How To Find And Claim Unlinked Brand Mentions | Easy Wins

It’s a weird feeling. You’re just scrolling, maybe doing some competitor research, and then… you see it. Someone’s writing about your company. Your product. Your brand. Your heart does that little jump.

But you hover your mouse over the name.

Nothing. It’s just… text. No click. No link.

That little high-five feeling turns into a sigh. That, my friend, is an unlinked brand mention. It’s one of the biggest, most overlooked opportunities in all of digital marketing. Think about it: it’s a review, a shout-out, a recommendation… all dressed up with nowhere to go.

But here’s the good news: these aren’t lost causes. They’re “easy wins” just waiting for you to scoop them up.

This guide is the full playbook. We’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of how to find unlinked brand mentions, starting with free Google tricks and moving up to the powerful automated tools. And more importantly, I’ll show you how to actually craft the outreach email that gets that link without sounding like a robot.

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Key Takeaways

• What Is This, Really? It’s just your brand name (or product, or CEO’s name) sitting on a webpage as plain text. No hyperlink. Nothing to click.
• Why Should I Care? You’re leaving “link juice” on the table. Every link is a “vote of confidence” that tells Google your site has authority and trust (hello, E-E-A-T). These votes are how you rank higher.
• Why Is It an “Easy Win”? This isn’t cold email. The author already likes you enough to write about you. You’re not a stranger begging for a favor. You’re just offering a helpful edit.
• What’s the Process? It’s a simple four-step dance: 1) Find ’em, 2) Vet ’em (make sure they’re good), 3) Send a human email, and 4) Track your wins.
• What Tools Do I Need? You can start 100% free with some clever Google searches. Or, you can put it on autopilot with tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Mention.

So, What’s an Unlinked Brand Mention, Anyway?

Let’s make sure we’re on the same page. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

Picture this: a popular blog drops a new post, “The 5 Best Project Management Tools for 2025.” You’re reading it, and boom, in paragraph three they say, “We were really impressed by the features of AwesomeProjectTool.”

If that’s your company, you’re thrilled.

But wait. If those words are just… words… what happens next? The reader who is at that very moment interested in you has to stop, open a new tab, type your name into Google, and hope they find the right site. That’s a lot of work.

A linked mention—a simple hyperlink—changes the entire game.

Now, that interested reader just clicks the name. They land instantly on your homepage or your product page. You’ve grabbed their interest, eliminated all the friction, and just won a new potential customer.

Big difference, right?

Is It Really “Lost” SEO Value?

You better believe it. In the world of SEO, links are the coin of the realm.

Google’s entire original recipe for ranking pages was built on this one idea: a link from Site A to Site B is a “vote.” It’s Site A pointing at Site B and telling Google, “This content is good. I trust it. I’d send my own readers over there.”

That trust, that authority—what we nerds call “link equity” or “link juice”—is what flows from one site to another. It’s a huge factor in helping Google figure out who deserves to be on top.

An unlinked mention? It’s a vote that was written down but never officially cast.

The author endorsed you. They wrote your name. But they forgot to raise their hand. When you get that link added, you’re not begging. You’re not asking for a handout. You are simply collecting the vote you already earned.

This is precisely why it’s one of the highest-ROI (Return on Investment) link-building tactics on the planet. You’re not trying to build something from scratch; you’re just polishing what’s already yours.

How Does This Build Trust and Authority (E-E-A-T)?

Google’s standards are always evolving. Right now, the big buzzword is E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google wants to rank sites that are genuine, real, and credible.

What’s more credible than other websites independently talking about you?

When Google’s crawlers find these links pointing to your site from various other relevant, high-quality websites, it builds a powerful narrative. It tells Google that you are a recognized authority in your niche. You’re not just an island shouting about how great you are; you’re a part of a wider community conversation.

Claiming these links is a direct way to signal your E-E-A-T to Google.

How Did I Stumble Upon My First “Gold Mine” Mention?

I’ve got to be honest. I didn’t get into this because I was some SEO genius. I found my first one because I was slacking off.

