Listicle Link Building: How To Get Placed In Best-Of Lists For AI Search

43.8% of all pages ChatGPT uses as sources for buyer style searches are best-of listicles. Higher than any other type of page format (Ahrefs, 26,283 source URLs).

Creating listicle content is how you get your brand on those lists. By getting added to “best of” and “top 10” pieces on websites with higher authority, where AI content crawlers like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity go to learn who they should be recommending.

Need proof?

Try asking ChatGPT “give me the best [insert your category] for [insert buyer type].” Now take a look at the sources it pulls:

Look for these 2 things:

• Does it mention your brand by name?
• What pages did it reference as sources to make that claim?

If you’re not ranked highly enough to be on the lists these AIs trust, you’re not in the AI’s answer.

The reality is that listicle backlinks have always been valuable for SEO…

But they’ve become even more important in the era of AI search.

Right now, search engine models are associating brands with categories. Every time you get listed, you feed that association.

That’s why I’m going to teach you exactly how AI platforms and Google love high quality listicles. I will show you the exact process to get your site listed in them.

What Is Listicle Link Building?

Listicle link building is a strategy to get your brand featured inside “best-of” or “top-10” style articles.

Your brand is mentioned with a link back to your site that makes it easy for AI search tools and traditional search engines to see your business as a top recommendation.

Here’s an example…

Imagine you run a project management software business that specifically serves marketing agencies. It’s extremely valuable for your business to be featured on a listicle of the top 10 project management tools for agencies.

And that’s exactly what listicle link building does.

You get recommended by a third-party brand and reach a new audience who is actively looking for products/services you offer.

Who wouldn’t want that?

But there is also one other big upside to listicles…

When your brand gets mentioned in a listicle, you get:

• A backlink
• A brand mention
• Cited as a source

Think about that for a second…

These three things are exactly what drive traditional search rankings and recommendations in AI search answers. And it’s why listicles feel almost like a cheat code as a brand visibility strategy.

Why Listicle Backlinks Are So Effective For AI Search

Listicle backlinks are effective for AI search because AI search tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Perplexity regularly use them as sources.

Google also ranks them for “best of” searches.

Ahrefs analysed 26,283 AI search source URLs behind 750 top-of-funnel prompts. Best-of listicle content accounts for 43.8% of all pages cited by ChatGPT.

Crazy, right?

Evertune conducted another study where they reviewed the 6,000 most-cited URLs per platform (around 25,000 unique URLs) across:

• ChatGPT
• Copilot
• Gemini
• Google AI Overviews
• Google AI Mode
• Perplexity

Out of the 400 million citations, 63% pointed to listicles.

And that makes sense, right?

AI models want to give the user the best answer as quickly as possible. Listicles contain all the information they need to formulate that answer.

All they have to do is scan a few listicles, and they’ll quickly be able to see what brands are regularly mentioned.

Compare that to AI having to crawl every website to get answers.

Even if the AI models do end up crawling brand websites, they still use listicles to put together a shortlist for answers. And that’s what makes listicles so effective for AI search.

It’s the same for Google…

If you go to Google and type a “best x” search, you will see listicles ranking in the top 10. It’s been that way for years because listicle content answers search intent quickly.

AI platforms are simply reading what Google has been rewarding for years.

Getting your brand listed in a well-written, niche-relevant listicle on a trusted website can have a big impact on your SEO. But the hard part is earning them.

That’s what I want to show you now.

How To Build Listicle Backlinks For SEO And GEO

Building quality listicle backlinks is about earning editorial placements in listicle content on trusted websites.

The most important thing is targeting sites that are relevant to your industry and are trusted.

Follow these steps to build listicle backlinks that improve your SEO and GEO.

Step 1: Create A Targeted Prospect List

Most listicles target search terms with transactional or commercial intent.

If you’ve been doing SEO for more than 5 minutes, you’ll know that these types of search terms are competitive.

That means you want to create a prospect list where the content is either ranking in Google or being cited by a major AI platform. Ideally both.

Here’s how to do it:

Use the following prompt patterns:

• best {products/service} for {use case}
• top {category} tools for {persona}
• {competitor} alternatives
• best {products/service} in {location}

Make sure you personalise them for your business and industry.

Make sure you personalise them for your business and industry.

In incognito, run each of the 4 prompts through:

• ChatGPT
• Perplexity
• Google AI Mode
• Google search

You may need to instruct the AI models to use live web search. Otherwise, they just pull from their training data, which is not what you want in this case.

