Brand Mentions

What are Brand Mentions?

Your brand mentions are any references to your company, product, or brand from anywhere on the internet, regardless of whether or not a link is involved.

If a journalist writes about your business, a blogger reviews a product, or someone names you in a forum, it’s a brand mention.

Brand mentions can come in two forms, linked mentions, which include a clickable link back to your website, and unlinked mentions, which involve no backlinks.

The great thing about mentions is that they can be important even if you don’t receive a link when your business is referenced. In the past, Google has talked a lot about the concept of ‘implied links,’ which is the notion that a reference to your brand can act as a signal of authority and relevance in a similar way to a traditional backlink.

The reason is intuitive. If lots of people are talking about your brand across high-reputation sites, it serves as strong evidence that you’re a real and notable entity that’s worth taking seriously.

Because Google has a pretty sophisticated understanding of entities and reputation, the value of simply being talked about online is enough to help improve your SERPs.

Link Building Strategies

When it comes to link building, unlinked mentions are one of the best opportunities around for marketers. If a site has already mentioned you by name, the good news is that they clearly know who you are and think you’re worthy of a reference. This means that they’re far more likely to add a link if you get in touch to ask.

Converting mentions into backlinks in this way is known as link reclamation, and it can really benefit you to monitor the web for mentions of your brand. The conversion rate associated with asking to turn a mention into a link is typically far higher than cold pitching because you already have a level of familiarity with the domain in question.

Reputation Boosts

Beyond matters related to SEO, brand mentions can also feed into a far bigger picture linked to reputation and trust. Capturing a steady stream of mentions throughout credible sources can build the kind of brand recognition that supports E-E-A-T, drives branded search, and makes every other marketing effort work that little bit harder.

People who have heard of you click results more frequently and convert at a more reliable pace. With this in mind, mentions provide a level of value far beyond whatever link equity they would be responsible for.

Earning More Mentions

To get more brand mentions, the rules of engagement tend to be similar to other SEO strategies. Focusing on digital PR, original research and data that’s citation-worthy, useful content, and active participation in your industry are all excellent at boosting your mentions at scale. Brand mentions are particularly important for AI visibility.

Tools like Google Alerts, Ahrefs, and various other media-monitoring services can help you to keep on top of your mentions as they happen, so you can measure your reach and quickly pounce on unlinked mention opportunities as they happen.

One good habit to get yourself into is to monitor for your brand name regularly and to give thanks to the people who mention you online while asking unlinked ones for a backlink. By turning this into a weekly process, it can become one of the easiest forms of link-building that you’ll ever do.