Before we dive into what’s changing, let’s cover the basics.
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours.
Think of them as votes of confidence. When a reputable site links to your content, it essentially says, “This is worth reading.”
For over two decades, backlinks have been the primary currency of search visibility. Google’s original PageRank algorithm was built on this premise. Sites with more high-quality backlinks ranked higher.
But not all links were created equal.
For years, SEO wisdom said that follow links matter, nofollow links don’t. Google’s guidance evolved over time, eventually treating nofollow as a “hint” rather than a directive. But the consensus remained: chase follow links, as nofollow links are not as valuable.
This thinking dominated the SEO world until AI search changed the game.
Traditional search engines, such as Google, crawl the web, index pages, and rank them based on hundreds of factors. Backlinks are one major factor among many.
AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews work differently. They don’t just rank pages. They synthesise information from multiple sources to answer questions directly.
According to research from SearchEngineLand, AI Overviews now appear for over 13% of US desktop searches. That number changes depending on the industry. Meanwhile, 58% of Google searches result in zero clicks to websites.
This shift raises urgent questions. Do backlinks still matter? If so, which ones? How do AI models decide which sources to cite?
Until now, these questions had no data-driven answers.
Kevin Indig, in partnership with Semrush, analysed 35,000 data points across 1,000 domains. The study measured AI mentions against core backlink metrics across ChatGPT, ChatGPT with Search, Gemini, Google’s AI Overviews, and Perplexity.
The findings challenge conventional SEO wisdom.
This is the headline result. Nofollow links correlate with AI mentions just as strongly as regular follow links.
In practical terms, this means AI models don’t discriminate between follow and nofollow links the way traditional search algorithms do.
No-follow links are typically easier to build. Guest posts on major publications and high-authority websites often use the nofollow attribute. Sponsored content also applies a no-follow rule.
For years, SEO practitioners viewed these opportunities as less valuable. That calculation just changed.
Interestingly, Gemini and ChatGPT actually weigh nofollow links slightly higher than follow links. Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity still favour follow links more, but the gap is smaller than expected.
Your website’s authority is basically how much the internet trusts you. It’s built through SEO best practices, quality backlinks, good content, and time.
The research found that authority does help you get mentioned in AI search results. But it doesn’t work like a gentle slope where each bit of authority gives you more visibility. It suggests that as you steadily build authority, you may see modest improvements. Then you cross a threshold (roughly the top 30% of sites in your industry) and suddenly things accelerate. Hard.
Sites that were performing well received approximately 20 AI mentions. Sites that were just one level higher got nearly 80 mentions. That’s almost four times more visibility for crossing one threshold.
If your site is relatively new or hasn’t built much authority yet, don’t expect AI search to solve your visibility problems immediately. You need to reach a certain level first.
The good news? The strategies that build authority haven’t changed.
And repeat.
You can check your website’s authority score for free using Moz’s Domain Authority tool. Semrush also offers limited free checks through its website’s authority checker.
These scores aren’t perfect, but they give you a rough idea of where you stand. A rule of thumb is that anything above 40 is decent, and it takes a while to grow as you add new content to your site that needs to build its own level of trust. So, don’t obsess over the number.
Focus on the underlying work of building genuine authority, knowing that once you’re over the hump, AI visibility compounds fast.
The number of unique linking domains matters more than the total backlink count.
One hundred links from ten different domains is less valuable than fifty links from fifty domains, suggesting that a wider diversity signals increased trust and relevance.
This finding aligns with traditional SEO best practices. But it’s now confirmed for AI search as well.
Focus on building relationships across multiple sites, rather than relying on a handful of friendly sources for links.
Image links outperform text links, especially on Perplexity and SearchGPT.
However, there’s a caveat. Image links only pay off once you have some baseline authority. In the lowest deciles of authority, the relationship is weak or negative. In mid- to high-authority tiers, image links gain considerable strength.
If you’re already established, infographics and visual content that earn image backlinks should be part of your strategy.
AI search isn’t replacing traditional SEO overnight. It’s adding another layer.
The fundamentals still work.
These strategies work for both traditional search and AI models.
And perhaps most importantly, remember that AI visibility is one metric among many. Brand awareness, direct traffic, email subscribers, and customer loyalty. These matter too.
Don’t let AI search anxiety become another source of marketing burnout or a distraction from the foundations.