ChatGPT:

Perplexity:

Make sure you run each of the buyer prompts in a different chat in an incognito window. This will give you the cleanest data.

Create a spreadsheet with the prompt results:

Prompt	Platform	Cited URLs	Your Brand (Y/N)	Primary Competitors Present
Prompt 1	ChatGPT	URL 1, URL 2, URL 3	N	Competitor 1, Competitor 2
Prompt 1	Perplexity	URL 1, URL 2, URL 3	N	Competitor 1, Competitor 2
Prompt 1	Google AI Mode	URL 1, URL 2, URL 3	N	Competitor 1, Competitor 2
Prompt 1	Google Search	URL 1, URL 2, URL 3	N	Competitor 1, Competitor 2
Prompt 2	ChatGPT	URL 1, URL 2, URL 3	N	Competitor 1, Competitor 2
Prompt 2	Perplexity	URL 1, URL 2, URL 3	Y	Competitor 1, Competitor 2

The most important thing is that you record which URLs were the source for each prompt and search platform.

Done that?

The last part is to sort through each of the URLs so you’re only left with listicles worth targeting as prospects. ChatGPT makes this easy.

Upload your spreadsheet of all the buyer prompt source URLs and copy this mega prompt:

Attached is a spreadsheet of the source URLs cited for 4 buyer prompts
across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google search.

My brand is [brand] at [domain]. My main competitors are [A, B, C].

Work only from the data in this file. Do not search the web. Never add
a URL that is not in my file.

1. Split the Cited URLs column so there is one row per URL.

2. Dedupe to one row per unique URL. For each one, record how many of
the 4 prompts cited it and which platforms cited it.

3. Classify every URL from its domain and slug as one of:
- Third party listicle: a best-of, top-10, comparison or
  alternatives page on a site that does not sell the products
  it ranks
- Vendor's own list: the site owner ranks their own product in it
- Brand or product page
- Review platform or directory
- Forum, video, news or social

If you cannot tell from the URL, mark it NEEDS CHECKING. Never guess.

4. Remove everything that is not a third party listicle. Also remove
my own site and my competitors' own sites.

5. Output one table sorted by number of prompts, highest first:
URL, prompts that cited it, platforms that cited it, is my brand
listed, competitors listed.

6. Underneath the table, list everything you marked NEEDS CHECKING
separately so I can review it by hand.

ChatGPT will strip out all of the URLs that aren’t listicles and leave you with a clean sheet of targets.

Sort by how many prompts cited each URL. You’re looking for listicles that were cited for multiple prompts or across different platforms.

Why?

If the same listicle gets cited multiple times, you can be confident that it is highly trusted. A brand mention link on this listicle is very valuable for your business.

Now widen the net with Ahrefs.

In Ahrefs Content Explorer, search “best [your category]” and filter the results by DR or monthly organic traffic.

This will show you all of the listicle articles that get a good amount of organic traffic and are trusted by Google. These are pages you want to be listed on.

Add them to your spreadsheet.

By now you should have about 50 to 80+ targeted opportunities.

Step 2: Score And Prioritise Your Prospects

Not every listicle is created equal.

So you need to prioritise all of your prospects and decide which opportunities are worth targeting first.

That’s why you should run every prospect through a simple listicle scorecard to find the opportunities that will move the needle the most.

Here’s what it looks like:

Criteria	What To Check	Points
Cited by an AI platform	The URL appeared in at least one AI model	30
Ranks in Google	Top 20 in Google for the best [category] term	25
Recently maintained	Was updated within the last 6 months	20
Genuine editorial	Named author, real evaluation criteria, links out to entries	15
Competitor gap	At least one direct competitor listed, you absent	10

Go through every prospect on your list and score them using the scorecard.

Here’s what each score means:

• Above 55 Points - Reach out to these first
• 35 to 54 Points - Secondary list of prospects
• Less than 35 Points - Not worth reaching out to

Use these weights as a starting point.

I’ve found that you may need to apply different weighted points depending on your industry and business.

For example, YMYL industries like finance or law, where most searches display AI Overviews, will likely have different weights from ecommerce stores that target mostly buyer queries.

That’s completely normal.

Use the scorecard as a guide to help you understand the value of each prospect. It makes it easier to know which prospects are worth reaching out to first and which ones aren’t worth your time.

Step 3: Write An Outreach Pitch That Won’t Get Ignored

A listicle pitch isn’t like other link building outreach.

It takes more work and a slightly different approach.

