Source: Data & Studies – SEO Blog by Ahrefs by Patrick Stox. Read the original article
TL;DR Summary of Does being mentioned on highly cited web pages lead to more mentions in AI assistants?
Mentions on highly cited web pages correlate strongly with visibility in Google AI Overviews, moderately with Perplexity, and very weakly with ChatGPT. This suggests that brand prominence on credible sites influences AI assistant mentions differently depending on the platform. ChatGPT appears to rely more on partnerships than web citation prominence for mentions. Tracking these relationships helps understand AI assistant brand visibility dynamics.
Optimixed’s Overview: How Web Page Authority Influences Brand Mentions in AI Assistants
Analyzing the Impact of Highly Cited Web Pages on AI Assistant Brand Visibility
Brands featured on highly cited web pages—those with numerous referring domains—tend to gain credibility and higher recognition online. This analysis examined the top 50 websites mentioned in Ahrefs Brand Radar across three AI systems: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, using data from millions of AI prompts in June 2025.
Key Findings
- Google AI Overviews demonstrated a strong positive correlation (Spearman ρ = 0.70) between mentions on highly cited pages and AI visibility, indicating Google favors brands prominent on authoritative sites.
- Perplexity showed a moderate correlation (Spearman ρ = 0.40), suggesting some bias towards well-linked brands but less pronounced than Google.
- ChatGPT revealed a very weak correlation (Spearman ρ = 0.12), implying it prioritizes partnerships and other factors over general web citation prominence.
Implications and Future Insights
These findings highlight how different AI assistants weigh brand authority differently when generating responses. While Google’s AI appears to leverage web citation metrics heavily, ChatGPT may depend more on curated data sources or partnerships. Monitoring these trends over time with tools like Brand Radar can provide deeper insights into brand visibility and competitive positioning across AI platforms.
