AI tools named Zapier in 16 of 24 answers, but not one of those answers linked to Zapier's site.
We ran the same test on Mailchimp and Trello. AI tools named them too, and linked to them 0 times.
A mention is when an AI says your name. A citation is a link in the answer that a reader can click to reach you.
Only the link sends you a visit. So a brand can be famous inside AI answers and still get no traffic from them.
Here are 8 lessons you can copy, plus the part you can't.
Count links, not mentions
Here's how the test worked. On 23 August 2026, we asked AI tools 6 questions a buyer might ask in each brand's market.
Then we counted 2 things and kept them apart. How many answers named the brand, and how many linked to its site?
Zapier was named in 16 of 24 answers. Mailchimp was named in 11 of 30.
Trello came last, with 6 of 24.
The totals differ because not every AI tool replied every time. We asked 6 of them: ChatGPT, ChatGPT Search, Claude, Gemini, Gemini Search and Perplexity.
Now look at the links.
Every brand got 0 links. Not one answer sent a reader to the brand's own website.
A mention is good for your name. But it won't show up in your analytics, the report of who visits your site, because nobody clicks through.
So treat mentions and links as 2 separate numbers. Our AI Visibility Checker counts them apart for you.
Ask without your brand name
The questions matter as much as the count. If you ask "is Mailchimp any good?", of course the AI says Mailchimp right back.
That just measures your own typing. A real buyer asks before they've ever heard of you.
That's why our checker won't let your brand name into a question. You type your brand and website, and it does the rest.
You can also write your own questions. Just leave your name out of them.
Not sure what to ask? On 4 October we ran a check on zapier.com, and it suggested 12 questions worth testing.
The first one is "How can I automate workflows across multiple apps without coding?" That's a buyer with a problem, not a fan with a brand in mind.
The tool also says these are only ideas. Nobody has asked an AI those questions yet, so it shows no result against them.
So build your list from your buyers' problems, with your name left out. Then paste them into the AI Visibility Checker under "Write my own questions".
Don't expect fame to earn links
You might think the fix is just to get bigger. Surely fame wins you links in the end?
Zapier is the biggest brand of the 3. It got named the most, nearly 3 times as often as Trello.
Zapier showed up on 4 of the 6 AI tools. Mailchimp showed up on 5, and Trello on just 2.
Yet all 3 got the same number of links, and that number was 0.
That tells you something big. Whatever earns a link isn't the same thing that earns a mention.
So don't wait for your brand to grow into AI links. Run the AI Visibility Checker today and see where you stand, whatever your size.
Check you don't block AI bots
When an AI won't link to you, rule out the simple cause first. Maybe you told its crawler to stay away.
A crawler is a program that visits pages to read them. Robots.txt is a file that tells crawlers which pages they may read.
Our free browser extension reads that file for you. Open any page, click the seotools.pro icon, and scroll to AI search readiness.
On zapier.com, every AI crawler in the panel is Allowed. GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot can all read the site.
Zapier also has llms.txt, a short file that explains a site to AI tools.
Mailchimp looks the same. It lets every AI crawler on the list in, and it has an llms.txt file too.
These brands didn't lose their links by locking AI out. Our robots.txt study found most software companies leave the door open, and our llms.txt study looks at who has that file.
So click the seotools.pro icon on your own homepage before you blame the AI. The extension shows any blocked bot in seconds.
Let answer bots read your pages
If you do want to block some AI bots, pick with care. They don't all do the same job.
Some collect pages for training, which means feeding them to an AI so it learns. Others fetch a page to answer a question right now, and those are the ones that can link to you.
Our Robots.txt Generator lists each bot with its owner and its job. OpenAI's GPTBot is marked for training, while OAI-SearchBot is marked as an answer engine.
Block an answer bot and you've shut the one door a link can come through. That's why the generator has a preset called "Block training, stay citeable".
So if you block anything, block training bots only. Build that file in a minute with our Robots.txt Generator.
Give AI an answer to quote
Every report in our test ended with the same 2 lines.
"None of your pages were cited in these answers. The AI is answering this category from other sites instead."
So the AI knew these brands well. It just took its facts from other people's pages.
Now look at what the homepages lead with. Zapier's opens with a big slogan and 2 sign-up buttons.
Mailchimp's greets you with a pop-up. It asks your industry and the top 4 things you want to achieve.
Both pages are built to sign you up, and that's their job. But the top of neither page answers a buyer's question, like how to automate work without code.
We can't prove that's why the links went elsewhere. But when an AI wants a source to link, it needs a page that answers the question it was asked.
So pick your top buyer questions and give each one a plain page that answers it. Then run the AI Visibility Checker again and see if it links to you.