True story.

Years ago, at an old job, I was supposed to be finishing a quarterly report. I was… not. Instead, I was Googling our company’s name. Just a classic “vanity search.” We’ve all done it.

I clicked to page four or five of the results, and I saw a post from a massive industry blog. A site we dreamed of getting a nod from. My heart started pounding. I clicked. My jaw hit the floor.

It wasn’t just a quick mention. It was a full two-paragraph case study about how our software solved a huge problem for them. A glowing review.

And… no link. Nothing.

My first feeling was pure frustration. How could they miss that? But a second later, a new thought hit me. This wasn’t a problem. This was a massive opportunity. This wasn’t a “no.” It was just a “not yet.”

That one “aha” moment started my obsession with this strategy. We sent a simple, polite email (I’ll give you the template later), and the editor added the link within an hour. We saw referral traffic from that single article for years.

That’s when it clicked. We were sitting on a gold mine. And you probably are, too.

Can I Really Do This Without Paying for a Tool?

Yes. Absolutely, yes.

Before you spend a dime on software, you can and should get your hands dirty with the most powerful search engine in the world: Google itself. The only things you need are a web browser and a little bit of creative thinking.

This manual method is perfect for getting started, and I still use it for quick spot-checks. The trick is to use “advanced search operators.” These are little commands you can add to your search to get hyper-specific results.

Don’t worry, this isn’t complex coding. It’s just a few key phrases.

What Are the Magic Words? (Introducing Search Operators)

Think of search operators as filters. You’re telling Google, “Show me everything that matches X, but not if it also includes Y.”

Our goal is to find pages that mention our brand name but don’t link to our website. If they linked to us, our own link-tracking tools (like Google Analytics or Ahrefs) would already know about them. We’re looking for the ones that got away.

Let’s build our magic search query step-by-step.

Your New Best Friend: The intext Operator

The intext: operator tells Google to only show results that contain a specific word or phrase in the body text of the page.

Your first search should be this:

intext:"Your Brand Name"

This is a good start, but it’s going to be full of noise. You’ll see your own social media profiles, directory listings, and, most of all, your own website. We need to filter those out.

This is where the magic “minus” sign (-) comes in.

The - operator excludes terms or sites from your search. Let’s try this again:

intext:"Your Brand Name" -yourbrand.com

This is much better. We’re now searching for our brand name but excluding any pages from our own domain. But we can go further. We’re probably going to see a lot of noise from social media. Let’s exclude the big ones.

intext:"AwesomeProjectTool" -awesomeprojecttool.com -twitter.com -facebook.com -linkedin.com -youtube.com

Boom. Now you have a much cleaner list of potential opportunities. You are looking at articles, blog posts, and forum discussions that mention you, but aren’t on your own properties.

Go through these results one by one. It’s a manual process. Open the page, hit Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) to find your brand name, and see if it’s linked. If not, add that URL to a spreadsheet.

You’ve just found your first prospects.

What About Finding Misspellings?

This is a pro-level move. What if someone loves your brand but can’t spell it?

My brand name has a weird spelling. People get it wrong all the time. They are still talking about me, but my main search query will miss it.

For this, we use the OR operator, or we can just run separate searches.

intext:"AwesomeProjectTool" OR intext:"AwesomProjectTool"

Or, you can just search for the misspelling directly, which is often cleaner:

intext:"AwesomProjectTool" -awesomeprojecttool.com

You’d be shocked at how many high-authority sites have a typo. A quick, polite email not only gets you the link but also helps them fix their copy. You’re helping them, they’re helping you. It’s a perfect exchange.

How Do I Find Mentions of My CEO or Products?

Your “brand” isn’t just your company name. It’s your people, your products, and even your unique slogans or marketing campaigns.

You need to run separate searches for all of these “brand assets.”

Let’s say your CEO is named “Jane Miller” and your flagship product is “The ProjectHopper.”

