I don’t believe we have 3 seconds anymore… it’s the first frame.”

“It’s not just about posting one video and you’re done. It’s about creating a channel, a community.”

Melissa’s playbook in a nutshell:

• Train and set guardrails. Don’t just go to a Gen Z employee and tell them to “make a video”. Teach hooks, first-frame text, pacing, and pattern interrupts and review every post.
  Publish consistently. Track saves, comments, and completions to double down on what resonates.
• Aim for business outcomes. Short video on brand channels helps attract talent, retain/engage teams, and sell (think Sephora associates genuinely recommending their favorite products)

If your brand is still trying to pass off TV spots as Reels, you’re “putting lipstick on a pig.” Put real people, real voices, and useful micro-stories on your brand account and make it a habit.

Melissa spoke at Ahrefs Evolve Mini 2025 in Singapore!

Kevin Indig is an advisor to some of the world’s fastest-growing startups and has defined organic growth strategies for companies like Ramp, Reddit, Bounce, Dropbox, Hims, Nextdoor and Snapchat. He led SEO and Growth at the world’s leading e-commerce platform Shopify, the #1 marketplace for software G2 and the #1 developer company Atlassian.

On the podcast, Kevin made one bold prediction:

“2024 will be the peak traffic year. From here, clicks go down, impressions go up. AI is changing the game, and SEO is entering a new cycle.”

But rather than declaring SEO dead, Kevin sees it evolving. Traffic may decline, but revenue doesn’t necessarily follow the same path, especially as AI Overviews start showing up for more commercial queries.

His advice for SEOs is simple: Don’t just optimize for keywords, optimize for actions. Every search is a step toward doing something: buying, solving, creating. If your site only informs but doesn’t help people act, they’ll go to AI instead.

“The first principles of SEO still apply—relevance, freshness, authority—but user behavior has shifted. People are typing longer, hyper-specific prompts, and there’s a vacuum of content that actually answers those. Whoever fills it will win.”

Kevin will be speaking on “What Content Works Well in LLMs” at Ahrefs Evolve. See Kevin live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

John-Henry Scherck is the founder and CEO of Growth Plays, a leading B2B content strategy & SEO agency that works with mid-market and enterprise technology businesses to drive pipeline, not just page views.

The core lesson from his episode: Traffic alone is worthless unless it drives revenue.

That’s why JH is skeptical of the hype around “zero-volume keywords.” Sure, some may bring in a trickle of traffic, but they rarely move the needle for venture-scale SaaS companies:

“If you’re hinging your career on things that bring 100 clicks a month, you need to create so much content. Search might not even be the right channel for it.”

Instead, he urges marketers to think bigger:

• Use search as an entry point, but funnel that traffic into brand-driven and educational content that builds trust.
• Invest in product data studies that get press and links (like DocSend’s landmark VC pitch deck study).
• Double down on events, partnerships, and distribution channels where your buyers already gather.

For JH, it all comes back to a simple truth: volume is vanity, revenue is sanity.

John-Henry will be speaking on “Adopting Al: Everything We’ve Learned Becoming an Al-First Agency” at Ahrefs Evolve. See John-Henry live at Ahrefs Evolve, San Diego.

Neil Patel is one of the most recognizable names in digital marketing. He’s the co-founder of NP Digital, which has grown into a global agency with over $100M in annual revenue, plus software businesses like Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic.

On the podcast, Neil cut through the noise about why agencies really fail to scale:

“Most people think the problem is sales. But the real reason agencies don’t grow is churn. If you keep a client for 10 years, your business looks completely different. If you lose them in one or two years, you’re always on the hamster wheel.”

For Neil, the key to reducing churn is expanding the relationship. If a client only hires you for SEO, they’ll churn. But if they rely on you for SEO, paid, email, and CRO, you become indispensable.

He also emphasized the importance of targeting enterprise clients:

• They take longer to close, but they stay longer.
• They expand contracts across services and regions.
• And when you win one brand, you often get introduced to others inside the same group (e.g., LVMH).

It’s not about closing the deal once; it’s about keeping the deal for a decade.

Final thoughts

If there’s one common pattern across these episodes, it’s this: The winners in marketing do what’s hard. They obsess over depth, take risks and ship “bad ideas” in order to find great ones (i.e. build a portfolio of bets), out-human the machines, and measure success by outcomes, not vanity.

Ahrefs Evolve is your chance to take those ideas off the page and into practice. You’ll hear the unfiltered versions on stage, ask follow-up questions in person, and swap notes with marketers who are running the exact plays you care about.

See you at Ahrefs Evolve in San Diego, October 14–15.