Brand awareness is everything. In fact, 77% of consumers make purchase decisions based on brand name.

And, getting noticed online isn’t just about Google anymore. 

Sure, SEO still matters. But people can discover your business through a TikTok video, an AI chatbot recommendation, or a Reddit thread, too.

In this guide, we’ll explain what brand mentions are, why they are important, and how to get them for improved brand visibility. 

What are Brand Mentions?

Brand mentions are instances where a company’s, product’s, or service’s name is mentioned online, such as in articles or reviews. 

Below is an example of a linked brand mention with our brand name in one of Epic Slope’s articles on the best link building agencies in 2026. 

Brand Mentions vs. Backlinks

Brand mentions might seem just like backlinks at first, but there’s a key difference.

Backlinks are links from one website to your website․ They pass SEO value and help your site rank higher.

Brand mentions, both linked and unlinked, are online references to your brand. You might see them in blog posts, social media posts, news, and reviews.

When a brand mention includes a dofollow backlink and a branded anchor text, it works like a backlink that helps your SEO and makes your brand more recognizable.

Just like in the example below. We got a brand mention from backlinkmanager.io with a backlink pointing to our website.

Why Are Brand Mentions Important?

Now that you know what brand mentions are and how they differ from backlinks, let’s explore why you should consistently get relevant mentions.

• Higher rankings and traffic: When you get linked brand mentions, they pass SEO value to your website, improving visibility in search results and increasing organic traffic over time.
  
• Improved brand recognition: The more different and industry-related websites mention your brand, the more you get recognized and trusted by Google and AI search results.
  
• More visibility in AI search results:  Brand mentions increase the chances of showing up in AI recommendations in LLM-driven platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot. Moreover, according to Ahrefs’ study, brands with more mentions earn up to 10X more visibility in AI Overviews than the next closest quartile.

Linked vs Unlinked Brand Mentions

Brand mentions break into two main categories: linked and unlinked. 

Linked mentions, as the name suggests, are mentions of your brand that include a clickable link back to your site. This can improve traffic and overall SEO.

Unlinked mentions, in contrast, are mentions of your brand without a hyperlink. While they don’t directly improve SEO, they increase brand awareness and credibility.

Here’s an example of an unlinked brand mention. 

Both linked and unlinked brand mentions matter. While unlinked mentions don’t pass direct SEO value, they still help build brand recognition. Plus, you always have the opportunity to reach out and turn them into linked mentions.

How to Track Brand Mentions։ 2 Handy Tools

Now, let’s learn how to track brand mentions with Ahrefs and Google Alerts.

Here’s what the process looks like with Ahrefs.

Here are some things we recommend:

And now, let’s learn how to use Google Alerts for monitoring brand mentions.

Get Your Brand Mentioned With SayNine

Want your brand talked about online? We help you get brand mentions that boost visibility, trust, and SEO. Mariam explains it even better in this short video:

Curious how it all works? Here’s a quick look behind the scenes.

Below, you can see a client spreadsheet example.

When building brand mentions for clients, we focus on these key priorities and suggest you do the same:

Pricing:

Brand mentions are harder to build than regular backlinks. Not every website will link to your homepage, so we focus on quality over quantity. That’s why we provide a limited number of mentions each month: from 2 to 10 maximum. 

So, what does this all mean? Since we spend more time, effort, and resources to build brand mentions, the pricing is a bit higher than expected. 

Here’s how our brand mention pricing breaks down: 

You pick the plan that feels right, and we manage the rest. 

Big or small, every brand has a story worth sharing. Let’s make sure people hear yours.

So, if that spark of “oh, I need this” has hit, just ping us. We’ll get started and handle all the work so your brand gets relevant mentions, builds trust, and reaches more people.

FAQ About Brand Mentions