Here’s how to do it:

Open the first prospect article in your list. Copy the domain and paste it into Hunter.io.

Your goal is to find the author’s business email. Only ever reach out to generic contact@ or hello@ business emails as a last resort.

If Hunter.io doesn’t surface the email address, look on places like LinkedIn to see if you can get it.

Got the email address?

The next step is to create what we call an “entry blurb”. Think of an entry blurb as a shortlist of information about your product or service that the site owner or author can almost copy and paste into the listicle.

It gives them all of the relevant information upfront so that they don’t have to do any extra digging.

The easier you make it for them, the more results you get.

Use this entry blurb template:

[Brand] is a [category] built for [specific buyer].

Best for: [one scenario, under ten words].

[Verifiable fact one, with a number].

[Verifiable fact two, for example pricing or an integration count].

Unlike [an adjacent entry on their list], it [one concrete differentiator].

Pricing starts at [figure]. [URL].

I recommend putting this in a Google Doc with images and any relevant links. Then you only need to send the Google Doc link in the outreach email.

You could also attach it as a PDF, but make sure your outreach email doesn’t get flagged as spam.

Personalise each entry blurb for the specific listicle that you’re pitching. For example, the “best for” should match the article title, and the “unlike” should be one of the listed brands.

Everything else will be pretty similar.

Got your blurb?

Now it’s time to craft the perfect outreach email. Use my template as a starting point:

Hi [Name],

Your [exact listicle title] covers [N] options but skips [named use case or segment].

[Brand] fills that gap because [one line of evidence a stranger can verify].

If this is something you think would benefit your audience, I've created a short
write-up plus screenshots and a test account if you want to check it yourself:
[Google Doc link]

What do you think?

Let me know.

Thanks,
[Your name]

Keep in mind that this is just a template. You need to customise the template to fit your business and industry. Use it as a guide.

Want to speed this up?

Just give the template, target listicle URL, and entry blurb to your favourite AI tool. It will personalise the outreach email in seconds.

Add the finishing touches, and you’re ready to send.

Simple, right?

Here’s the truth:

Some site owners will get your email and add you in for free. That’s the best-case scenario.

But most site owners know what a link is worth. That means you can expect them to respond to your email asking for a placement fee.

It’s up to you to decide if the brand mention is worth it. You can always negotiate the price.

Use the Listicle Scorecard to help you evaluate which placements are worth it.

How much should you pay for a link?

Calculate your link building ROI before you do outreach to see how much a high-value link is worth to your business.

Pro Tip 1: If a prospect is asking for paid inclusion, the scoring card we made earlier tells you exactly how important a feature on this site is, and justifies the budget spend.

Pro Tip 2: I recommend reaching out to a maximum of 15 to 20 prospects per week, including follow-ups. It takes time and hard work to secure quality placements. The last thing you want is to overload yourself and miss out on good opportunities.

Want listicle backlinks without the work?

Check out our listicle link building services. Our specialised team will get your brand placed in a brand-new “best of” listicle published on high-authority websites with real organic search traffic.

Step 4: Track Placements And Maintain Them

Create a spreadsheet to track all of your placements.

Think of it like a CRM for listicle link building. Track each placement that you’ve reached out about and the ones that you secured.

That’s the most important part.

You must track your placements regularly to ensure the brand mention link stays live, especially if you paid for it.

Let me explain:

Listicles are updated more than other content. As new products or solutions are released or the market changes, listicles get updated first.

There’s a chance that your brand is removed whenever a listicle gets updated.

And that’s why you have to track each placement.

Makes sense, right?

Ahrefs reviewed 1,100 blog listicles and found that 79% of them were updated in the last 12 months. 26% of them had been updated in the last 2 months.

Stale listicle content stops ranking and gets replaced in AI answers. That’s why publishers update them so frequently.

That also means you need to have a strong backlink management process in place and be ready to reclaim lost links.

Here’s how to do it:

Start by listing out every link that you’ve secured in a separate page on your spreadsheet.

Use one row per link with:

• Listicle link URL
• Listicle title
• Your position in the list
• Date it went live
• Date last checked

Set a recurring 90-day calendar event and check each link in your list to see if it’s still there. If the link is still live, update the date last checked cell and move on to the next.

What if the link isn’t there?

You’ll need to dive a little deeper and figure out why your link was removed. The best way to do that is simply by seeing what brand or business you were replaced with.

It can be anything from a simple list update to a complete refresh of the article.

