Unlinked brand mentions
White hat. Within Google’s guidelines. Safe to use. White, grey and black hat SEO compared
What are unlinked brand mentions?
An unlinked brand mention is a page that names your company, product, founder or research but does not link to your site. Turning these mentions into links is one of the simplest white hat link-building tactics: the writer already knows you and chose to write about you, so asking them to add a link is a small, reasonable request.
Mentions are found by searching for your brand name, product names, key people and the titles of your studies, then checking which results do not link. Mentions also count on their own for AI search, where assistants learn about brands from how often and where they are named. See brand mentions.
Why unlinked brand mentions matter for SEO
It is one of the easiest forms of link reclamation. The success rate is usually far higher than cold outreach, because you are asking for a fix, not a favour. The link also helps the writer’s readers, who otherwise have to search for you.
It keeps link building within Google’s rules: the publisher decides, and there is no exchange of value.
How to find unlinked brand mentions
- Search Google for your brand in quotes, excluding your own site:
"YourBrand" -site:yourbrand.com. - Repeat for product names, founders and the titles of your reports.
- Set up alerts for new mentions so you can ask while the article is fresh.
- Check each page. If it names you without a link, find the author or editor.
- Send a short, friendly thank-you with the exact URL you suggest linking to.
Unlinked brand mentions example
“Thanks for including our 2026 bike theft study in your article on city cycling. Readers might want the full city-by-city table, which is here: yoursite.com/bike-theft-2026. Would you be open to linking it?”
Unlinked brand mentions FAQ
Do unlinked mentions help SEO?
They can help search engines and AI assistants understand your brand, but Google has not confirmed they count like links. A linked mention clearly helps more.
Is it okay to ask for a link from a mention?
Yes. Politely asking a writer to link to you is fine. Offering payment for the link is not, unless it is marked sponsored.
Related SEO terms
Brand mentions are references to your brand name on other websites or in AI answers, with or without a link to your site.
Link reclamationWhite hat
Link reclamation is recovering backlinks you have lost or that point to broken URLs, by fixing pages, adding redirects or asking sites to update links.
Link buildingWhite hat
Link building is the work of getting other websites to link to yours, to earn referral traffic and the trust that helps pages rank.
Digital PRWhite hat
Digital PR is earning coverage and links from news sites, blogs and online publications by giving journalists stories, data or expert comment.
Editorial links are backlinks a writer or editor chooses to give because your content is worth citing, without payment or a link exchange.