Brand mentions for AI visibility: reviews, directories, Reddit and Wikipedia

Why mentions matter more than links

In May 2025 Ahrefs compared 75,000 brands to see which factors are most closely linked to how often a brand appears in Google AI Overviews. The results (Spearman correlation):

The gap is large: brands in the top quarter for web mentions average 169 AI Overviews mentions, the next quarter 14. Ahrefs itself stresses that correlation is not causation and that the study covers only AI Overviews. But the finding matches how AI answers work: a model builds an answer from several sources, and a company that many independent sites talk about gets into it more often. More in how AI chooses sources.

Where AI finds mentions of your company

Reviews: how to collect them and what not to do

Google states that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and that replying to reviews shows you value customer feedback.

What not to do:

• Pay for reviews with money, discounts or gifts: under Google Maps policy such reviews are removed.
• Ask only happy customers and discourage negative reviews: Google bans selectively soliciting positive reviews.
• Review yourself or ask staff and partners to: that is conflict-of-interest content not based on a real experience.
• Publish fake reviews or misrepresent real ones: in the EU this has been banned by Directive 2019/2161 since 28 May 2022. It also bans claiming that reviews come from real customers if the trader does not check this.

What works: ask every customer for a review after the job is done, give a direct link to the review form and reply to every review, including negative ones, on the substance.

Directories and maps: the same facts everywhere

Fill in your profile on Google Business Profile, Bing Places and Apple Business Connect, plus the industry directories in your niche. Name, address, phone, opening hours, services and prices must match your website and schema.org markup: if sources disagree, AI may pick the wrong version or not name the company at all. How to describe your company in markup is covered in schema markup for AI; for local businesses see local business in AI search.

Reddit and forums

In February 2024 Google got access to Reddit’s Data API to display, train on and otherwise use Reddit content in its products. In May 2024 OpenAI signed a similar partnership with Reddit to bring Reddit content to ChatGPT. So Reddit threads are a direct source for the two largest AI assistants.

Reddit’s rules require posting authentic content in communities where you have a personal interest and ban manipulation: spam, vote manipulation, ban evasion. Each community has its own rules, often banning self-promotion. So only one approach works: answer questions on your topic under your own name, do not hide that you represent the company, and give a useful answer rather than a link. A business in Estonia should also check local communities (for example r/Eesti and r/tallinn) and Estonian forums in its niche: AI cites them too.

Wikipedia

The Wikimedia Foundation calls Wikipedia one of the highest-quality datasets in the world for training AI. In January 2026 Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI and Perplexity joined the paid Wikimedia Enterprise access; Google was already a partner.

But a Wikipedia article does not suit every company. Under English Wikipedia’s rules a company is notable if several independent reliable publications have covered it in depth. Press releases, paid and sponsored articles, routine news (a new branch, hiring, a product launch) and inclusion in directories and “best of” lists do not count. The rules strongly discourage writing about your own company: you should disclose your connection and propose edits on the talk page, and paid editing must be disclosed. For most small companies the honest route is to earn independent press coverage first.

Industry media, interviews and podcasts

Independent coverage matters for both AI and Wikipedia. Options: an expert column or comment in an industry publication, an interview, a podcast appearance, your own research with numbers that others cite. The piece should contain useful facts and expert opinion, not advertising copy, or neither editors nor AI will quote it.

Where a small business should start

1. Check what AI knows about you now: ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot whom they recommend in your niche and city, and look at which sites the answers cite.
2. Clean up your profiles on Google, Bing, Apple and industry directories: the same facts everywhere.
3. Set up review collection from every customer and reply to each one.
4. Find threads on your topic on Reddit and local forums and answer under your own name.
5. Pitch expert material to one or two industry publications.
6. Repeat the check monthly; see AI visibility.

At JW2D, work on mentions is part of AI search optimization: we find the sites AI cites in your niche and help the company appear on them honestly.