Backlinks
Websites whose articles AI engines actively cite in your category — reach out to get your brand mentioned or linked on the sources that already influence AI answers.
AI systems lean on third-party sources to write their answers. Backlinks finds the article-based sites ChatGPT and Google AI Overview already trust and cite in your category, so you can get your brand mentioned in them — the fastest way to influence a future answer is to appear in a source the AI is already reading.
These are editorial placements, paid or unpaid. The same approach that works for traditional link building works here: reach out, offer value, and get listed where it counts.
How the list is built
The list is derived from your prompt sources — the URLs Airefs finds behind the AI answers to your tracked prompts. It focuses on article-based sites that are cited consistently, ranked by citation count so the sources with the most influence across your prompts appear first. These filters apply automatically:
- Article-type URLs only — the domain must publish at least one article-format page that’s being cited (not forums, homepages, or product pages).
- Minimum 20 citations — the domain must have accumulated at least 20 citations across all your prompts, so only consistently influential domains appear.
- Cited in the last 30 days — at least one of the domain’s URLs must have been cited in a recent prompt run, confirming the domain is still active in AI answers.
- Excluding major media — large outlets are left out, since editorial placements on those sites require a PR strategy, not direct outreach.
- Excluding your competitors — domains that match your tracked competitors are left out, since asking a competitor to promote you is rarely successful.
- Excluding your own site — your domain is left out, since you cannot earn a mention or link from yourself.
These exclusions are always on, so a domain you see cited elsewhere in Airefs can be absent here. Subdomains follow their parent domain: if a major outlet is excluded, its subdomains are too. Each row shows the domain, total citations across your prompts, and how many article URLs are driving those citations.
Sending outreach
Click any domain to load an outreach email template on the right side of the page. The template is pre-filled with the domain and references the specific articles already being cited. Three offers are available: Paid placement (you ask if sponsored placements are something they do), Link exchange (you add them, they add you), or Either (open-ended, lets them pick the format).
- Click a domain to load the outreach email. Hover over the row first to preview which cited articles you can reference.
- Personalise and copy the email, then send it from your own inbox. Airefs doesn’t send email on your behalf.
- Click Find contact to open a ChatGPT search for the site’s editorial contact or contributor page.
- Mark as emailed (✓) once you’ve sent your outreach, or dismiss (✗) if the domain isn’t a fit. Both actions move the domain to the Archive tab to keep your active list clean.
Active and Archive tabs
The Active tab shows all current placement opportunities matching the filters. The count next to the tab label tells you how many domains are waiting for outreach.
The Archive tab holds domains you’ve emailed or dismissed. You can review it at any time — useful if you want to follow up on a previous outreach or reconsider a domain you dismissed.
When new placements appear
The list updates after each prompt run. As Airefs finds new sources being cited in your category, qualifying domains appear in the Active tab automatically, with no action needed from you.
Prefer not to handle outreach yourself?
Our Done-For-You brand mention service does the outreach for you. Our team finds and negotiates placements in the third-party articles AI is already citing, so you can focus on your business while we handle the emails.