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Dofollow Digest #55: What actually drives AI visibility (75K brands studied)

Author

Eric Carrell
January 16, 2026

Hey, it's Eric 👋

New research from Ahrefs on AI visibility just came out, and there's a finding in there that's worth your attention.

They analyzed 75,000 brands across ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode, and AI Overviews to see what factors correlate with getting mentioned. The results are good news for SaaS companies taking a thoughtful approach to building authority online.

More on that below.

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🔍 DEEP DIVE: What Actually Drives AI Visibility (75K Brands Studied)

Ahrefs analyzed 75,000 brands to find which factors correlate with getting mentioned in ChatGPT, AI Mode, and AI Overviews. The study looked at millions of AI responses and compared them against various SEO metrics to see what patterns emerged.

The data is clear on several points that matter for SaaS companies thinking about visibility in AI search.

YouTube Mentions Lead the Pack

YouTube mentions showed the strongest correlation with AI visibility across all three platforms, coming in at around 0.737. This outperformed every other factor they tested, including branded web mentions, which had topped the list in previous research.

The correlation held across ChatGPT, AI Mode, and AI Overviews, which is notable because ChatGPT isn't owned by Google. Both Google and OpenAI have trained their models on YouTube transcripts, so brands being discussed in video content are showing up more frequently in AI answers regardless of which platform you're looking at.

One interesting detail: the volume of YouTube mentions correlated slightly more strongly than YouTube mention impressions (views). Brands don't appear to be at a disadvantage if they're mentioned in lower-view videos, as long as they're being mentioned broadly.

Brand Mentions Still Matter

Branded web mentions remain highly correlated with AI visibility (0.66 to 0.71 across platforms). Brands with more mentions across different contexts, including blog posts, anchor text, video transcripts, and descriptions, are more likely to appear in AI responses.

Branded anchors (links where your brand name appears in the clickable text) also showed solid correlation, particularly in AI Mode (0.628). These are deliberate endorsements where someone has chosen to link to your brand by name, and AI Mode appears to weigh these references more heavily than the other platforms.

Quality Over Quantity Shows Up in the Data

The study found very weak correlations between raw volume metrics and AI visibility. The number of pages on a site showed almost no relationship with brand mentions in AI (around 0.194 correlation). Similarly, raw backlink counts on their own showed weak correlations across all three AI systems.

Branded links and mentions, as noted above, are a different story. A link that says "check out Acme's project management tool" carries more weight than a generic link buried in a resource list.

This aligns with what Ahrefs' Director of Content, Ryan Law, noted in the article: "It's not just a content creation arms race." The data suggests AI systems are looking for signals of genuine brand presence, and branded links from relevant sources provide exactly that.

Different Platforms, Different Opportunities

The three AI platforms show some meaningful differences in what signals they respond to, which creates different entry points for growing brands.

ChatGPT showed the weakest correlations with classic authority metrics like Domain Rating (0.266) and branded search volume (0.352). This is good news for SaaS companies that are still building their presence. ChatGPT appears to be more open to brands with varied digital profiles, making it a strong starting point for companies focused on building visibility in AI search.

AI Mode consistently showed the strongest correlations with traditional brand authority signals like branded anchors, branded search volume, and branded traffic. This makes sense given Google's depth of data on brand signals. For SaaS companies, this reinforces the value of building branded links and mentions over time, since those signals compound as AI Mode continues to grow.

AI Overviews showed the strongest correlation with Domain Rating compared to the other two platforms (0.326 vs 0.285 and 0.266). Since AI Overviews deliver one-shot answers to informational queries, they may lean slightly more on established authority signals.

Consistency Across Platforms

Despite these differences, there's high overlap (0.779 correlation) in which brands appear across the different AI systems. The platforms may weigh signals differently, but they're drawing from the same underlying picture of brand presence online. This is encouraging because it means the work you do to build visibility in one place tends to carry over to others.

My Take

This research confirms what we've seen with our SaaS clients: building genuine brand presence across the web leads to visibility in AI answers.

The opportunity for SaaS companies is clear. Focus on earning mentions and branded links from quality publications, podcasts, YouTube discussions, and industry resources. These signals compound over time, and the data shows AI systems are picking up on them across every platform.

For SaaS companies actively building their authority, ChatGPT offers a strong starting point since it relies less heavily on established brand signals. And as you build branded mentions and links over time, that presence will show up across AI Mode and AI Overviews as well.

The brands winning in AI search are the ones investing in real authority. That's the same playbook that's worked for years, and this data shows it's working in the AI era too.

🔗 LINK ROUNDUP

Til next time,

Eric