Brand Mentions Vs. Backlinks: Which Matters More For SEO?

Brands play an important role in elevating your business activities towards positive growth and turnover. Being in an online world of publicity, a brand mention of any kind sparks your attention no matter how trivial or significant it seems. Both small and big businesses benefit from SEO reputation management and brand activation marketing. Brand mention is one of the key elements of these marketing aspects, and we will see how it impacts your SEO efforts. Besides, SEO benefits of brand mention to your brand. 

What is a brand mention?

Brand mention is a purely consumer-generated concept in which consumers mention or refer to your brand outside of your business channels and website. These brand references or mentions can be seen online on various platforms such as guest blogs, online forums, review sites, other websites, news articles, industrial reports, and, of course, social media platforms. We know the effectiveness of word-of-mouth play in traditional advertising. Stimulating word of mouth online is similar to increasing your brand mentions across various channels. Even unlinked brand mentions can be seen as the most trusted sources of online references. 

Types of brand mention

Brand mention with link

Brand mentions with a link are good as the target people can instantly visit your website, and Google considers it as a relevant site.

Unlinked brand mentions

These are brand mentions without a direct link to your website and help in elevating brand awareness and brand equity among the target audience.

Categories of brand mention

You know that brand mentions can be calculated using tools, and the total number of times brand mentions, but the impact of these mentions cannot be fully measured as they are entirely different.

Positive – Positive brand mentions are highly helpful for your business as customers pour praise about your products or customer management on blog posts, social media or online forums. Review sites are the perfect example to find positive brand mentions.  SEO for brand mentions can only be a help if it is a positive one, as this can increase your brand perception and elevate corporate identity. 

Negative – These negative brand mentions have a perilous impact on your brand, though not long-lasting. Whenever you find any negative brand mentions such as review sites, blog posts, social media accounts or any other, take proactive actions to return your brand image into a positive or neutral one. You can use tactics SEO for brand mentions to address negative online references of your brand.  

Nuetral – Neutral brand mentions, as the name implies, neither have a positive impact nor a negative impact. It is just a brand mention and usually seen on news articles about similar ventures, industry reports, research papers, and more. Besides, your brand name can be featured if you have made any collaborations or business investments. These references can be unlinked brand mentions or linked brand mentions.

Backlinks vs brand mentions

There is a significant difference between backlinks and brand mentions. When you search backlinks vs brand mentions, the only similarity will be that both help businesses boost online visibility and brand awareness. A backlink is a direct link to your website from another website that indicates your website’s content authenticity and relevance. Ultimately, this leads to a positive SERP rank and online visibility. On the other hand, a brand mention is a specific reference to your brand name on other platforms, and these may contain links or no links. It also contributes to increased brand awareness and SERP ranking. 

When we talk about backlinks vs brand mentions, these are the major differences:

• Backlinks contain an actual clickable link, but that may not be the case with brand mention, as it can appear with a link or without a link.
• Backlinks directly bring traffic, and brand mentions accentuate the organic traffic rate
• Backlinks directly signal authority to your website, whereas brand mention is a key factor in increasing a website’s authority.

Which is better? Backlinks vs brand mentions

The answer depends on the business. Backlinks and brand mentions are distinct marketing aspects and bring almost similar benefits. You need to have relevant backlinks as well as a high number of brand mentions to get the deserved attention from the target audience. 

How brand mentions impact SEO

It has a real value in terms of boosting brand awareness and SERP ranking as these online references instill a sense of positivity about your brand in the minds of target people. If you do not know how brand mentions impact SEO, think about this. You are not a heavy hitter in your niche. While searching a similar keyword, finding your website is relevant and valuable just because of brand mention is a great thing to achieve. 

SEO benefits of brand mention

You cannot overlook the positivity and myriad of benefits a brand mention brings to your business. The following are the brand mention SEO benefits your business can avail:

• Boost the credibility and authenticity of your business – In the online world, brand mentions act as word of mouth. So, if you get a lot of positive brand mentions, the likelihood of building trust will be high.

• Publicize your brand name – This is especially true if you are not an industry expert in your niche. Even a small number of brand mentions can drive potential customers to your brand, making your brand noticeable and findable among the target audience.  Google also regard brand mentions with authority and relevance.

• To increase your backlinks – The brand mentions you have might be plenty, but what if it contains no links? So what you can do is reach out to the website owner and politely ask to add a direct link. This way, you can increase the number of backlinks. The only thing is you need to ensure SEO links best practices.

Brand mentions seem to be a key performance indicator for any business, just like backlink profile, and the importance of SEO for brand mentions cannot be overlooked. With the help of a digital marketing company, your business can track all brand mentions online and better drive positive brand in many ways.