You would run these searches:

• intext:"Jane Miller" -awesomeprojecttool.com -linkedin.com (You might want to add -twitter.com, etc., here too)
• intext:"The ProjectHopper" -awesomeprojecttool.com

This broadens your net significantly. You might find interviews with your founder where the publication forgot to link back to the company, or product reviews that only name the product but don’t link to where to buy it.

Is There a Way to Filter by Time?

Yes, and this is critical for making this a manageable habit.

After you do your first big search (which might give you years of results), you don’t want to re-do it all every week.

Once you’ve run your query, look right under the search bar for the “Tools” button. Click it.

A new menu will appear. Click “Any time” and change it to “Past week” or “Past month.”

Now, you can bookmark this search. Every Monday morning, you can click that bookmark and you’ll only see the new mentions from the past week. This turns a giant archaeology project into a 15-minute weekly task.

Isn’t All That Googling a Ton of Work?

It is. I won’t lie to you.

The manual method is fantastic, and it’s 100% free. But it’s slow. And it’s not perfect. Google doesn’t index the entire web instantly, and its “Tools” filter isn’t always razor-sharp.

When you’re ready to get serious and scale this process, you’re going to want to invest in a dedicated tool.

Why Should I Even Bother With a Paid Tool?

Three reasons: Scale, automation, and data.

1. Scale: These tools are built on massive databases. They crawl the web relentlessly and have a much bigger index of the web than you can ever get through with manual searches. They find things Google misses.
2. Automation: This is the big one. You don’t “search” anymore. You set up an alert, and the tool emails you when it finds a new mention. You just sit back and let the opportunities come to your inbox.
3. Data: This is the real game-changer. A tool won’t just show you the mention. It will show you the Domain Authority of the site, the estimated monthly traffic to that page, and the sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral). This lets you instantly prioritize: “Wow, this mention is on a DA 80 site with 50,000 monthly visitors. That’s my top priority.”

Which Brand Monitoring Tools Actually Work?

There are a lot of tools out there, and many of them are built for massive enterprise corporations with six-figure budgets. You don’t need that.

Here are the tools that I’ve personally used and that work best for this specific task.

For the Beginner: Is Google Alerts Any Good?

Let’s start with the free one. Google Alerts is the most basic form of automation.

You can tell Google to monitor a keyword (like your brand name) and email you when it finds new results.

How to set it up:

1. Go to google.com/alerts
2. In the “Create an alert about…” box, type your advanced search query. Yes, you can use operators here! "AwesomeProjectTool" -awesomeprojecttool.com
3. Click “Show options.”
4. Set “How often” to “As-it-happens” or “At most once a day.”
5. Set “Sources” to “Automatic” (or “Blogs” and “News” if you want to be specific).
6. Set “Region” to “Any region.”
7. Set “How many” to “All results.”
8. Click “Create Alert.”

The verdict: It’s… okay. It’s free, which is great. But it’s notoriously unreliable. It misses a lot of mentions and is often days or even weeks late to the party. I use it as a backup, but I would never rely on it as my primary tool.

For the Serious Marketer: The “Big Guns”

If you have a marketing budget, even a small one, this is where you should spend it. These tools are part of all-in-one SEO platforms, and they are brilliant at this.

1. Ahrefs (Content Explorer & Alerts)

Ahrefs is my personal workhorse. It has two features for this.

• Alerts: You can set up a “Mentions” alert. It will monitor the web for your brand name and email you a daily report. The best part? It has a little “Unlinked” filter right in the alert dashboard. You click one button, and it hides all the mentions that already have a link. It’s beautiful.
• Content Explorer: This is like a search engine, but only for content. You can search for your brand name and then use its filters: One page per domain, Exclude homepages, Exclude your domain. Then, you can use the “Highlighted unlinked domains” feature. It literally highlights the domains that have mentioned you but never linked to you.

2. Semrush (Brand Monitoring Tool)

Semrush is in a direct race with Ahrefs, and its Brand Monitoring tool is fantastic.

