Wiktoria Kolinko has worked on SEO and content at Take Group since 2026. She builds strategies, audits websites, and turns data into concrete content decisions. What she enjoys most is tying content, site structure, and business goals into one coherent whole. Outside work she spends more and more time at the pool table, is always on the hunt for new music, and in her spare moments tests the limits of her own common sense at the skatepark.
Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode can cut clicks to the top result by as much as 58%. You might think that's the end of SEO as we know it. Google itself says something different, and that's worth a closer look.
Link building hasn't ended, only the unit of measurement has changed. It used to be enough for a link to simply exist. Today what matters is what's actually written around the brand, because that's exactly what AI remembers and repeats in its answers.
When planning a link building campaign, the same question keeps coming up: a link or a mention? I break it down into concrete scenarios: when one works, when the other does, and when it is worth combining both.
A brand mention without a link is not a confirmed Google ranking factor, but it builds a brand's context as an entity and genuinely influences which brand AI models cite. How it differs from a link, how to evaluate one, and when to choose it over a link.
