According to Abondance, backlinks retain their usefulness for visibility in AI-generated answers. Google and Bing indicate that their generative features rely on the same ranking systems as classic search, where links remain a signal. A study cited in the article also shows that brand mentions are more correlated with presence in AI Overviews than raw link volume.
Google, Bing, ChatGPT and Claude: different approaches
In its guide dedicated to optimization for its generative AI features, updated in July 2026, Google explains that AI Overviews (AIO) and AI Mode rely on its ranking and quality systems. Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), which fetches pages from the index before producing an answer, draws its sources from there, while “query fan-out” launches related queries to broaden the collection. For Google, optimizing a site for generative search remains SEO.
Microsoft follows a similar logic. Rewritten in early 2026, Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines indicate that Copilot relies on the same technical foundation as classic search. They cite external links from relevant sites among the ways to get your URLs discovered.
For ChatGPT, OpenAI states in its documentation that its search “sometimes partners with other providers,” without specifying its ranking criteria. An analysis by Resoneo, published in August 2026 and covering 1,200 answers, provides some insights: in free mode, nearly 75% of retrieved results come from OpenAI’s own index, and only 1.5% of these URLs appear in Bing’s top 20. In paid mode, the proportion reverses, with 75% of results coming from Google’s search results pages. Anthropic, for its part, only describes Claude-SearchBot, a bot tasked with “improving the quality of search results.” Its list of subcontractors cites Brave Search, which does not publish its ranking criteria, so the role of links on Claude remains hypothetical.
Being found before being cited
An AI can only cite a page it has retrieved. Google puts it this way: to appear in its generative features, a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet in classic results. Inbound links remain both a discovery path for crawlers and a ranking factor. However, fan-out broadens the field of consulted pages, which could explain why content ranked well beyond the first page is also cited.
Brand mentions and links, two overlapping signals
Published in May 2025, an Ahrefs study covering 75,000 brands measures the correlation between several indicators and a brand’s presence in AI Overviews. Mentions of the brand on the web rank first (0.664), with or without a link, followed by anchors containing the brand name (0.527). Authority indicators remain positively correlated, but more modestly: Domain Rating (0.326), referring domains (0.295), and number of backlinks (0.218). The authors remind us that correlation does not prove causation. An article published on a relevant media outlet, which talks about the brand and links to it with an anchor containing its name, combines the two best-correlated signals. However, Google warns against “inauthentic” mentions: the value of the content for the host media’s readers remains, according to the search engine, the primary criterion.
