SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 2026--
Ahrefs, a leading marketing platform, today released its Q1 2026 AI Search Benchmark Report, a data-driven analysis of how AI platforms surface and cite brands in responses.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260526119691/en/
The report covers 13 studies, drawing insights from multiple datasets, including 146 million search result pages, 730,000 AI responses, and original experiments run by Ahrefs researchers.
In what is possibly the most notable finding, a study of 75,000 brands found that YouTube mentions correlated more strongly with AI brand visibility than any other metric. By contrast, a site's link volume and total page count showed only weak correlation.
In another study, Google's AI Overviews were shown to have reduced clicks to top-ranking content by 58%.
The report's authors used aggregated Google Search Console data across 300,000 keywords, comparing click-through rates in December 2023 (pre-AI Overviews) with those in December 2025.
Additional key findings from the report include:
“As brand discovery spreads across AI platforms that each behave differently, tracking and growing online visibility has fundamentally changed,” said Glen Allsopp, Head of Marketing Strategy & Research at Ahrefs. “I expect the teams that win will continue to follow and learn from the data, while prioritizing building genuine authority in their industry.”
The full report is available at ahrefs.com/ai-search-benchmark-q1-26
About Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a bootstrapped, profitable marketing software company with over $100 million in annual recurring revenue. It's powered by one of the largest independent web indexes (170 trillion pages) and AI visibility databases (400M monthly AI prompts). The company has continued to invest steadily in new capabilities, including AI-driven monitoring and analytics.
One of 13 studies documenting AI search in Ahrefs' new report
Ahrefs AI Search Benchmark Report
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records Wednesday as oil prices fall and ease the pressure on households and businesses worldwide.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged a day after setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 335 points, or 0.7%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.
Stocks of companies with big fuel bills helped lead the way on hopes that lower oil prices will remove a big drag on their profits. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings rallied 6.1%, and United Airlines climbed 7%. Delta Air Lines rose 4.8% and is on track to set an all-time high.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 3.8% to $95.80 after the ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to hold despite the U.S. military launching what it called “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell even more, 4.5%, to $89.64 on hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf again.
Stocks have been able to run to records despite the painful inflation and uncertainty caused by high oil prices largely because companies have reported surprisingly strong profits for the start of 2026, and the forecast is for them to continue.
Bath & Body Works rallied 15.2%, and Abercrombie & Fitch climbed 13.5% after both reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That's even as U.S. consumers continue to say they're feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation.
Lululemon Athletica rose 6.6% after reaching a deal with its founder, Chip Wilson, where it will add a former chief marketing officer of ESPN and a former co-CEO of On to its board of directors.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Dick's Sporting Goods, which dropped 4.2% despite delivering a profit for the latest quarter that edged past expectations. Analysts pointed to how much profit it wrung out of each $1 in revenue, which some called a bit weak.
Oil-and-gas stocks also sank, hurt by dropping prices for crude. Exxon Mobil fell 1.8%, and Chevron sank 1.8% to cut into their big gains for the year so far. Halliburton dropped 4.8% to trim its gain for the year so far back below 39%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after falling oil prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.47% from 4.50% late Tuesday and from 4.67% roughly a week ago.
It’s a respite following recent gains for yields in bond markets worldwide, which threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. South Korea's Kospi was one of the world's best performers and jumped 2.3% after SK Hynix, which is a big beneficiary of the artificial-intelligence boom, soared 9.3%.
A day before, Micron Technology surged to become the latest Big Tech company to be worth more than $1 trillion on AI excitement. Its stock has more than tripled already in 2026, and analysts at UBS said Tuesday it could soar even more because of how fundamentally AI has improved demand for computer memory.
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
Trader Edward Curran, left, and specialist Meric Greenbaum, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 25, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
