Why Brand Mentions Matter More Than Backlinks
For years, backlinks have been one of the main ways businesses measured their online authority. The logic was simple: if reputable websites linked to your business, search engines had more reasons to trust your website.
Backlinks still matter. But they are no longer the only way to build visibility online.
A business can be mentioned in publications, social media posts, reviews, videos, directories and industry discussions without receiving a traditional backlink. Those mentions can help build something that a backlink alone cannot fully measure: recognition.
We saw this first-hand with Bakwa, a sustainable packaging brand. Through a focused content and outreach campaign, Bakwa’s story reached major publications and was reposted across more than 200 web and social channels. That visibility helped the brand generate more than 3,000 enquiries and over ₹10 lakh in revenue in two months, without spending money on paid advertising.
The campaign is a useful example of why businesses should think beyond backlinks.
What Is a Brand Mention?
A brand mention is any reference to your business, product or company somewhere online.
It could be an article mentioning your company, a customer review, a social media post, a podcast, a directory listing, a video or another business talking about what you do.
A mention can include a link to your website, but it does not have to.
That distinction matters.
When The Better India published a story about Bakwa, the article introduced the brand to its audience while explaining what made its bottles different. The publication described Bakwa’s bottles, their plant-based materials and the brand’s approach to reducing conventional plastic use.
The result was not simply another link pointing towards Bakwa’s website. It was a credible publication telling a story about the brand.
Backlinks Still Matter, So Why Look Beyond Them?
Backlinks remain valuable. A relevant link from another website can help search engines discover your pages, provide referral traffic and connect your website with other sources.
The problem comes when businesses use backlink numbers as the only measurement of their online presence.
Consider Bakwa.
The South First published a detailed story about the brand, covering its biodegradable bottles, its use of plant-based materials and its work around sustainable consumption in Kerala.
The Better India later published its own feature and a separate video about Bakwa. The video reached the publication’s audience through another format and described the product and its sustainability angle.
Now imagine someone searching for Bakwa after seeing one of those stories.
They are not simply encountering a backlink. They are encountering a business that has been discussed by recognisable third-party sources.
That is the difference between building links and building a brand presence.
As search changes, this becomes even more relevant. Our guide on how Google AI Mode is changing SEO explains why businesses increasingly need to think about how they are discovered beyond the traditional search results page.
Why Brand Mentions Matter
A useful brand mention can do several things that are valuable to a growing business.
They build recognition
People rarely become customers the first time they hear about a company.
They may see a brand in an article, come across its social media page later, search for it another day and eventually visit its website.
Repeated exposure makes the business easier to recognise.
Bakwa is a good example. Its story appeared across multiple publishers and social channels, giving people more than one opportunity to encounter the brand.
They provide context
A brand name on its own tells you very little.
A relevant article can explain what the business does, who it serves and why it is different.
For Bakwa, the mentions were not simply about the company name. The coverage connected Bakwa with biodegradable bottles, sugarcane and corn starch, sustainable packaging and alternatives to conventional plastic.
That context is valuable because it helps people understand what the brand represents.
They create third-party validation
There is a difference between a company saying it is innovative and an independent publication deciding that its story is worth covering.
Third-party coverage gives potential customers another perspective on the business.
They expand your presence beyond your website
Your website tells people what you say about your business.
Brand mentions show what other people are saying about it.
That wider footprint can include publications, social platforms, reviews, partners, communities and other websites.
Why Context Matters More Than the Number of Mentions
Getting mentioned hundreds of times does not automatically make those mentions valuable.
A mention on an irrelevant website is very different from a story published by a respected publication that reaches the people you want to reach.
The Bakwa campaign demonstrates this difference.
The objective was not simply to place the brand name on as many websites as possible. The story had a clear reason to be discussed: a Kerala brand creating biodegradable bottles as an alternative to conventional plastic.
That gave publishers something meaningful to talk about.
The Better India and The South First both built their coverage around the product, its materials and the wider problem of plastic waste.
The question for a business should therefore not be:
“How many times have we been mentioned?”
It should be:
“Where are we being mentioned, and what are people learning about us?”
What Happened With Bakwa?
For Bakwa, we focused on getting the brand’s story in front of audiences that were already interested in sustainability, innovation and alternatives to plastic.
The story was picked up by major publications including The Better India and The South First, alongside distribution across social platforms.
The Better India published both a written feature and a video about Bakwa, giving the story visibility in more than one format.
Across the campaign, the same core story generated more than 200 reposts across web and social platforms.
The result went beyond visibility.
According to the campaign results, Bakwa generated 3,000+ enquiries and more than ₹10 lakh in revenue over two months, without spending a single rupee on paid advertising.