AI tools named Zapier, Mailchimp and Trello again and again, but never linked to them. We find the questions your buyers ask AI, build the pages that answer them, and track whether AI starts linking to you.
- We count your AI mentions and links, kept apart
- We find the buyer questions AI answers from other sites
- We write plain answer pages AI can quote and link
- SEO and GEO, so you show up in Google and in AI answers
Audit your site for AI search
Once your answer pages are live, check that AI tools can read them. Our Website Audit crawls your site and has an AI Search card in its Technical SEO tab.
Here's that card from an audit of the NHS website we ran the same week.
It gives a score for AI search health, 80 here, and marks each AI crawler as allowed or blocked. It also checks for llms.txt, which the NHS doesn't have.
It checks your schema too. That's structured data, code that tells Google and AI tools what a page is, like a company or a list of FAQs.
On the NHS site, Organization and Breadcrumbs schema are there. FAQ and Article schema are missing.
For one page at a time, look back at the AI Visibility Check. On zapier.com it found a title, a meta description and 810+ words an AI could quote.
The meta description is the short summary Google may show under your title. AI tools can use it as a summary too.
So run our Website Audit every few months. Fix any blocked answer bot or missing schema it finds.
Track 2 numbers every quarter
AI tools change how they link, and they don't tell anyone. So one test is a snapshot, not a rule.
Across all 78 answers, the brands were named 33 times. They were linked 0 times.
Those are the 2 numbers to write down. Run the check every 3 months and put each pair side by side.
If mentions climb while links stay at 0, that's a brand win, not a traffic win. Report it that way.
If a link finally shows up, study the page it points to. That page is your model for the next one.
And keep working on Google while you watch AI. Organic traffic, meaning the people who find you on Google without ads, still sends real visits you can count.
Our studies of MDN and Meetup show how 2 very different sites earn those clicks.
So track mentions and links with the AI Visibility Checker each quarter. On the same day, check your Google visits with our Organic Traffic Checker.
AI tools named Zapier, Mailchimp and Trello but never linked to them. Our AI Visibility Checker counts your mentions and your links apart, from buyer questions with your brand name left out.
- The same check we used on Zapier, Mailchimp and Trello
- Questions with your brand name in them are refused
- Run it on any rival's brand too
What you cannot copy
First, the part you can't copy. AI tools already know Zapier, Mailchimp and Trello by name.
That fame got them named 33 times in a single day. A new brand may not get named at all, so it has to start with pages that answer real questions.
Now a few honest notes on the numbers.
This is a small test of 3 brands and 78 answers. It shows what happened to these brands, not a rate for every brand.
We ran it on 23 August 2026 and couldn't rerun it on 4 October, when we took the screenshots. So treat the 0 as one day's result.
We only counted a link when it pointed to the brand's own site. If an answer named a brand and linked a review site, we logged a mention with no link.
Some AI tools didn't reply on some runs. That's why the answer totals differ, and why a low count of AI tools can be a missed reply, not a missing brand.
The check on zapier.com reads a single page. One row says it found no headings, and we didn't read anything into that row.
The audit card comes from the NHS website, as an example. We didn't run a full audit on these 3 brands.
We didn't test any SEO software company, our own included, so nobody grades their own homework.
The one number to take away
0.
That's how many times an AI linked to Zapier, Mailchimp or Trello in our test. It named them 33 times.
Both numbers are real, but only one of them sends you visitors. So count them apart, and build pages that give AI a reason to link.
You can run every one of these checks on your own site, and on your rivals', and see the same numbers for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Is a mention without a link worth anything?
Yes, for your brand. People may search your name later. It just won't show up as a visit you can trace.
Can I see which sites AI tools link to instead of mine?
Yes. Ask an AI tool a buyer question with your name left out, then open every source it links. Those are the pages you need to beat.
Does ranking well on Google help me get linked by AI?
It can. Some AI tools search the web before they answer, so pages that are easy to find have a better shot. It's not a promise, so measure both.
How long before a new page shows up in AI answers?
There's no set time. AI tools that search the web can find it once it's crawled. Models that learned from older pages won't know it until they're updated.
Should I repeat my brand name more on my pages?
No. AI tools already named these brands plenty. A clear answer to a real question gives an AI a better reason to link to you.
Do I need llms.txt to get linked?
Nobody knows for sure yet. It's a cheap file to add, but it isn't a known switch that turns links on.
Will blocking training bots stop AI from naming me?
Not right away. Models that already read your pages keep what they learned. Answer bots can still visit if you let them in.
What should I do the day I get my first AI link?
Write down the question and the page it linked. Then build your next answer page the same way and test again.