Once you’ve done your deep dive, reach out to the site owner or author. Explain that you noticed your brand had been removed, and offer to provide them with an updated section they can add to the listicle.

You’d be surprised how many responses you get back and how many links you’re able to reclaim.

Want to be notified every time you lose a link?

Use the Ahrefs Alerts tool so you get an email notification the moment the link goes down. Don’t rely solely on Ahrefs, but use it alongside your placement tracking sheet.

Should You Outsource Listicle Link Building Instead?

Outsourcing listicle link building makes sense if you don’t have the team, time, and resources to earn quality placements.

The truth is that earning quality link building placements in listicles is hard work. It takes a lot of consistent time and effort to get results.

That’s why so many business owners and even SEO agencies choose to outsource to a trusted link building service like LinksThatRank.

Our listicle link building service gets your business featured on brand-new “Best Of” listicle articles published on high-authority websites with real organic traffic.

Every publisher is checked live against Ahrefs data for Domain Rating, and REAL organic search traffic both when the order is placed, and again prior to delivery.

That review is backed by the same vetting system used across all of our link building:

• An expert team of quality raters who maintain our own 80,000+ blacklist of PBNs, content farms and publicly-for-sale domains (we even operate our own “honeypot” websites to catch spammy link sellers)
• Ongoing metric tracking that automatically identifies any publisher whose DR, traffic, rankings, or indexing changes unexpectedly before they’re ever matched to your order
• Domain and content level relevance filtering so your brand is only placed on sites that make sense next to it
• Dofollow link verification with no sponsored or UGC tags, and indexing verification that covers noindex tags, x-robots tags, and orphaned pages

That’s work most companies won’t have capacity to do internally, which is why it’s included in every listicle placement.

Turnaround time is typically 14-21 days, and every order is backed by our 1-year replacement guarantee.

Should your listicle ever drop within 365 days of placement, we will replace it at no additional cost to you.

Place a test order today and see the results for yourself!

How To Fill In Your Listicle Order

A good listicle order gives the writer six important pieces of information:

• A topic that your business is best at
• Target URL that backs up claims
• Description of what you sell
• 3-4 verifiable unique selling points of your business
• Shortlist of brands that shouldn't be featured in the list
• Your preferred anchor text (optional)

The better the details, the better the listicle our writers can produce for your content. Each order is fact-checked against your business to ensure that all details are correct.

With that in mind, let me break down each section of the listicle order form.

Suggested Listicle Topic

We allow you to choose the topic to give you more strategic control over the listicle and content direction. If you run an SEO agency, this means you can order listicles that work alongside your client campaigns.

Choose a listicle topic that is highly relevant to your brand and that people are actively searching for online.

The formula we recommend is:

best [service/product] for [audience or use case]

For Example:

Suggested Listicle Topic: Best AI visibility tools for tracking brand mentions in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

AI search platforms typically prefer lists that are specific to a use case or audience. The modifier at the end improves the listicle topic and makes your inclusion more valuable.

Remember:

If a reader would raise an eyebrow about your brand being included, tighten the topic until they wouldn’t.

Target URL

Choose a page on your website that makes sense for the article.

This usually means the:

• Homepage
• Product pages
• Service pages
• Category pages
• Pricing pages

For example, if the topic is “best budget x,” then linking to the pricing page or sales page might make more sense than the homepage.

Just use common sense.

Product Or Service Description

Your order description should contain four things:

• What it is
• Who it's for
• How it's delivered
• The cost

For example

Product/Service Description: Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO platform with a powerful suite of SEO and GEO tools for businesses, freelancers, and agencies. Brand Radar tracks brand mentions across 6 major AI search platforms, including Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot. Brand Radar is an add-on to any Ahrefs plan (plans start from $129 per month), priced from $199 per month per AI platform.

Think of it like a 30-second elevator pitch. I recommend using the same wording that already appears on your website and public profiles.

AI models and Google like to verify information is accurate through consistency. It helps to tie the listicle back to your brand and strengthens your online presence.

Unique Selling Points

Write 3-4 key selling points that are unique to your product, service, or offer.

For Example

Key Selling Points:
• Tracks 400+ million search-backed prompts across 6 major AI platforms
• All-in-one SEO platform with everything you need to improve your SEO
• AI seed keyword suggestions to help you come up with content topics
• AI content helper that helps you structure your content for easier extraction

Think about it like this…

If you were pitching against a key competitor for business, what points would you highlight?

