Do Backlinks Work for AI Assistants and AI Overviews?

TL;DR: Yes, backlinks work for visibility in AI assistants and Google AI Overviews. According to various studies and SEO specialists’ personal experience, AI models cite content backed by high-quality and relevant links. So, if you want visibility in AI search results, link-building should not be neglected in your SEO strategy.

Let’s dive deeper into the theme and find out the real role of backlinks in the AI-driven world.

AI assistants are tools such as ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, etc. that answer questions conversationally. No need to spend dozens of hours finding valuable information or comparing services and tools. All we need now is to simply send an AI assistant the right prompt.

Unlike traditional search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) that just show a list of links, AI assistants give direct answers, summaries, and recommendations, often in a conversational format. You can ask them questions just like you would a friend or a colleague, and get a detailed answer almost instantly. The number of users who opt for them when searching for some information, service, or just advice is continually increasing.

AI Overviews are part of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) — Google’s AI-generated summaries displaying at the top of search results. They have been officially available in over 200 countries around the globe and in more than 40 languages since May 2025. AI-generated summaries pull information from multiple websites and present it in a single, concise snippet. 

The goal is to answer the user’s question clearly and quickly, often pointing to the most trustworthy or relevant sources.

The study conducted by Ahrefs on AI Search Overlap confirms that AI models prefer conversational, frequently updated, and rich in user engagement content. 

If there is a choice between an article about some personal experience published two days ago and an expert guide that has been on the web for many years, an AI assistant will certainly opt for the first option. 

This shift means that user-driven platforms are gaining more influence in shaping AI answers. That means the AI era hasn’t erased SEO but changed which voices get amplified and how authority is defined online.

Today, users don’t have to visit websites to get answers; they can get them instantly through Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Bing Copilot, and other AI assistants.

This shift has thrown the SEO world into another round of uncertainty and raised a familiar question among marketers and website owners on Reddit and beyond: Do backlinks still matter if AI assistants might bypass traditional search results?

Most people agree that backlinks simply don’t work as before. Their role has changed.

Below are some answers on a Reddit post by r/seogrowth on the question of whether backlinks matter for AI assistants:

GetNachoNacho: “...links haven’t disappeared, but the way they carry weight is evolving. I’ve noticed that high-trust, contextually relevant backlinks still move the needle, while low-quality ones feel weaker than ever. In many cases, the backlink is less about raw ranking power and more about signaling credibility that AI systems are likely to reference.”

BusyBusinessPromos: “It's always been authoritative backlinks over more. That's an SEO basic as long as Google continues to use PageRank.”

Also, many SEO specialists admit that brand mentions and authority signals are increasingly important.

Are Backlinks a Ranking Factor in AI Responses?

Yes, backlinks are a ranking factor in AI responses. Even in an AI-driven world, they remain signals of trust and authority. According to studies by Ahrefs and Backlinko, websites with a strong link profile, consistent topical relevance, and real-world authority are more likely to be cited in AI summaries.

Links from authoritative online portals help AI assistants and Overviews figure out:

• which pages are credible;
• which authors are recognized experts;
• which content deserves a higher semantic ranking within AI-generated results.

Backlink Importance for AI Models: Live Example

How can we prove the importance of backlinks in the AI era? We can demonstrate it with a practical example. 

Let’s say you are searching for winter tires online to prepare for a seasonal change or just to replace worn-out ones. In this case, your query will probably be “the best tires 2025” as you are monitoring the market before making a purchase. 

1. We entered that query into the Google search bar. The first thing we saw was an AI Overview providing a summary of the top tires available on the market. That summary was based on the resources Google considered authoritative, along with links to those resources.

The first resource was YouTube, while the second one was the blog article of an online store. 

2. We dug deeper and analyzed the backlink profile of that website with Ahrefs.

As you can see, it has over 5K backlinks that appeared during the last month and over 21K backlinks overall.

3. After that, we checked whether ChatGPT cited Neotires.

When we entered the same query, aka prompt, into ChatGPT, we again got a list of recommended tires and the resources the information is based on. At the top of the list are review platforms. Actually, that demonstrates that AI assistants prefer these resources when choosing which resources are worth citing. However, the Neotires website was listed in the “More” block.

So the point is simple: as the website is backed by a strong link-building strategy, it has citations in AI results.

Backlink Benefits for AI Search

For convenience, we’ve gathered the main advantages of links for getting noticed in AI search. Think of it as a crib sheet or checklist; whatever you call it, it’s both useful and easy to use.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to link building for AI Search visibility. The best thing is to combine several strategies with a focus on your niche and specific requirements.

• Guest posting on authoritative sites;
• Becoming a cited source in niche content;
• Publishing data studies & reports;
• Creating valuable content that answers intent deeply;
• Getting local and niche authority links.

If your backlinks prove expertise and support brand recognition, AI is much more likely to cite your content.

AIO Metric Importance

When choosing a donor website for your article, having an idea of how many keywords it is cited for by AI is a good idea. Surely, the AIO metric cannot be your only decision-making factor, yet it’s a nice-to-have data if you want to achieve the most ambitious marketing and SEO goals.

For this reason, Collaborator offers this opportunity to its users. Watch the video below to learn how to activate the AIO metric in Collaborator’s catalog.

Backlinks aren’t dead and never will be. This is because, whatever the search engine, it needs signals of authority and trust. Nothing can prove that better than being cited and mentioned by other sources. What we can say for sure is that the future of SEO isn't linkless. If you want to get noticed in the AI era, create content worth citing and earn backlinks from authoritative websites to prove that.