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Maxime B
Maxime B

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Automating Press Coverage Tracking with Python

When a product gets mentioned online — in a blog post, news site, or startup directory — those backlinks can make a real difference for visibility and SEO.
The problem: it’s hard to keep track of which mentions are actually live, and when new ones appear.

Let’s automate that.

What we’ll build

A short Python script that:

Reads a list of expected backlinks or mentions

Checks which ones are live

Notifies you if any new coverage appears for your domain

You can run it daily with cron, GitHub Actions, or a simple cloud function.

  1. Create a list of expected mentions

Create a file called backlinks.csv:

url
https://startupdirectory.com/project/acme
https://techlaunch.io/acme-labs
https://founderstack.com/startups/acme
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Each line should contain one URL where you expect your startup or product to be mentioned.

  1. Check if backlinks are live

Now let’s create a quick script to check if those pages still mention your brand.

import csv, requests

BRAND = "Acme Labs"
with open("backlinks.csv") as f:
    reader = csv.DictReader(f)
    for row in reader:
        try:
            r = requests.get(row["url"], timeout=10)
            if BRAND.lower() in r.text.lower():
                print(f"✅ Mention live: {row['url']}")
            else:
                print(f"⚠️ Page found but no mention: {row['url']}")
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"❌ Could not access {row['url']}: {e}")
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Run it with:

python check_mentions.py
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You’ll get a simple report in the console showing which mentions are still active.

  1. Optional: find new mentions automatically

You can also search Google for new results containing your brand name:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

BRAND = "Acme Labs"
query = f"{BRAND} site:news site:startup site:tech"
url = f"https://www.google.com/search?q={query}"

headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}
r = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
soup = BeautifulSoup(r.text, "html.parser")

for g in soup.select("a"):
    href = g.get("href", "")
    if "http" in href and BRAND.lower() in href.lower():
        print(href)
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Use this to discover new coverage or mentions as they appear.

  1. Bonus: build a lightweight PR tracker

You can combine the two scripts into one lightweight “PR health monitor” that runs daily.
Store results in a CSV or Google Sheet, and you’ll never lose track of where your startup has been featured.

If you’d rather skip the manual part and focus on getting new mentions instead of just checking them, tools like MediaBoost can help automate guaranteed press features and backlinks on trusted sites.

Takeaway:
Even a few lines of code can turn PR tracking into a predictable, automatable system.
Start with your own script, measure results, and only scale when it saves you time.

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