Looking to gain backlinks for your website?
Several tools out there can streamline the process and boost your website’s link profile.
Want to hear good news about Off-page SEO? Links quality beats quantity!
This means that you don’t need dozens of different tools. You need the best ones.
Here are the best link building tools (my 3 favorite ones):
With these, you’ll have every link-building stage covered without needing multiple subscriptions.
And if you’re on a budget, don’t worry!
I’ve included more options below, like free SEO tools for link-building, to help you achieve your goal.
What are the 8 best link-building tools?
When it comes to building links for your website, there are three stages to consider:
1. Link Prospecting: This is the initial step where you search for individuals or websites potentially interested in linking to your site.
2. Vet and Validate prospects: Once you have a list of potential prospects, it’s crucial to understand if they are the right fit for your link-building strategy.
3. Email Outreach: Once you’ve identified suitable prospects, it’s time to email them to request a link.
To make these stages easier and more successful, try using link-building tools.
They can streamline your processes and make your efforts more effective and efficient.
Ahrefs
Analyze your competitor’s sites to find link prospecting opportunities and vet them.
Ahrefs is one of the best link-building tools (and an all-in-one SEO tool) to run competitor analysis, Keyword research, Track keyword rankings, and perform site audits.
Price: $99-$999 per month
Best Features: Ahrefs Site Explorer
Related: Ahrefs Full Review
How to Find Link-Building Opportunities
To find link-building opportunities, you can use the Reverse Engineer Method.
- Insert your competitor’s site into Ahrefs Site Explorer, then click on “Referring Domains” In Referring Domains, you’ll see what domains link to your competitor.
Filter the list of referring domains for:
- Dofollow
- DR: From 40
- Exclude subdomain
- Language: ENG
How to Vet and Validate link prospects
How can you find out if the link opportunities are actually valuable?
Pay attention to “Links to target”
Links to target show the number of backlinks from the referring domain to your competitor.
Expand Links to target and check:
- if the referring page is a blog
- if one of the target URLs is a guest post
Segment the list of possible sites by:
- Submission sites (Sites that actively promote guest posting)
- Companies
- Individual bloggers
Semrush
Quickly find and build backlinks to your website with Sermrush.
Related: Full Semrush Review
SEMrush is a link-building tool and all-in-one seo tool for keyword research, on-page SEO analysis, competitor analysis, content marketing tools, local SEO optimization, rank tracking, and social media management.
Price: 7 Day Free trial, $129 – $499 per month
Best Feature: Backlink Analytic & Link Building Tool
Backlink Analytics
Use the Backlinks Analytics feature to find the backlinks your competitors have.
Think about a post you already have in your blog or want to create (for example, “best tools for link building”).
Then, go to Google Search Console and locate a similar post to yours that is ranking well.
Here, the goal is to find out their backlinks and reach out to them to build those backlinks to your post.
Go to Semrush Backlinks Analytics and copy and paste the URL of your competitor’s post to the Backlink Analytics search bar.
The tool shows all the specific information about the URL you entered:
Go to “backlinks” and filter the backlinks by
- Active (to only locate the active ones),
- Follow
Then, you can navigate through the backlinks list and decide if it’s worth reaching out for a guest post or ask them to insert your link into their article.
Link Building Tool
Use the link-building tool to find your competitors’ links that you don’t have yet.
Add your domain name and click on “Start Link Building”
Insert the keywords you want to build links for
Then add 5/10 competitors and click on “Start Link building,” then on “View Prospects“
The tool shows your competitors’ links, which you don’t have yet.
Filter the list by:
- Authority Score (Minimum 40)
- Rating
Scroll the list and reach out to the more valuable ones.
Use Google to find link-building prospects for free.
Google is not exactly a link-building tool, but it has the world’s largest publicly available index of websites, so why not take advantage of it?
Price: Free
Best Feature: Advanced Search Operators
Google advanced search operators are valuable tools for finding link-building prospects online.
They are special characters, words, and phrases you can use to refine your searches on Google and make them more precise and focused.
What are the most useful Search Operators for link-building?
- allinanchor: Finds pages where the query appears in the anchor text of the links.
- site: Searches within a specific website or domain.
- intitle: Locates pages with specific words in the title.
- inurl: Identifies pages with specific words in the URL.
