An unlinked mention (also called a brand mention or implied link) occurs when a website references a brand, product, or person by name without including a hyperlink to their site. Google has stated that it understands brand mentions and may use them as a relevance signal even without an accompanying link, making them a form of implied endorsement. From a link-building perspective, unlinked mentions represent a high-priority outreach opportunity: the publisher already knows and values the brand, so the barrier to converting the mention into a followed backlink is lower than cold outreach. Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Alerts can be set up to monitor for new mentions. Prioritising mentions from authoritative, topically relevant domains typically yields the greatest SEO benefit from reclamation campaigns.