Digitalisering
12. december 2025
Unlinked mentions: How to get valuable backlinks
Unlinked mentions are the most overlooked—and most practical—way to earn strong, organic backlinks. You find the places where others already mention your company but do not link. Then you ask them to add the link. It is not rocket science. It is simply good, pragmatic link building.
Why unlinked mentions work (and why they are worth prioritising)
You should work with unlinked mentions if you want to increase your authority in Google, but do not want to go out and buy links on questionable sites.
Unlinked mentions are an approach where you work with mentions you have already earned. It could be an industry association that has written about you, a media outlet that has interviewed your CEO, or a partner that has referred to your solution. They mention you—just without a link.
And that means two things:
- They have already assessed you as relevant.
- Your chances of getting a natural backlink are significantly higher than with cold outreach.
That makes unlinked mentions a tactical approach that builds authority without compromising compliance, brand, or Google’s guidelines.
Earned vs. acquired links—and why unlinked mentions belong in the right category
There are two types of links:
- Earned links—the ones you get because someone genuinely finds you relevant.
- Acquired links—the ones you obtain through proactive outreach, payment, or exchanges.
Unlinked mentions fall into the first category. You have already earned the mention. You are not paying for the link, and you are not pushing the publisher into a “could we maybe do a collaboration?” conversation that mostly reeks of SEO circa 2012.
This is the respectable end of link building—and the one Google prefers you to operate in.
Read more about Google updates over the years and their impact on link building.
Why unlinked mentions are especially valuable
When someone already mentions you, the likelihood that they will also be happy to link is quite high. In practice, they only need to do one more thing: insert a hyperlink. It takes them 10 seconds—and gives you a strong-signal backlink that does not need to be marked as sponsored, partner, ad, or anything else that reduces its value.
At the same time, you get links from sources that are already credible in your industry. That creates a stronger backlink profile than random guest posts or links from directories that no real people ever read.
In other words, unlinked mentions are one of the most effective ways to get organic, resilient links—without having to buy anything at all.
Brug vores søgekonfigurator til at finde dine unlinked mentions
The downsides—and why they should not stop you
Nothing in SEO is free. Not even the good tricks. So let us be honest about the limitations:
It takes time and manual work.
You need to find the mentions, qualify them, reach out, and follow up. It is not an automatic button that runs overnight. But when you look at link quality, it is an investment that can pay off many times over.
Anchor texts are rarely perfect.
Most people link either with your brand name or something generic like “read more” or “see here”. You can suggest a neutral alternative for a better anchor text, but you cannot dictate it. (And you should not. It is precisely the naturalness that Google rewards.)