- Intext: Helps find pages where specific keywords or phrases appear within the text.
For example:
SEO inurl:tools
it returns tools pages about SEO, where yuo can find link-building opportunities and pitch them the content you want to include in their pages.
Buzzstream
Use Buzzstream to manage your link-building campaigns and organize your link prospects.
BuzzStream is one of the best outreach tools to be used as a link-building tool designed to simplify and enhance email outreach and link-building efforts.
Price: 14 days free trial, then $24-$999 per month
Best Feature: Buzzmarker Chrome extension
Still using random spreadsheets to organize your link-building opportunities?
Here is when Buzzstream & Buzzmarker Chrome extensions come to your rescue.
By Activating the Chrome extension, you can navigate a website, and the tool automatically scans it to find contact information related to the page you’re on.
It automatically finds email, social media accounts, and contact information you can name and save into your Buzzstream account and organize in any way you want.
Hunter.io
Find verified email addresses associated with specific domains.
It is one of the best email hunting and verification tools out there.
Price: Free – $399 per month
Best Feature: Email Finder & Verification Tool
Go to email finder, insert your prospect’s name, surname, and domain, and click “Verify.”
This returns you a list of possible emails related to the data inserted.
I suggest double-checking them on social media like LinkedIn since most professionals use it for networking and insert their contact information there.
What I like the most is that the tool gives you a validity percentage that – in my experience – is quite accurate!
Then, the Email verifier tool checks the email format, type, server status, and email status.
This feature is especially useful for understanding if the email is still in use and can receive messages.
So you can stop wasting time sending useless emails to inactive accounts.
PitchBox
Automate and personalize outreach emails and follow-up emails
Pitchbox is a powerful outreach and link-building software that simplifies link prospecting, campaign management, and relationship building.
Price: $495 – $1350 per month
Best Features: Outreach email Automation tool, Relationship Management tool
Automate sending personalized outreach emails (and follow-ups) in one click.
The best thing?
Pitchbox ensures that your emails are sent at the right time, maintaining a natural flow.
Plus, with the Relationship Management tool, organize your contacts, track past communications, responses, and collaboration, and maintain a detailed history of all interactions.
HARO
Respond to journalists’ queries on HARO and get high-quality backlinks.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a platform that links journalists and bloggers with expert sources.
Journalists post queries on HARO to find expert opinions and quotes for their articles.
As individuals or businesses, you can respond to these queries, increasing your chances of being featured in media publications.
Pricing: Free – $149 per month
Best Feature: filter link-building opportunities by keywords
How does it work?
Journalists submit specific information or quote requests, and businesses and individuals who subscribe to HARO receive these requests via daily emails.
If their expertise matches the journalist’s needs, they can respond.
One of the best features is that (based on your chosen plan), you can get daily emails based on specific keywords of interest.
This makes it way easier to filter through all the media opportunities.
HARO may not be your typical link-building tool, but it can be a game-changer for effortlessly gaining valuable links.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is link building, and why is it important?
In simple terms, link building involves getting other websites to link back to your website.
This strategy is crucial as it tells search engines that your content is valuable and reliable, enhancing your website’s credibility.
Remember, the more your website is considered authoritative by Google, the more chances you have to rank higher (potentially leading to more website traffic and conversions)
Is link building still relevant?
Yes, link building is still highly relevant in 2024.
Search engines continue using links as a key ranking factor, considering them a “vote of trust” for your website from another source.
This trust factor enhances your website’s credibility, impacting its search ranking positively.
Furthermore, quality backlinks drive organic traffic to your website and expand your online visibility and brand awareness.
What is the best backlink tool?
There are numerous link-building tools in the digital market, each with unique features to address specific needs. As we discussed earlier, the link-building process can be divided into three stages:
1. Link prospecting
2. Prospect validating
3. Email outreach
There are several tools available for each stage, but here are my personal favorites that I currently use for my own business:
– Ahrefs is the best link-building tool for link prospecting
– Ahrefs and Hunter.io for prospect validating
– Pitchbox for email outreach
The Bottom Line
Link-building tools are absolute game-changers.
Try to believe!
Sure, you could attempt building links without them, but it’s like trying to build a sandcastle with a teaspoon instead of a shovel. Not ideal, right?
Why? Because speed and efficiency are the key!
The quicker you build links, the faster you rank.
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