How to Find Unlinked Mentions and Turn Them into Valuable Backlinks

Backlinks to your website are gold. With over 200 million active websites worldwide, search engines are looking for high-quality, high-authority websites to feature in searches. Backlinks give your website that authority and show search engines yours is the website to show in searches.  

But what about all those mentions that don’t have a link? We’ll show you how to find unlinked mentions and turn them into valuable backlinks to boost your domain authority. 

What are Unlinked Brand Mentions?

An unlinked mention is when a publication adds your brand’s name to an article or web page but doesn’t link it back to your site. It’s not a bad thing – it can help boost brand awareness. But turning that unlinked mention into a high-authority backlink is much more beneficial for your website. 

Are you trying to build your domain authority? Get powerful PR and backlinks from Linkifi and take the stress out of the process. 

What is the SEO Value of Unlinked Mentions?

Unlinked mentions do hold some SEO value. Google does give some value to unlinked mentions, and if someone searches your brand name, there is a chance an unlinked mention will show up in organic searches. 

Google implemented the Penguin update back in 2012 that cracked down on manipulative link-building tactics. Now, there is huge value in relevant, trustworthy links from high-authority domains, so it’s worth looking into. 

How to Find Unlinked Mentions 

Star by identifying the keywords and phrases people use to find your brand. This could be your company name, a product name, or the names of influential people in your company. 

Once you have your list, it’s time to put in some work. Here are the three best ways to look for unlinked mentions:

Google Search

If you type your brand name into Google, you’ll get a full list of any mentions. Of course, if you have a large company, that could be thousands of hits. 

You can narrow down your search by starting the query with “allintext:” which will limit the searches to pages with those specific words somewhere on the page. 

In Ahrefs

If you want a much quicker strategy, Ahrefs is a great tool. It allows you to search for keywords and then filter the results by domain rating, organic traffic, and website traffic value. 

• Open Ahrefs.
• Go to Content Explorer.
• Type in your keyword choice (in this case, your brand or product name).
• Choose “In Content” from the dropdown.
• Use the “Highlight Unlinked” filter to find pages that mention your brand but don’t have a backlink.

The filter isn’t 100% accurate, but it’s a great start and much faster than sifting through thousands of Google pages. 

In SEMRush

SEMRush has a Brand Monitoring app specifically designed to track mentions of your brand. You can even get custom alerts that show you new mentions, unusual spikes in mentions, and negative press. 

Each alert also gives you insights into the value of each mention, including the page domain authority, traffic, and more. 

Publications are much more likely to update pages that are fresh and recently posted since these are the ones that editors are currently marketing. By reaching out to publications quickly, you’re much more likely to get an unlinked mention turned into a backlink. 

That’s not to say that you can’t get older mentions turned into hyperlinks; it just might be a slower process. 

How To Turn Unlinked Mentions into Backlinks

So you’ve got a list of website or product mentions. How do you turn them into quality backlinks?

Filter Your Prospect List

Depending on the size and reach of your brand, you might be faced with hundreds of mentions. Focus on the highest-value mentions by filtering your prospect list – here’s a general guide on what to look for:

• Domain rating over 30
• Domain traffic over 100
• Page words over 500
• Mention in the text of the page

These criteria should get your mentions down to a reasonable list, and you can always go back and expand your criteria if you want more mentions. 

Find The Right Contact Information

Now you know how to find unlinked mentions, it’s time to find the contact information of the right people to fix it. You’ll get a much higher conversion rate if you contact the person responsible for the content right away. 

The easiest way to find the right email address is to head to LinkedIn and search for the company employees. You’re looking for editors, website managers, or content creators. 

You should be able to find the person’s email address on LinkedIn, but you can also use search tools like Hunter.io to scrape email addresses.

Crafting a Quality Pitch for Outreach

How you pitch the editor or content manager will make or break your request, so start with a well-crafted email template and then personalize it to the company you’re reaching out to. 

Here’s a quick unlinked mentions email template to help you out:

Hi [first name], 

I wanted to reach out and thank you for mentioning [your brand] in your [linked] blog post! It was a great read, and we’re planning on sharing it with our followers this week.

I was wondering if it’s possible to link the word “[anchor text]” back to our website [link to your website]?

This would help your readers find the tools you’re talking about, and it would be a big help to us!

As a thank you, I’d be happy to [give value based on your company/product].

All the best, 

[Your name]

[Your brand] 

The more you can personalize the message and offer value to the publication, the better. Remember, they’re doing you a favor by including a backlink, even if they’ve already included you in a post. 

Follow Up if Needed

We’ve met plenty of people who hate sending follow-ups because they think it’s spammy, but how many times have you read an initial email and forgotten about it?

Sending a friendly follow-up shows you’re truly interested in building a relationship with the company and gives their busy content manager a gentle reminder you’re still here. 

Aim to send a follow-up three to five days after the initial email if you haven’t got a response, and keep it in the same thread for context. Here’s an easy template you can use:

“Hi [first name], 

Just a quick nudge from me. 

At [your band], we publish X blogs a month on a range of topics, and I’d be happy to link back to your content in one of our upcoming articles in exchange for that backlink.

Let me know what you think. If you’re not interested, no worries at all!

All the best, 

[Your name]

[Your brand]”

Make sure your follow-up offers more value and gives the company a reason to want to reply and give you that all-important backlink. 

Get Quality (Linked!) Brand Mentions With Linkifi

Now you know how to turn unlinked mentions into backlinks, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by the process. 

We know that getting high-quality backlinks is tough. Publications are looking for valuable content and high-authority websites, and you’re up against stiff competition. 

Fortunately, Linkifi is here to make the process simple and stress-free. We’ll pitch world-class journalists and land powerful links on your behalf so you can focus on growing your business. Get started today.