It’s important to be specific with data and numbers. For example, “48-hour turnaround” is better than saying “fast and reliable”. AI models love quantifiable data that is specific and easy to mention in their answers.

Preferred Anchor Text

Leave this blank unless you really know what you’re doing.

If you’d like to fill this in yourself, keep it on-brand and natural. If you let us do it, we analyse the keyword topic and SERP in-depth to get the correct anchor ratios, ensuring nothing looks stuffed.

Regardless, your link will always be dofollow.

Do Not Mention

Mention brands that the writer must keep out of the listicle.

These are the businesses or competitors that you don’t want to be compared against.

Reasons not to mention a brand typically include:

• Active legal disputes
• Former business partners
• Copycat brands
• Dodgy businesses

Keep the list short.

For Example:

Do Not Mention: Any “Ahrefs group buy” or shared-account reseller sites. We are happy for Semrush to be featured in the list, just do not quote their pricing or make any direct comparisons.

A listicle is only credible because it mentions the best brands in the industry and compares you to real competitors. The do-not-mention list is reserved for genuine conflicts, not just to beat out a brand.

The listicle content that our writers produce is genuine and credible.

That’s what makes our listicle link building services so effective for AI search and Google rankings.

Good Example Of A Filled In Listicle Order

Use this example to understand what makes a good filled-in listicle order.

Suggested Listicle Topic:
Best AI visibility tools for tracking brand mentions in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

Target URL:
https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar

Product/Service Description:
Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO platform with a powerful suite of SEO and GEO tools for
businesses, freelancers, and agencies. Brand Radar tracks brand mentions across 6 major
AI search platforms, including Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini,
and Copilot. Brand Radar is an add-on to any Ahrefs plan (plans start from $129 per month),
priced from $199 per month per AI platform.

Key Selling Points:
• Tracks 400+ million search-backed prompts across 6 major AI platforms
• All-in-one SEO platform with everything you need to improve your SEO
• AI seed keyword suggestions to help you come up with content topics
• AI content helper that helps you structure your content for easier extraction

Do Not Mention:
Any "Ahrefs group buy" or shared-account reseller sites. We are happy for Semrush to be
featured in the list, just do not quote their pricing or make any direct comparisons.

The more information you give us, the easier it is for our writing team to produce great content. It will also allow us to highlight the key details of your products/services that make your business unique and that you want to display.

Keep in mind that our writing team will verify all of the information against:

• What’s publicly true about your brand
• Other public profiles online
• Third-party reviews

Make sure that the information you provide is accurate and can easily be publicly verified.

The verification that we do internally mimics how AI models will also verify information about your brand. That’s how we maintain high-quality listicle services for clients.

How Much Do Listicle Backlink Placements Cost?

Listicle backlink placements typically cost between $200 and $600 for a genuine, editorially vetted website with real organic search traffic.

For premium media placements on large sites, you can even pay as high as $1,000+ for a single placement.

Even if you build the listicle links yourself, it’s not uncommon for publishers to ask for $250+ as a content placement fee. On top of that, you have your time and tool costs to secure each placement.

That’s why it often makes more business sense to outsource.

How much do listicle placements cost at LinksThatRank?

Our listicle link building services cost:

Tier	Domain Rating	Price
Standard	DR 20 to 34	$247
Featured	DR 35 to 49	$317
Premium	DR 50 and above	$397

LinksThatRank has no lock-in contracts or minimum orders. You can even place a test order of 2-3 listicles first before upgrading to a subscription, where you save 10% each month. Pause or cancel anytime.

Every listicle comes with 1,000+ words of human-verified content through Originality.ai and is guaranteed to pass our strict 23-point quality control checklist.

We are proud to have the strictest quality control on the planet, so you only get listicles designed to improve your rankings and AI visibility.

What Do Google’s Spam Rules Say About Listicle Placements?

Google has no policy that mentions listicles or best-of lists specifically.

But there are three policies that generally apply to listicles:

• Spam definition
• Link spam
• Site reputation abuse

Spam is defined by Google as techniques that deceive users or manipulate search systems. This explicitly includes “attempting to manipulate generative AI responses in Google Search”.

The link spam policy has been in effect for years and states that creating links primarily to manipulate rankings is a violation of Google’s terms.

What does all this mean for listicles?

The truth is that any link built to manipulate rankings falls foul of Google’s link spam policy.

That’s why the listicles that our writing team creates are high-quality, and all brands mentioned are natural.

