A dofollow link from a strong site used to be the most valuable thing you could earn off your own pages. In 2026 there is a real case that a plain, unlinked mention of your brand name does more, at least on the surfaces where buyers now start their research. This episode separates the two signals: why backlinks still move Google rankings while brand mentions are what get you named inside an AI answer, what the 2026 data shows (one study found 78% of AI-cited domains had high unlinked mention volume versus 41% with strong backlink profiles), why domains strong on both are 6.4x more likely to be cited, how AI search actually decides who to mention, how to earn more mentions through digital PR and the platforms that now matter, and how to track your share of the answer.

Read the full article on the Search Agency blog:  ...