Brand Mentions for SEO: How to Get Cited by AI (3 Tiers) | 3.2. AEO Course by Ahrefs

Hey, it's Ammo and welcome to the second lesson in this module, which is on earning mentions and citations. Now, in the last lesson, we talked about creating content that gets cited. But, here's the thing. A lot of AEO isn't about what's on your site, it's about getting mentioned on other people's pages. And not just any pages, the ones AI wants to pull from. Branded web mentions are so important that in our study of 75,000 brands, they had the strongest correlation with visibility in Google's AI overviews, stronger than backlinks, referring domains, and even domain rating. So, in this lesson, I'm going to show you the three types of pages you should be getting mentioned on and how to find the ones that matter most. Let's get started. So, I like to think about mention sources in three tiers. And the reason I use tiers is because not all mentions are created equal. Where you get mentioned matters just as much as how often you get mentioned. According to our data, we found that getting mentioned on highly linked pages has a 0.7 correlation with appearing in Google's AI overviews. That's even higher than the general branded mentions correlation. So, the quality of the page you're on makes a huge difference. Now, let's talk about tier one mentions, which are found in third-party editorial content. These are the hardest mentions to earn, but they're also the most valuable. Think industry publications, review sites like Wirecutter or TechRadar, listicles and comparison posts on authoritative blogs, and YouTube reviews from creators in your space. Why are these so powerful? Because they're exactly the kind of pages AI loves to cite. Remember, 43.8% of ChatGPT citations are listicles and comparison pages. So, if you're mentioned on those pages, you're in the pool of content AI is already pulling from. Now, to find the right pages to go after, go to BrandRadar and enter your domain. Then, open the cited domains report. This shows you the top websites that AI is citing for topics related to your brand. You'll see the number of AI responses, the number of pages, and how often each brand is being mentioned. From here, you can identify which sites matter most for your niche. Maybe it's kbb.com for cars, or CNET for tech, or specific niche blogs in your industry. These are the sites where getting a mention can directly lead to AI visibility. Now, it's important to note that you don't have to wait for AI to start citing a page before you try to get on it. Instead, look for pages that already have a lot of links and cover your topic. Even if they're not cited now, there's a good chance that they'll be cited at some point. You can use Content Explorer for this. Search for your title and add title:best or title:versus along with a minus operator before your brand name. This will surface listicles and comparison posts in your niche where your brand isn't mentioned. Then filter for pages with a good number of referring domains. Next up are tier two mentions, which can be found on user-generated content and community platforms. This includes Reddit, Quora, niche forums, and community sites. And these matter more than you might think. Reddit is one of the most frequently cited sources by ChatGPT. It's also one of the foundational training sources for large language models. The play here isn't to spam Reddit threads with your brand name. That'll backfire fast. Instead, find threads where people are asking questions your product or expertise can genuinely answer. If someone's asking, "What's the best tool for X?" and your product is actually a good fit, contribute a real answer. You can find these threads through Brand Radar as well. Look at the cited domains report and see if reddit.com shows up for your space. If it does, dig into which specific threads AI is pulling from and join the conversations that are already happening. Now, if you want to find niche-specific Reddit pages that are already ranking well in Google, you can go to Site Explorer, enter reddit.com, and open the organic keywords report. Filter for keywords ranking in the top five, and add your niche terms to the include filter. And now you've got a list of Reddit pages that are already ranking well in Google and are related to your space. And you can do the exact same thing for niche forums and Q&A sites. Wherever your target audience is having conversations about problems that you solve, that's where you want to be present. Finally, we have tier three, which are your own properties. Some brands own multiple domains. Ahrefs, for example, has detailed.com and bloggerjet. If these properties are authoritative in their own right, they can serve as additional citation sources for AI. Now, even though you don't have the resources to run multiple sites, the principle still applies. Your YouTube channel, your podcast, your LinkedIn content, these are all indexed and can all show up as sources AI pulls from. Basically, the more places your brand appears in a positive, topically relevant way, the more training examples AI has to learn from. Now, earning mentions is one thing, but you also need to keep track of them because mentions can disappear, pages get updated, lists get refreshed, and your brand can get removed without you ever knowing. And on the flip side, sometimes AI picks up wrong information about your brand from outdated or inaccurate sources. So, it's worth doing a regular mention audit. In Brand Radar, you can track your overall mention trends over time. Look for any drops in mention volume. If you find a page that was previously mentioning you, but your brand was removed during an update, that might be worth investigating. And pay attention to sentiment, too. Are AI responses about your brand accurate? Are they positive? If you spot misinformation, your best move is to update your own content first, and then reach out to the publisher to request a correction. The faster you fix inaccurate mentions, the less time AI has to learn from them. So, between this lesson and the last one, you've got a clear playbook for earning AI visibility through content and mentions. But, there's one platform we haven't talked about yet that deserves its own lesson, and that's YouTube. I'll see you in the next lesson.