We go a long way to ensure every placement is built to high-quality editorial standards and is a genuine, natural recommendation to users. That’s why we also include an information verification step before writing the content.

Before using a listicle link building service, make sure that they have a strong quality control process so that each placement looks completely natural and adds genuine editorial value.

That’s exactly what the listicles we create do!

Listicle Quality Control Checklist

Use this checklist before pitching or placing a listicle backlink.

If the website fails even just one of these points, run the other way. It’s just not worth the risk.

You only want your business listed in an article that genuinely mentions you in quality editorial content. Every listicle placement should feel obviously natural to the reader.

Listicle Quality Checklist:

• Links out to all brands mentioned in the list with natural branded anchor text
• Visible last updated date, where the listicle was ideally updated or written in the last 12 months
• Verified organic traffic of 500+ monthly visitors for the website to prove it’s trusted by Google
• Appears to provide real comparisons, quotes data, and information that isn’t just a slab of cookie-cutter text
• Honest pros and cons for each of the brands mentioned that highlight the good and the bad
• The listicle is highly relevant to topics the website normally covers and your own business
• No “write for us” or “submit a guest post” pages anywhere on the site
• Named human author on the article with a short bio and links to an about page
• Optional bonus: Short paragraph that states the selection criteria of the chosen brands and any important testing methods

Use this checklist like a quality control review. It will help ensure you only get placed on listicles that help move your business forward.

Want quality like this without all of the work?

Every listicle backlink that LinksThatRank places is guaranteed to pass our strict 23-point quality control check. You also get 1,000+ words of quality content that is human-verified and written through Originality.ai.

We are proud to produce the highest-quality listicle placements that clients are proud to show off.

Wrapping It Up

Listicle link building might be one of the biggest opportunities in AI search right now.

And it’s not going to change anytime soon.

AI models are always evolving and rely on listicle content to know what the best products and services are in each market. You also get the benefit of earning contextually relevant, brand-mention backlinks that boost both traditional Google rankings and AI search visibility.

If you’re not building listicle backlinks consistently each month, now’s the time to start.

Start by creating a list of opportunities for listicles that are already being cited by AI and ranking in Google. Organise them by value to your business and then start reaching out.

The truth is that listicle link building is hard work and requires consistency to get results.

Want us to take care of it for you?

The LinksThatRank listicle link building service handles everything end-to-end. Just choose the number of listicles you need, fill out the form, and we’ll take care of the rest.

• Guest Posts – High-quality AI search-ready
• Link Building Packages – Discounted monthly bundles
• Link Inserts – Niche-relevant editorial placements
• Agency Program – Discounted white label services

Place a test order now and see the results for yourself!

Frequently Asked Questions

Are listicle backlinks worth it?

Yes, listicle backlinks are worth it when they come from high-authority and relevant websites that have real organic traffic. Listicle backlinks can help boost your visibility in AI answers as well as your organic search rankings in Google. It’s important that you have a vetting process in place to ensure you’re only getting quality listicle backlinks that benefit your business.

Do listicles really get cited by AI search?

Yes, listicles are heavily favoured by AI search engines. Best-of listicles make up 43.8% of the pages ChatGPT referenced (via Ahrefs) and 63% of nearly 400 million citations analysed across 6 major AI platforms (Evertune Research). Listicles work so well because they provide structured information that is easy for AI search tools to extract and summarise for users.

How much does a listicle placement cost?

A listicle placement typically costs between $200 and $600 for a genuine, editorially vetted website with real organic search traffic. The amount you pay depends on the domain authority, niche, and the website that you’re getting the listicle on.

What if a listicle mentions my brand but doesn’t link to it?

An unlinked brand mention in a listicle can still be beneficial for your business. AI systems like ChatGPT and Google use entity-based linking to connect unlinked mentions back to brands, even without a link. That means you can still get cited by AI platforms without the link. But you should always reach out and get the link because it makes it easier for AI systems and Google.

Are listicles on low-authority domains worth it?

Yes, listicles on low-authority domains are still worth it because AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity don’t use domain authority alone when deciding who to cite. AI engines also use relevance and content structure when choosing pages to extract answers from. But we don’t build listicle backlinks on sites with a Domain Rating (DR) of less than 20 because a high DR typically proves the site is more established.

How many listicle placements do I need to see results?

There is no set number of listicle placements that you need to see results. It’s different for every website depending on the competition, your current authority, and your industry. The most important thing is consistency. Choose how many listicles you want to build each month and track the results over time. This is the best way to determine how many your business needs.