You set up a “project” for your domain. The tool then scours the web for your keywords (brand name, CEO name, etc.). The dashboard is incredibly intuitive. It presents you with a feed of all your mentions.

Right at the top, you’ll see a tab labeled “Unlinked.”

You click it. And there’s your to-do list, automatically generated and prioritized for you. It even helps you track the status of your outreach (e.g., “Email sent,” “Link acquired”). It’s a complete, self-contained workflow.

3. Mention.com

This is a dedicated brand-monitoring tool. It’s less of an “all-in-one SEO” suite and more of a hyper-focused listening tool.

Mention is fantastic for real-time alerts. It’s often faster than the big SEO suites at finding new mentions, especially on social media and forums. You set up your alert, and it feeds them into a dashboard that looks a lot like a social media feed.

You can filter by source, language, and sentiment. It will flag mentions that don’t have a link, making it easy to spot your opportunities. If your brand is talked about a lot on platforms like Reddit or in news articles, Mention is a very strong contender.

How Do I Set These Tools Up to Avoid Junk?

The first time you run one of these tools, you might get thousands of results. Don’t panic. A lot of it is junk: spam sites, auto-generated directories, content scrapers, etc.

You don’t want to waste your time with these. A link from a “DA 1” spam blog is worthless.

You must use the filters. In whatever tool you choose, look for these settings:

• Domain Rating / Authority Score: Filter out the noise. I usually set this to a minimum of “DA 10” or “DA 20.” I want to focus my efforts on sites that actually have some authority.
• Language: Filter for only the languages you serve.
• Domain Traffic: A good proxy for quality. I’ll often filter for sites that get at least 100 or 1,000 visitors a month.

By applying these filters, you can cut a list of 1,000 “mentions” down to 50 real opportunities. That’s the list you should spend your time on.

Okay, I Have a List of Mentions… How Do I Ask for the Link?

You’ve done the hard part. You’ve found the needle in the haystack. You have a spreadsheet of high-quality, relevant websites that already like you.

Now comes the delicate part. The human part.

How you ask is everything. A bad, robotic, or demanding email will get your message sent straight to the trash. But a polite, personal, and helpful email will get you a “Yes” more often than not.

Before You Type: What’s Your Pre-Outreach Checklist?

Don’t just blast out a template. For each opportunity, take 60 seconds to do this:

1. Find the Right Person: Don’t email info@ or contact@. You’re looking for the author of the post or the editor of that section. Their name is usually in the byline or on the site’s “About” or “Team” page. Use tools like Hunter.io or RocketReach to find their email address if it’s not listed.
2. Verify the Context: Read the mention. Is it positive? (99% of the time, it is). If it’s neutral, that’s fine. If it’s negative… that’s a different conversation, and you should probably send it to your PR or customer support team, not ask for a-link.
3. Find the Best Page to Link To: This is my biggest tip. Do not just ask for a link to your homepage. Find the most relevant page on your site for their article.
   • If they mentioned your “ProjectHopper” product, give them the link directly to the “ProjectHopper” product page.
   • If they mentioned a statistic from your blog, give them the link to that exact blog post.
   • This makes the link more valuable for their readers and shows you’ve put thought into it.

This small bit of research transforms your email from “spam” to “a helpful suggestion.”

Can You Show Me an Email That Actually Gets a “Yes”?

I’m happy to. But first, let me show you one that fails, so you can see the difference.

The Bad, Robotic Email (Do NOT Send This):

Subject: Link Request

To Whom It May Concern,

I saw your website mentioned my brand “AwesomeProjectTool”. You did not include a link.

Please add a link to our site: https://awesomeprojecttool.com

This will be mutually beneficial.

Thanks.

I get emails like this every day. I delete them on sight. It’s demanding, impersonal, and lazy.

Now, let’s look at a template that I’ve refined over years and that has a very high success rate.

My Failed First Attempt (And What I Do Now)

When I found that first “gold mine” mention I told you about, my first email was almost as bad as the one above. It was a generic, “Hi, I’m from [Company], I saw you mentioned us. Could you add a link?”

