Several factors go into improving your search engine visibility. Because of this, you must have a comprehensive SEO strategy. 

While it’s necessary to optimize your website for keywords you want to rank for and ensure the layout is easy to navigate, it’s also essential to build a healthy collection of quality backlinks. 

However, what about when an influencer, journalist, or blogger just mentions your brand without linking to your client’s website? Are these mentions still valuable for SEO? How can you make the most of them for your clients? 

Keep reading to learn more. 

Brand Mentions Explained 

Sometimes referred to as linkless backlinks, a brand mention is just what they sound like – situations where a brand is mentioned or talked about online. 

A simple brand mention doesn’t come with backlinks, which means they are not added to your backlink catalog. While this is true, it doesn’t mean they are useless. Search engines are getting smarter. Also, SEO is changing with the times and with how people use the internet. 

With that in mind, the top search engines today realize that brand mentions are worth having with or without a link. 

Brand Mentions and SEO

While the precise formula used by search engines for ranking brands and websites is unknown, there is a lot of information about what is and isn’t considered. Search engines view brand mentions as a powerful ranking sign and other factors. 

While true backlinks (the ones with links) are more valuable, mentions are also beneficial. They prove that people are discussing the brand, which helps to make it relevant. Google has filed a patent that mentions “implied links,” which is important. There is also evidence that Bing has started to associate non-linked mentions with more SEO clout. 

However, just like with standard backlinks, context is essential for brand mentions. 

Google examines the type of content around mentions and the niche of the originating website to figure out how valuable the ranking signal is. The more reputable the website is, and the more related the content is to your niche, industry, and geographic location, the better its impact on your SEO. 

Tracking Unlinked Brand Mentions 

Since linkless backlinks are so important, it’s important to add tracking to yours as part of your ongoing SEO strategy. The good news is there are several tools out there that will take the guesswork out of finding and categorizing the growing number of unlinked brand mentions a site has received. Some of the most popular include:

  • Google Alerts
  • BuzzSumo
  • SEMRush
  • Ahrefs

Using Unlinked Brand Mentions to Your Advantage 

If you are searching for ways to benefit from unlinked brand mentions, the first step is to find them. After that, you can use them to your advantage and to strengthen your client’s SEO strategy. If you need help with this, you can reach out to our professional team. We can take over the unlinked brand mention strategy and be sure they are used to your client’s benefit.