We studied 10,000 AI answers. Here’s who gets recommended.

Most brands that AI recommends are backed by other websites, not only their own. In our study of 10,000 US keywords, 80.69% of the links next to brand mentions in Google’s AI Overviews went to other websites. In ChatGPT it was 57.58%, and the two AIs rarely linked to the same pages.

Below is how we ran the study, what we found and what it means for your brand. We also explain the limits in plain words. A study like this shows patterns. It can’t promise results.

How we ran the study

We took one list of 10,000 US keywords and checked each one three ways: in Google’s regular results, in Google’s AI Overviews and in ChatGPT.

• An AI Overview is the AI-written summary Google shows above the regular results for some searches. It often links to the pages it used.
• A ChatGPT answer is the reply ChatGPT gave when we asked it the keyword. Its links mix source links with product and shop links. We couldn’t always tell them apart, so we count them all as links in the answer.
• Google’s top 10 means the first ten regular results for the same keyword.

Two smaller follow-up tests each started with 1,000 keywords. One ran the same Google search three times. The other asked an AI model with web search turned off to name brands.

Keep a few limits in mind. These are snapshots: we saw what each AI showed on the day we checked. Google and ChatGPT were checked on different days with different settings. We can see which pages an AI linked to, but not why it picked them. And a link next to a brand isn’t the same as a recommendation.

Most links next to brand mentions go to other websites

In 601 keywords, we matched brand names in the answers with the links on the same line. Then we asked a simple question. Did the link go to the brand’s own website, or to someone else’s?

In AI Overviews, about four in five of these links (80.69%) went to pages someone else wrote, such as reviews, lists and articles. ChatGPT linked to brand sites more often (42.42%), but other websites still made up most of its links (57.58%).

Two cautions. First, a link next to a brand doesn’t prove that page caused the mention. Second, this doesn’t mean your website is useless. We didn’t compare brands with and without websites, and brand sites still earned a real share of links. What it does show is that coverage on other trusted websites deserves a big place in your plan.

Pages that rank in Google show up in AI Overviews

Next, we checked every link in each AI answer against Google’s results for the same keyword. This used the same 8,658 keywords for both AIs.

The median is the middle value. Half the matching pages ranked higher and half ranked lower.

So about half the pages AI Overviews linked to were already on page one of Google. Higher spots were picked more often, too. Across all 10,000 keywords, 49.19% of pages ranking #1 were linked in that search’s AI Overview. At #10 it was 9.83%, and at #20 it was 3.05%.

ChatGPT matched Google far less. Keep in mind that this compares ChatGPT’s links with Google’s results only. It doesn’t tell us what ChatGPT’s own search found, or whether it uses Google at all.

A match isn’t proof that ranking causes the link. But for AI Overviews, pages that rank are where the links usually come from, so being named on those pages matters. Here’s more on how to show up in Google’s AI Overviews.

Google’s AI and ChatGPT use different sources

We looked at 6,482 keywords where both AIs gave links. On average, they shared only 3.33% of their linked pages.

Take the keyword “best shoes for nurses.” The AI Overview linked to five pages and ChatGPT linked to six. Not one was the same. The AI Overview leaned on a Reddit thread, a running shop, a shoe review site and a nurse staffing company. ChatGPT leaned on health magazines, nursing blogs and a foot clinic. Yet both answers still named some of the same shoe brands. Different pages don’t always mean different brands.

Different kinds of sites, too

The gap showed up in the type of site as well. Across the same 8,658 keywords, about half of AI Overviews linked to Reddit (49.87%), and about half linked to YouTube (50.81%). ChatGPT almost never did. Only 0.31% of its answers linked to Reddit, and 0.16% linked to YouTube.

The most-linked websites were different, too. Across all 10,000 keywords, AI Overviews leaned most on YouTube, Reddit, Google’s own pages and social media. ChatGPT leaned most on health sites, business magazines, product review sites and home magazines.

These numbers don’t mean any one site is the answer for your brand. They also don’t show that an AI blocks a site. They show that each AI draws from its own pool, so a plan built for one may miss the other. Our free AI visibility audit checks which sources each AI uses for the questions your buyers ask. For ChatGPT, see how to get recommended by ChatGPT.

AI answers change from one search to the next

We searched 1,000 keywords on Google three times each. An AI Overview showed all three times for 82.7% of them. It showed once or twice for 7.9%, and it never showed for 9.4%.

The links were fairly steady. Across 824 keywords with an AI Overview and links on every run, the linked pages overlapped 90.96% on average. The brands named were much less steady. Across 631 keywords, the brand names overlapped only 60.06% on average.

For “best lotion for tattoos,” the first answer named two brands. The next two answers kept one of them and swapped the other for a different brand. Part of the change may come from how our tool pulled brand names out of each answer, so treat the exact figure with some care.

The lesson is simple. One check isn’t enough to know whether AI names your brand. You need to check again and again. Here’s how to track your brand in AI.

Known brands get named, often without a link

In another test, we asked an AI model with web search turned off to name brands for each keyword. That gives a rough idea of which brands a model already knows from its training. We then compared those brands with ChatGPT’s answers on 731 keywords.

• 82.22% of the ChatGPT answers named at least one brand from the no-search list.
• When ChatGPT named one of those known brands, 85% of those mentions had no link to the brand’s own website.

For “best gaming headset for pc,” ChatGPT named three headset brands. It linked to two review sites, not to any of the three brand sites.

This fits the idea that AI remembers well-known brands. It can’t tell us which pages taught the model. Also, the brand web addresses came from the no-search model and weren’t checked one by one. Still, the point stands: a brand can be named without a link. Track mentions and links separately.

Buying guest posts isn’t a shortcut

A guest post is an article another site publishes for you, often for a fee and usually with a link back. We compared the websites AI linked to with a catalog of 100,890 websites listed as selling guest posts.

Only 183 of the 9,136 websites AI Overviews linked to were in the catalog (2.00%). For ChatGPT, it was 157 of 6,654 (2.36%).

A match doesn’t mean the linked article was paid for. But it shows that buying guest posts reaches only a small slice of the websites AI actually uses.

What this means for your brand

No single tactic in our data made a brand show up every time. The findings point to one joined-up plan:

1. Get onto the pages AI trusts. Most links next to brand mentions went to other websites (80.69% in AI Overviews, 57.58% in ChatGPT). Reviews, lists and articles in your space matter.
2. Get onto the pages that rank. About half the pages AI Overviews linked to were in Google’s top 10.
3. Plan for each AI. Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT shared only 3.33% of their linked pages.
4. Build a brand AI knows. ChatGPT often named known brands with no link to their sites.
5. Track over time. Brand names changed between repeat searches, so measure mentions and links separately, again and again.
6. Keep your own site useful. It still earned 19.31% of those links in AI Overviews and 42.42% in ChatGPT.

These are the priorities the data suggests, not guarantees. See how they apply to your business: AI SEO for ecommerce, AI SEO for SaaS and AI SEO for contractors.

Get your free AI visibility audit

Our free audit applies this study to your brand. It shows where you stand in AI, what your buyers ask AI and how to close the gap. Get your free AI visibility audit.