I got no reply.

I was so frustrated. Why were they ignoring me? They liked us!

I realized I had made the email all about me and what I wanted. I hadn’t made it about them or their readers.

I waited a week and sent a new email, this time to a different editor at the same publication. I completely changed my approach. This new email was built on three pillars:

1. Genuine, Specific Compliment: Show I actually read the article.
2. Gratitude: Thank them for the mention, with no expectation.
3. The “Ask” (Framed as Reader-Value): Position the link as a helpful addition for their audience.

This is the exact email that got the link. And it’s the foundation of the template I use to this day.

A Proven Template You Can Steal

Subject: Quick question about your post on [Article Topic]

Hi [Author/Editor Name],

I was just reading your article on [Article Topic] this morning. Your point about [mention something specific and genuine from the article] was brilliant—I’ve been saying that for ages!

I was also so thrilled to see you mentioned [My Brand Name] in the post. Honestly, it made our team’s day. Thank you so much for the shout-out.

I had one small suggestion: I was wondering if you might be open to adding a link to our [Brand Name] when you mention it?

It would be a huge help for your readers who want to learn more about [what you do]. The best page for that context is probably our [Specific Page Name], which is right here: [Direct, relevant URL]

No pressure at all, but I thought it might be helpful for your audience.

Either way, thanks again for the great article!

Cheers,

[Your Name] [Your Title, Company]

Why does this work?

• It’s personal. You used their name. You mentioned a specific part of their article. You’re not a robot.
• It’s grateful, not greedy. The whole email is thankful. The ask is an afterthought.
• It’s “soft.” No demands. “Wondering if,” “might be open,” “no pressure.” It gives them an easy “out,” which makes them more likely to say yes.
• It’s easy. You gave them the exact URL. You did the work for them. All they have to do is copy, paste, and hit “update.”

What If They Say No or Ignore Me?

They probably won’t say no. In all my years, I’ve almost never had someone reply “No.”

They will, however, ignore you. People are busy. Inboxes are crowded.

If you don’t hear back, wait about 4-5 business days and send one polite follow-up.

Subject: Re: Quick question about your post on [Article Topic]

Hi [Name],

Just wanted to quickly follow up on my email from last week.

No worries if you’re too busy, but if you have 30 seconds to add that link, it would be amazing!

Thanks again, [Your Name]

That’s it. If they ignore you a second time, let it go. Move on. Don’t be a pest. Your time is better spent on new opportunities. But you will be shocked at how many people reply to this second email with, “Oh my gosh, so sorry! This fell through the cracks. Done!”

What Else Can I Do With This?

Once you get comfortable with this workflow, you can move on to some advanced tactics. This process isn’t just for text mentions.

What About Image Mentions? (Reverse Image Search)

Is your brand known for its infographics, charts, or high-quality product photos? I guarantee people are using them without giving you credit.

This is link reclamation for images.

How to do it:

1. Go to images.google.com.
2. Click the little camera icon (“Search by image”).
3. Upload your infographic, your CEO’s headshot, or a unique product photo.

Google will show you a list of all the other websites that are using that exact image.

Visit those pages. 9 times out of 10, they will have used your image without any link or “Source” credit.

Your outreach email is almost identical, and it’s even more powerful because you’re catching them in a (usually innocent) act of copyright infringement.

Subject: Love that you used our [infographic/photo]!

Hi [Name],

I was so happy to see you featured our [infographic name] in your article on [Article Topic]! It looks great.

I was wondering if you’d be willing to add a small credit link back to the original source? It helps our team get recognition for their work and also lets your readers find our other resources.

The original post is right here: [Direct URL to post/image]

Thanks so much! [Your Name]

This has an insanely high success rate.

How Can I Turn a Negative Mention Around?

This is a delicate situation. If you find a negative mention (a bad review, a complaint), your first instinct should not be “How can I get a link?”

Your first instinct must be “How can I help?”

This is a customer support and public relations opportunity. Do not send your standard outreach template. Instead, send a helpful, non-defensive email.

