An unlinked brand mention is any article that names your company without linking to your site. After a press campaign there are usually more of them than you expect. A short, polite follow-up to the right person, asking for a link where it genuinely helps readers, converts a meaningful share of them into editorial links, which are the links that carry real weight.
Key points
- Press coverage, interviews, event listings and roundups often mention brands without linking.
- Prioritise mentions on relevant, well-trafficked sites where a link would help the reader.
- Ask the article’s author or editor, keep the request short and give a specific URL.
- Do not ask for keyword anchors. A branded link is the natural fix.
Why Mentions Go Unlinked
Most unlinked mentions are not deliberate. They happen for ordinary editorial reasons.
- A journalist rewrote a press release and dropped the links.
- The outlet’s policy is to link only when a source adds something specific, such as data.
- The mention came from an interview or event and the writer never looked up the website.
- The article was syndicated and the links were stripped in the process.
- The brand name was mentioned in passing in a roundup or list.
Because the omission is usually accidental, a friendly request often works. The writer has already decided you are worth mentioning. Adding a link is a small step.
Where to Look After a Press Campaign
The best time to look is two to six weeks after a campaign, once original articles, roundups and syndicated copies have appeared.
Coverage you already know about
Start with the placements reported from the campaign itself. Check every article that is not a distributed copy of your release. Original articles written by journalists who saw the release are the most valuable, and the most likely to have dropped a link.
Search engines
Search for your brand name in quotes, excluding your own site, and filter results to the last month. Add the names of executives quoted in the release, product names and any unusual phrases from your data. Set up Google Alerts for the brand and product names so new mentions arrive by email.
SEO and media monitoring tools
Most SEO platforms include a mention or content explorer that finds pages naming your brand. Compare the list with your backlink data to separate linked from unlinked mentions.
Search Console
Search Console will not show unlinked mentions, but its Performance report shows branded search rising after coverage, which tells you the campaign reached people. Its links report then confirms which follow-ups turned into links.
Other places mentions hide
Press coverage is the obvious source, but not the only one. Check these too:
- Event pages: conference speaker lists, sponsor pages and exhibitor directories often name companies without linking.
- Podcast show notes: guests are named, but links are frequently missing.
- Industry roundups and “best of” lists: writers often compile these from memory and skip the links.
- Partner and customer sites: case studies and partner pages that mention you are among the easiest to fix, because there is already a relationship.
- Image use: your charts, product photos or logo used without credit. A polite request for a source link is reasonable when your work is being used.
- Executive mentions: articles quoting your founder or experts by name without naming the company.
Deciding Which Mentions to Chase
Not every mention is worth a request. Score each one quickly.
- Relevance: is the site about your industry or your customers’ interests?
- Quality: does it have real traffic and an editorial process? Our guest post site checklist works for this too.
- Reader benefit: would a link help readers, for example to see the data, the product or the full study?
- Article type: original articles convert better than syndicated copies, which rarely get edited.
- Age: articles from the last few weeks are easier to update than old ones.
Skip sites you would not want a link from in the first place. A mention on a low-quality scraper site is not worth the email.
Who to Ask
Contact the person who wrote the article. Bylines usually link to an author page with contact details or a social profile. If there is no byline, look for a section editor or a general editorial address. Avoid advertising or sales contacts, who may respond with a price, which turns an editorial link into a paid one.
Google’s spam policies treat buying links for ranking purposes as link spam. If an outlet asks for payment to add a link to an existing mention, decline, or accept only if the link is marked sponsored and the referral value alone justifies it.
Writing the Request
Keep it short, specific and useful to the writer. A request that works usually has four parts.
- Thanks and context: name the article and thank them for including you.
- The reason: one line on why a link helps readers, such as “readers who want the full regional breakdown can find it here”.
- The exact URL: the specific page, not just the homepage, unless the homepage is the natural destination.
- An offer: extra data, an image or a quote if they ever update the piece.
An example:
“Hi [Name], thank you for including [Brand]’s survey in your piece on remote work costs. Readers who want the full regional breakdown can find it here: [URL]. If it would help, I’m happy to send the chart as an image or a short comment for future updates. Thanks again.”
Personalise the opening line. Mention something specific about the article, such as the angle the writer took or another source they cited. Writers receive many generic link requests, and a message that shows you actually read the piece stands out. Send from a real person’s address at the company, not a no-reply or outreach alias, and sign with a name and role.
Do not ask for specific anchor text. A link on the brand name or on the phrase already in the article is natural. Asking for a keyword anchor makes the request look like link building, which it is, and editors notice.
Follow-Up and Tracking
Send one follow-up after about a week if there is no reply, then stop. Track every request in a simple sheet: article, contact, date sent, follow-up date, outcome and live link. Check that new links are standard HTML links that Google can crawl, as described in Google’s documentation on crawlable links.
Conversion rates vary by industry and by how much the mention depended on your data. Mentions of original research convert best, because the link gives readers something the article cannot. That is one reason data-led campaigns, covered in our digital PR campaign ideas, produce more follow-up links than general announcements.
Building Mentions Into Every Campaign
Treat mention follow-up as a standard step in every PR campaign, not an afterthought. Plan it into the timeline: release or campaign launch, coverage tracking for two to six weeks, then a mention sweep and outreach.
It works for both kinds of press work. After press release distribution, look for journalists who wrote original stories from your release. After a digital PR campaign, look for regional and trade outlets that cited the data without a link. Our data campaign case study shows a data-led campaign that earned links from 20 to 30 domains.
For ongoing authority, combine mention conversion with steady editorial link building. Converted mentions are some of the most natural links a site can earn, but they arrive in bursts after campaigns, and a regular link programme fills the gaps between them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an unlinked brand mention?
An article or page that names your company, product or people without linking to your website. They are common after press coverage, interviews and events.
How do I find unlinked mentions?
Search for your brand in quotes excluding your own site, set up Google Alerts, and use the mention tools in SEO platforms. Compare the results with your backlink data to separate linked from unlinked mentions.
Is asking for a link on a mention against Google’s guidelines?
No, a polite request for an editorial link is fine. Paying for the link to be added would count as a paid link, which Google’s spam policies say should be marked sponsored.
What anchor text should I ask for?
None in particular. A link on your brand name or on the words already in the article is natural. Asking for keyword anchors makes the request less likely to succeed.