Question round
Unlinked mentions: the questions owners ask before emailing
Somebody wrote your brand name and forgot the hyperlink. Here is who is worth a message, what to say in three lines, and the signs that a thread is not going anywhere.
Our take
Ask once, ask kindly, ask the right person
A mention without a link is a favour half done. Most writers fix it in a minute when asked politely, and most never notice until someone tells them. Spend your effort on the fifteen best pieces, not the five hundred weakest.
- Aim for the author, not the generic inbox
- Quote the exact sentence and offer the exact URL
- One follow-up after a week, then stop
- Skip pages whose owner sells links openly on the same page
Where unlinked mentions come from
Mentions appear for dull reasons. A reporter lists your shop in a round-up. A blogger names your tool in a tutorial. A podcast host reads out your brand in the show notes without pasting the address.
Finding them is the easy part. Set up Google Alerts for your brand and product names, add Ahrefs Alerts or Semrush Brand Monitoring if you already pay for them, and export the results once a month. Keep a sheet with the page, the author and the date you wrote.
Not every row deserves mail. A page with traffic and a named author is worth ten minutes. A scraped copy of somebody else's article is not, and neither is a forum thread nobody has opened since 2021. Our lost links plan gives a pace for the rest.
A good first line is plain: 'Thanks for mentioning us in your March piece; could the name link to our guide?' Then paste the address. If the writer is a reporter, the press coverage table lists extra cases to watch.
Track results in a sheet, not in your head: a column for page, author, date sent, reply, and link live yes or no.
The questions that keep coming up
Is it rude to ask a journalist to add a link to a story already published?
No, if you are brief and specific. Editors fix links all the time. Name the sentence, give the exact URL, and say thanks. Do not hint that the story is incomplete without it.
Who do I write to: the author, the editor or the contact form?
The author first, since they know the piece. If the byline is a staff desk, try the section editor. A contact form is the last choice because nobody owns the reply.
How many follow-ups are acceptable?
One. Send it about a week after the first note and keep it to two lines. If silence continues, log the page as closed and move to the next row. Persistence beyond that costs goodwill.
Should I offer something in return?
Only something real, such as a fresh quote, a correction to a figure, or an invitation to see a new feature early. Money for a link is a different transaction and belongs in a different conversation.
What if the writer says the site does not add outbound links?
Accept it and thank them. Some publications have a policy, and arguing costs more than the link was worth. Note the policy so you do not ask that outlet again.
Do I need a link if the brand name already ranks?
Branded searches may already be fine. A link still sends referral visitors and lets you measure the placement in Search Console and Ahrefs, which a bare name does not.
Red flags: walk away from the thread
- The reply asks for payment to change one word in an old article
- The page is a thin scrape with no author and no date
- The site carries a 'sponsored posts welcome' banner and nothing else of substance
- The owner offers to link only if you link back from your homepage
- The mention is negative and a link would give it extra reach
- The same mail has been sent to the page's owner by three agencies already