Ahrefs: YouTube Mentions Build AI Brand Visibility

Are YouTube mentions leading AI brand visibility?

According to research from Ahrefs – which looked at 75,00 brands and drew insights from 146 million search results and 730,000 AI responses – YouTube mentions correlate more strongly with AI brand visibility than any other metric. 

Other indicators, such as a site’s link volume and total page count, showed only a weak correlation. 

“As brand discovery spreads across AI platforms that each behave differently, tracking and growing online visibility has fundamentally changed,” says Glen Allsopp, Head of Marketing Strategy and Research at Ahrefs.

“I expect the teams that win will continue to follow and learn from the data, while prioritising building genuine authority in their industry.”

How are AI platforms citing sources?

AI overviews are fundamentally changing the way users consume and interact with content, with a previous study from Ahrefs finding that Google’s AI overviews have reduced clicks to top-ranking content by 58%. 

The research finds that AI overviews are currently appearing for 21% of all keywords searched on Google – but this number can vary massively. Some categories have a 60% chance of triggering an AI overview, while others have as low as a 1% chance. 

Searches with informational intent are primary drivers of AI overviews, while non-branded keywords are more likely to trigger an overview than branded ones. 

Longer queries are also more likely to trigger an AI overview: they will appear on just 9.5% of single-word queries, but 46.4% of searches with seven or more words. 

What signals are driving AI visibility?

While Youtube mentions were most likely to correlate with AI Overview mentions, branded web mentions are still key – with web mentions increasing visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. 

Backlinks and content volume, however, had a much weaker correlation with AI visibility – a departure from traditional SEO practice. 

Ahrefs also says it saw a ‘near zero’ correlation between word count of a piece of content and its probability of being cited in AI overviews.

Around a third of pages cited were 350-1,000 words, while 30.6% were 1,000-2,000 words and articles under 350 words and more than 2,000 words made up 16.6% and 16% of AI overview results, respectively. 

GEO: The future of search? 

As AI plays an increasingly important role in online search, many marketing leaders are turning their attention towards Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) rather than Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). 

According to Malaika Ijaz, Search Engine Optimisation Specialist at Elite IT Team, marketers can no longer focus entirely on SEO best practice when developing content strategies.

“If you are still relying solely on traditional SEO, this is the moment to set a new marketing goal. The future belongs to a blended approach that includes SEO, AEO, GEO, and AIO,” she told LinkedIn News. 

“Ask yourself: how often do you search only on Google anymore? Your customers are exploring multiple platforms for answers. It is time to optimise your business for how people actually search today.”

Modern SEO, she says, “is no longer just keyword research and backlinks,” but “requires strong social presence, an optimised website, PR and a broader content ecosystem”.