• Reply in the comments or find their email.
• “Hi [Name], I’m [Your Name] from [Company]. I just read your post about your experience, and I am so sorry to hear you had that issue. That’s not the standard we aim for.”
• Address the problem head-on. Offer a solution, a refund, or a direct line to your support team.
• Do not mention a link.

Your goal is to solve the problem. Sometimes, this act of goodwill will cause the author to update their post, changing their negative review to a positive one (“Wow, the company reached out and fixed everything!”).

And in that update, they will often add the link on their own. You’ve earned it.

Can I Use This to Find Guest Post Opportunities?

This is my favorite advanced tactic.

A site that has already mentioned you is a warm lead. They know who you are. They are in your niche. They are the perfect target for a guest post pitch.

After you’ve successfully claimed your link, wait a week or two. Then, email the same editor.

Subject: Pitch: [Guest Post Idea] for [Site Name]

Hi [Name],

Thanks again for adding that link a couple of weeks back. We’ve actually seen some great readers come from your site!

Since your audience seems to be interested in [Your Niche], I had an idea for a guest post I’d love to write for you… [Propose a specific, well-thought-out-article idea].

Let me know if you’re interested!

Cheers, [Your Name]

This is how you turn one easy win into a long-term, content-producing relationship.

How Do I Make This a Habit, Not a One-Time Task?

This strategy is not a “set it and forget it” magic bullet. It’s a system. It’s a simple, repeatable process that, when done consistently, will steadily build your site’s authority month after month.

You need to build a workflow.

Building Your Weekly Workflow

You don’t need to spend 20 hours a week on this. You can spend one.

• Monday (30 Mins): Review your alerts. Check your Google Alerts and your paid tool’s dashboard for all the new mentions from the past week.
• Tuesday (30 Mins): Vet your list. Open each mention. Is it good? Is it relevant? Is it on a quality site? Add all the good ones to a simple spreadsheet (I’ll show you how in a second).
• Wednesday (60 Mins): Do your outreach. Go down your list from Tuesday. Find the contacts. Personalize and send your emails.
• Thursday (15 Mins): Follow up. Check who hasn’t replied from last week’s batch. Send your polite, one-sentence follow-up.
• Friday (15 Mins): Track your wins. Update your spreadsheet with any new links you acquired. Send a quick “Thank you!” to any editors who added one.

That’s it. Two and a half hours a week for a consistent, high-quality-link-building machine.

Who on My Team Should Own This?

This is the perfect task for a junior SEO, a marketing coordinator, a content marketer, or even a sharp intern. It’s a fantastic way to learn the fundamentals of SEO, outreach, and relationship-building.

The key is that one person owns the process and the tracking spreadsheet.

How Do I Track My Success?

You must track this. It’s the only way to prove its value to your boss or client.

Create a simple Google Sheet with these columns:

• Date Found: (When the mention was found)
• Mentioning URL: (The page the mention is on)
• Domain Authority: (Pull this from your tool)
• Contact Person: (The author/editor)
• Contact Email:
• Date Emailed:
• Date Followed Up:
• Link Acquired? (Y/N):
• Notes: (e.g., “Editor was super nice,” “Link added in 1 hour”)

This simple sheet is your new secret weapon. In three months, you can walk into a meeting and say, “This quarter, by spending just 2 hours a week on this, I acquired 35 new, high-quality backlinks from sites with an average DA of 45.”

That’s how you prove your ROI. That’s how you get a raise.

Is This Really an “Easy Win”?

Yes.

In the grand scheme of SEO, this is as easy as it gets. You’re not creating a massive, 10,000-word skyscraper post and begging 100 strangers to link to it.

You are finding people who have already raised their hands. They’ve already shown they like you. You’re just walking over and giving them a high-five. The “work” isn’t in convincing them; it’s just in finding them and being polite.

This is the low-hanging fruit of link-building.

Stop leaving these valuable, authority-building links on the table. They are votes of confidence you have already earned.

Now, go get them.

FAQ