Unlinked brand mentions are those brand mentions that are in sites that won’t provide the link straight back to this. However, backlinks are super important for developing website authority, especially within communities that are relevant. While google dos give more value to those brand mentions, even if they’re not linked, the linked ones give you the SEO value as the primary off-page signal for ranking.
As these SEO expert, we know that the links can give you the value that you need in order to be seen as trusted, authoritative, and relevant on this site. The recognition through the top-tier publications is what will give you the authority and credibility to the site as well.
You should take action the moment you see mentions that aren’t linked, since, it is very simple to ask for these links when you have them. Having already mentioned the brand, it will show whether or not they find value within the service, product, or even a perspective, and if they want to share the value that they get with the audience putting you in an advantageous position to simply ask for the little extras, that cherry on top of this.
So how do you do it? Read below to find out how to get those mentions easily, and effectively.
Research it!
To begin, use a tool to look through and find any unlinked mentions of the brand, and find ones that’ll add your value. SEMrush is a good one, but BuzzSumo is also great for social shares on the blogs, or mentions on websites. You should scan for the variations of your company in different ways, so that no mentions are missed. You should also look at your products, assets, and tools too. You should look for the names of employees, since for example, the CEO of a company will be referenced within the article, but there is no link back to it.
You should look for spellings that are alternate, since the search tool does miss these. Once you’ve got that list of unlinked mentions, you should prioritize this based on the SEO and PR value of these. If you have a brand that’s well-established, you might have unlinked mentions that total in the thousands. Though you can manually try to capture on and link all these sites, you need a good strategy to prioritize since you want to tackle the most authoritative websites of them all. You can use your own personal judgement for this, and you can also check the metrics for this too. Moz, Ahrefs, and Majestic all have their own metrics for this, so you should make sure that you check these and go for ones with authority.
Find that Contact Info
Next, you need to find the contact info of the site. The ideal way to do it, is of course the webmaster of a site, especially if there are external versions of links within it, but none of them leading to you for one reason or another.
If you can’t find the contact email for the webmaster within the contact page, you should try performing for sites with the keyword webmaster in some cases. However, this can result in many previous responses, but you can also try LinkedIn to help figure out the webmaster or someone in related positions.
From there, find the author of the article, or the editor’s contact email to reach out to them. If you’re unable to find any of these, use general information email or even the standard contact form as well.
The Pitch
Now, once you’ve had it, you need to figure out the reason on how it will benefit you to insert the link that’s there.
However, you need to word this in a way where they can understand that linking it to your site will benefit both of you, and also provide value to their audience as well. Sometimes, linking to internal pages is better than just the homepage in general, but that’s not always the case.
For example, if there is a webpage that covers the topic, you’re discussing on a page you want the backlink on, you will want them to link to a specific page rather than the home page. Make sense?
When you ask for a link, always be very friendly, and thank them in advance for what they’re doing. Don’t try to be super pushy about it either, since people don’t like that.
Now, if there is an article, you should complement it in a way that’s unique and generalized. You should thank them for including you in the article, or even the company. Don’t be afraid to give thanks and praise at this point, and you should always explain how these links will give value to the audience, and provide a lot more for both of you as well.
The Follow-Up.
If you haven’t had the response back, you should follow-up as well. You should only stop once you get a definitive answer. However, don’t harass them either, and don’t’ be too pushy. If you spam them too much with the request, they’ll be less likely to do this. If you don’t respond, you should wait a few days for them to follow-up. From there, about a week and a half, and after that, once every few weeks. It might also be because the email you’re using isn’t checked every single day, so you should always check to see if there are alternative emails to use.
You should always have a spreadsheet in place so you can track all of this and make sure that everything is properly in place.
You never know, sometimes they just take a while to actually respond, and sometimes, if you are able to build this, you can get a guest post, or even featured articles.
Rebranding Examples
His is especially important for those looking to rebrand, or maybe you move to a new website domain, you should update all of the old branded anchor texts, or even the anchor links. You should map out and use the 301 redirects from the old to the new domain. Otherwise, it will have broken links from here on out.
Redirects are good, but the reality is they’re nowhere near as impactful as a link that’s direct. You should reach out to the domains that are quality, and from there, link to them, and from there, ask them if they can update the link. One of the best tools for this, is Majestic, since it lets you find links within the old domain, provided any material that they might need as well, such as the new company name and logo.
It’s easy to convince websites to update backlinks, especially since I’s pointing out an error in the website, since it’s bad for them to have that in place.
You should always, when doing this, be friendly and willing to work with the person that you need to, and from there, determine as well what you need to do in order to help with this, and you should always try to work on building better backlinks as well.
