Rank Local data · Updated November 2026

Links still sit behind rankings and AI citations

Sites ranking #1 have a median of 111 referring domains vs 85 for positions 4 to 10; sites cited in AI Overviews for the hardest keywords have a median of 1,571 vs 282 for the easiest; referring domains correlate more with AI citations than UGC links alone
Figure 4: Links still sit behind rankings and AI citations. Source: DataForSEO, Search Insider 2026, Oct 2026 (associations, not cause and effect). Graphic by Rank Local from that source.

Sites ranking #1 have a median of 111 referring domains vs 85 for positions 4 to 10; sites cited in AI Overviews for the hardest keywords have a median of 1,571 vs 282 for the easiest; referring domains correlate more with AI citations than UGC links alone

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