Link Reclamation - How to Find Powerful Unlinked Brand Mentions

by Sam D'Arcy
on 17 November 2016
SEO

Link Reclamation - How to Find Powerful Unlinked Brand Mentions

by Sam D'Arcy
on 17 November 2016
Reading time: 2 mins

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Link building has become increasingly difficult over the years as Google continues to develop the efficiency of its search engine algorithm in detecting websites that have applied black-hat link building methods to their SEO campaigns.

It is now critical you build and earn links in a white-hat manner. This can be done through numerous methods, but we are going to talk about what I believe to be one of the easiest - unlinked brand mentions.

Unlinked brand mentions are simply where someone has mentioned your company name or website URL within a piece of content or web page, and not applied a followed ( or nofollowed) link to your website.

The first step is to search and locate these mentions. Here are a few methods to help you begin:

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a fantastic tool for a number of reasons. Firstly, it allows you to perform content research and analysis by searching topics, looking at trending posts and examining backlinks.

You can also set up brand monitoring which also involves setting up alerts for keywords, authors and domains, including competitor sites. The information can be emailed to you, and is also shown to you via a graph online which can be exported. There are also filtering options and a website comparison.

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To activate a brand monitoring alert:
  1. Go to Monitoring
  2. Click 'Create New Alert'
  3. Click Brand Mentions
  4. Enter the brand name
  5. Click 'Next'
  6. Choose email preferences
  7. Click 'Next'
  8. Click 'Finish'

Moz Fresh Web Explorer

Moz’s very own Fresh Web Explorer is a gold mine for finding websites mentioning your brand. Simply place your domain in Fresh Web Explorer, along with your brand name, and you can find sites that mention you but don’t link to you!

Google

Google is another great place to find brand mentions. If you learn and familiarize yourself with some advanced search commands you can help locate brand mentions as well with a little searching around.

Some examples of useful search commands can be found in this fantastic article written on Moz.

Outreach & Persuasion

With unlinked brand mentions you have already earnt the mention — possibly through some great content or services you provide. The next step is to persuade the website owner, editor or writer to go back and to add a link to the brand mention.

Below is an example of an email template I use to help acquire links through unlinked brand mentions.

“Hi (Include name if possible),

Hope you are well.

First of all, I’d like to thank you for mentioning my client/company within one of your recent articles. It means a lot!

-Insert article or webpage that includes the brand mention-

I noticed within the article that you didn’t actually link through to their website when you mentioned them. Is there any chance that you can quickly update the post with a link? Here’s the link to save you time searching for it: -Insert your link-

Thanks in advance, and if you ever need any more info on client/company then I’d be happy to supply you with it (imagery, video, content, etc.).

Thanks again!”
_____________

It’s important to note that not all brand mentions are positive, so make sure you check the article first before beginning your outreach. Please see our blog to learn more and check out an article on some key PR lessons for outreach success.
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