Everyone likes backlinks except Chatgpt

I'm surprised that Chatgpt doesn't reward backlinks as much as others do. It gives most importance to brand mentions and third-party citations. These 2 signals along with expert authors are the most rewarded trust signals to rank on AI engines. The brands that create discussions on social media and forums tend to draw more attention. Surprisingly, Gemini also gave little importance to backlinks. I guess they only deal with top-most results on Google, so backlinks won't matter much to them. Google AI overviews relies on EEAT signals to feature sites.

i think backlinks still matter but they are no longer the only signal that counts. strong brand mentions, citations and real discussions across the web seem to help build trust much faster. brands that are talked about naturally in multiple places tend to get more visibility than sites relying only on link building.

I wonder how they are coming to such conclusions ?

and as per this the three universal signals (citations, expert authorship, brand mentions) are the only way forward.

Brand mentions on forums really helps for sure.

this is because backlinks act as votes of confidence, proving to search engines that your site is legitimate, authoritative and trusted

Yeah, I think backlinks aren’t the only ranking signal anymore, not even close. Strong brand mentions, third-party citations, EEAT, and author expertise have become more important lately, especially for AI powered search experiences. Still, quality backlinks do matter a lot in classic Google rankings, mainly because they help to establish authority, and people keep using that as a shortcut. The best long-term plan is to build a recognizable brand, win real mentions, publish content led by experts, and attract natural, high-quality links not just leaning on links alone.

Backlinks still matter, but AI search seems to weigh multiple trust Signals together. Strong brands, third-party mentions, And quality content can amplify the value of links rather than replace them.