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.
- Go to “Content explorer” and type in your domain like this: “domain” -site:ahrefs.com.
- Set filters like language, DR, and traffic for the most relevant results.
- Here, you can see all the mentions you’ve got. To filter out only the unlinked ones, click the “highlight unlinked mentions” and type your domain to find all the websites that have never linked to you.
- If both the domain and the surrounding context are fine, reach out to the website admin and ask to link to your website.
Here are some things we recommend:
- Don’t be pushy. Keep your outreach simple and professional to avoid sounding like a spammer.
- Reach out only when you feel that the unlinked brand mention is worth your time and resources.
And now, let’s learn how to use Google Alerts for monitoring brand mentions.
- Go to Google Alerts and type in your brand name, product, or service.
- Choose the sources you want to monitor (blogs, news, web, etc.).
- Set the frequency of alerts (e.g., daily).
- Enter your email. You’ll get an email whenever your brand is mentioned online, including unlinked 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.
- You share with us your target pages and keywords: Not sure which keywords to choose for a homepage or landing page? No worries, our SEO team can help you pick the ones that make the biggest impact.
- We provide you with a client spreadsheet: We will send a client spreadsheet so you can easily track all the mentions you get.
- You sit back, we do the work: From outreach to natural branded link insertions, we will help you show up both in Google and AI search results.
- We send you a monthly report: You will get a detailed monthly report to see the progress and results of the brand mentions.
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:
- Unique websites: We find websites that our clients don’t have a backlink from.
- Contextually relevant sources: Brand mentions should be placed in natural and relevant contexts. For example, if a client provides an email verification tool, it would be smart to get the client mentioned on a website related to SaaS, tech, and similar niches.
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:
- Package 1: $400 / 2 mentions per month
- Package 2: $1,000 / 5 mentions per month
- Package 3: $2,000 / 10 mentions per month
- Custom Plan: Select 2–10 mentions for a custom quote
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
What are brand mentions in off-page SEO?
Brand mentions in off-page SEO are instances where your brand, product, or service is referenced on other websites.
What is an example of a brand mention?
For example, a blog post or video saying, “Ahrefs is a popular SEO tool,” with or without a link, is a brand mention.
How do unlinked brand mentions affect SEO?
Unlinked mentions don’t pass direct SEO value like backlinks, but they build brand recognition, trust, and authority, which indirectly improve Google and AI search visibility.
How to track brand mentions online?
You can use Ahrefs’ Brand Radar tool to track brand mentions online.
