AI assistants decide whether to name your company based mostly on what other websites say about you. This week Michael lays out the three programs Victorious runs to get more of those websites talking, and the two things that have to be in place first.

In this episode:

* The three programs, broadest to most targeted: mention building, link building, citation outreach

* Why mentions beat links for AI visibility, per Ahrefs's 75,000-brand study

* The two foundations: an in-house expertise program, and co-occurrence

* Michael's case for paid placements, and the one word in Google's guidance it rests on

* How citation outreach starts: 20 to 50 buyer prompts and a monthly list of 50 pages

Find all the sources referenced in this episode on the Victorious website: [EPISODE PAGE URL]

Chapter Headings

0:00 Intro

1:32 News: Google says to review AI content before publishing

3:45 Google is paying some publishers for AI answers

4:56 AI Overviews on most branded searches

6:32 The three programs, defined

8:24 Why mentions beat links

9:18 Foundation one: an expertise program

13:07 Foundation two: co-occurrence

15:44 Mention building: nine ways to get on other sites

18:37 Press releases

20:53 The case for paid placements

23:25 Link building: the four-level review

26:07 Citation outreach

27:28 Four kinds of citations

28:45 Working the top 50 pages every month

Sources

Google Search Central, "Guidance on using generative AI content," updated October 1, 2026, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/using-gen-ai-content

Search Engine Roundtable, "Google: Manually Factcheck & Review AI-Generated Content For Accuracy," October 1, 2026, https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-ai-content-guidelines-factcheck-review-42217.html

Search Engine Roundtable, "Google Paying ~100 Publishers 0.1% Of Ad Revenue In AI Contribution Pilot" (citing The Information, September 29, 2026), September 29, 2026, https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-contribution-pilot-01-percent-42188.html

DemandSphere, "AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September," October 1, 2026, https://www.demandsphere.com/blog/branded-ai-overviews-september-2026/

Ahrefs, "AI Overviews Currently Appear for 83% of Branded Searches," October 2, 2026, https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-on-branded-searches/

Ahrefs, "An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands Studied)," https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-brand-correlation/

Victorious, Q2 2026 Quarterly Search Report, https://victorious.com/quarterly-search-report/

BrandMentions, 2026 AI visibility study (240 brands, 410,000 mentions), https://brandmentions.com/blog/?p=4770

Octolens, "How B2B SaaS Wins on Reddit: 522M Mention Analysis," 2026, https://octolens.com/reddit-b2b-saas-study

Muck Rack, "7 FAQs about the May 2026 update of 'What Is AI Reading?'," 2026, https://muckrack.com/blog/what-is-ai-reading-new-insights-may-faqs

Google Search Central, "Optimizing your website for generative AI features in Google Search," May 2026, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide