Dan Petrovic

Dan Petrovic is the founder of DEJAN, an Australian AI SEO agency. His DEJAN profile says he specializes in brand, product and service visibility in AI search.

His argument on mentions and outreach

Dan makes his case in Link Building & Outreach for AI Search, published October 6, 2026, and expanded later that month.

• On links: natural linking follows human patterns stable enough for a model to predict. He trained a deep learning model on organic and inorganic link patterns, and his point is that if his model can tell the two apart, so can Google's.
• On mentions: he applies the same logic to brand mentions planted to win AI answers. One of his four signals of an inorganic mention is "status climbing": a lesser-known brand placing itself next to market leaders, often in the top spot.
• The listicle trap: his example is a Mumbai-based agency's list of the top 11 SEO companies in Australia, with itself at number one, repeated for dozens of other locations. His verdict: "All these wannabes are actually helping the big agencies they plant themselves next to." Each artificial list, he writes, reinforces the established names on it.
• His forecast: "My forecast is that retrieval systems and search engines will handle inauthentic mentions through silent devaluation rather than visible penalties. The planted mention stops counting, and the publisher receives no notification." One of his four reasons is precedent: since Penguin 4.0 in 2016, Google has favored ignoring manipulative links over manual demotions.
• His advice: on listicle swaps and negotiating inclusion in competitors' listicles, "Do not do that. It is a short-lived tactic that will not stand the test of time. Work on your brand and the substance of your content instead."