That is why brand mentions are worth looking at as more than an SEO metric.
A good story can travel.
And when it travels far enough, it can bring people back to the business.
Social Media Can Be Part of Your Search Presence
There is another important part of the Bakwa example: social distribution.
Social media content does not exist only inside Instagram, LinkedIn or other platforms anymore. Public social content can also appear in Google Search, giving businesses another way to be discovered. Our guide on how to track social media performance in Google Search Console explains how businesses can monitor the performance of supported social content in Google Search.
This changes the way businesses should look at social media.
A post is not necessarily useful only because someone sees it inside the platform.
If the story continues to spread through other websites and social channels, it can create more opportunities for people to discover the brand through search.
For Bakwa, the combination of publication coverage and social sharing helped turn one story into a much wider online presence.
How Brand Mentions Can Help With AI Search
AI-powered search adds another reason to think beyond your own website.
When someone asks an AI system about a business, product or service, the system needs information that helps it understand what that business is and what it is known for.
A business that appears consistently across credible sources gives the wider web more information about its products, expertise, location and reputation.
That does not mean an unlinked mention guarantees a recommendation from ChatGPT or another AI system.
But it does mean that businesses should think about how they are represented across the web, rather than focusing only on their own website.
If you want to explore this further, our guide on how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT looks at the wider factors that can influence how businesses become visible in AI-driven search.
Brand Mentions and Backlinks Should Work Together
This is not a choice between brand mentions and backlinks.
A strong online presence can have both.
A publication might mention your business and link to your website. A customer might review your business without linking to it. A social post might introduce your company to thousands of people. A partner might recommend your business. An industry publication might quote you in an article.
Each creates a different type of connection.
Backlinks connect websites and pages.
Brand mentions build recognition and reinforce what your business is associated with.
The Bakwa campaign shows why looking at both sides gives you a better understanding of what your online presence can achieve.
What Should Business Owners Do Next?
Start by searching your business name and looking at where it already appears.
Ask:
- Are reputable websites talking about your business?
- Are those mentions relevant to what you actually offer?
- Is your business being associated with the right products, services or expertise?
- Are your social posts appearing beyond your social channels?
- Are customers and other businesses talking about you?
- Is your story interesting enough for someone else to publish?
Then focus on creating things people have a genuine reason to share.
A useful insight, an original story, a customer success story, an expert opinion, a new product or a meaningful business initiative can all create opportunities for third-party coverage.
If you want to build a stronger presence across your website, content and search channels, you can explore Maximus Mediascape’s services to see how these areas can work together.
Your Business Is More Than Its Backlink Profile
Backlinks can help a website build authority, but they do not tell the whole story.
Bakwa is a practical example of what can happen when a business has a story worth sharing and that story reaches the right people and publications.
The Better India, The South First and more than 200 web and social reposts helped take the Bakwa story beyond its own website. The resulting visibility contributed to thousands of enquiries and measurable revenue without paid advertising.
That is the bigger opportunity with brand mentions.
Do not focus only on getting websites to link to you.
Build a business that relevant people, publications, customers and communities have a reason to talk about.
Because sometimes, being mentioned in the right place can be worth far more than simply having another link.
Frequently Asked Questions
A brand mention is any online reference to a business, product or company. It can appear in articles, reviews, social media posts, videos, podcasts, directories, forums or industry discussions. A brand mention does not necessarily need to include a backlink.
Brand mentions and backlinks serve different purposes, so one is not simply better than the other. Backlinks can help with website discovery, referral traffic and SEO, while relevant brand mentions can build recognition, context and third-party credibility.
An unlinked mention does not provide the same direct link value as a backlink. However, relevant mentions can still contribute to broader brand recognition and online visibility. They can also help people discover and learn about a business outside its own website.
AI systems rely on clear relationships between topics to provide accurate summaries. Since Google AI Mode is changing SEO, your website structure needs to make those connections obvious. Using clear headings, lists, and internal links helps Google understand your topical authority and expertise.
The number of mentions alone does not tell you much. A relevant article that explains what your business does and what it is known for can be far more useful than hundreds of unrelated mentions. The quality, relevance and context of the mention all matter.
Brand mentions can contribute to the wider information available about a business across the web. When a business is consistently discussed by relevant and credible sources, those sources can provide additional context about its products, services and expertise. However, a brand mention does not guarantee that an AI system will recommend or cite the business.
Businesses should not treat them as an either-or choice. A strong online presence can include relevant backlinks, brand mentions, reviews, social content, publications and industry discussions. The aim should be to build a credible presence across the places where potential customers and search systems discover information.