What are the Best Link-Building Tools on the Market?
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No matter what kind of business you run or own, you want three things for your website:
- Better rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs)
- More organic search traffic
- Website authority
This applies to everyone from Fortune 500 companies all the way across the board to bloggers and niche website owners.
The single best way to make all three of these things happen is with links. The best way to get links is to build them.
However, if you try to accomplish this goal and don’t know what you’re doing or you break Google’s rules with gray or black hat techniques, your website might get in some trouble. Luckily for you, there are plenty of tools out there that can help.
Why Do You Want Links?
Source: ahrefs
You want links because Google uses the number of quality links going to your content as a ranking factor. Essentially, this is a popularity contest.
Ahrefs found some interesting correlations. More than 90% of web content receives no organic traffic at all. More than 65% of all web pages have zero backlinks. This means the most common reason websites aren’t getting organic traffic is they don’t have any backlinks.
The more links you have from high authority sources, the better your website and content will rank in the search engine results pages.
There are plenty of other factors in Google’s algorithms, but most of them, especially on-site factors, can be built and fixed in a single business day.
However, link-building, along with other SEO (search engine optimization) factors, is a “long game”. Links have a substantial impact on your rankings but they take time and care to be done properly.
Let’s get into our list of tools so you can get started immediately and see results without getting punished.
The 10 Best Link-Building Tools on the Market
The best link-building tools make life easier for you but they don’t directly build links for you. As time-consuming as this process can be, it’s important to streamline the process as much as possible.
More quality backlinks mean more traffic to your website. A high number of bad links means more trouble. Take the time to make sure you’re getting the right links from the right sources.
The best way to do this is by using baby steps.
1. Your Content
If you want links from other websites, you need to have the best content. Some of you may be wondering, “What is going to make my content better than my competition?” And this is an excellent question.
Creating the best content around is the first step to getting the best backlinks to your website. But what are the steps to creating this content?
Use the SERPs
Google the keyword you want to rank for in the search engine. Explore the first two pages and make notes of what they’re showing you.
How long are the blog posts? How many times are they using the target keyword? What kind of information is present in the content? How is it creating value for the reader?
Write Something New
Write a blog post that is better than the competition in every single way. When you put this keyword into a search engine, Google will show you a box with similar questions as well as the best answer they’ve found.
Include your keyword into the title and some headers, but also make questions from the People also ask box headers as well. Answer these questions better than what’s found in the box.
At the very least, include questions within your blog post. This is a good strategy to add keywords from the “People also ask” box and answer the question to give your content the best possible shot at the top ranking.
Now you have an amazing piece of content that’s worth a backlink. All you have to do now is find the people who want your content who are also website owners. But how do you find them?
Now that you have a great piece of content, it’s time to dip your toes into the outreach waters.
Outreach is a craft in and of itself. It takes a special touch. You can hone this craft by using social media.
Sure. You should definitely post a link to the content as it’s published, but how can you use these networks as an introduction to outreach?
Make friends. This is why social media exists. At some point, these friends may reach out to you for a quote. In exchange, they’ll throw you a backlink to your website.
Whenever this happens, don’t just give them the name of your website. Give them the link to the content that you know is top-notch and better than anything the competition has to offer. Doing so can have a domino effect.
Source: backlinko
Everyone credited with a link on the post will post links to it all over their social accounts, including you. This means more eyes on the creator’s content, which means more clicks on your link. This pumps the authority of the friend’s content as well as your own.
The above is just one example of how making friends on social media and proving you’re an authority in your space can lead to backlinks to your website.
Another strategy is to use social media advertising to promote your content, such as Facebook Ads. By properly targeting your audience, you can extend the reach of the content you are promoting.
3. Hunter.io
Once you’ve mastered social media, you’re ready to move on to a more deluxe toolkit.
A difficult problem you’re going to face, especially in the beginning, is finding the right person to contact. You find a great, authoritative website. But how do you get in touch?
The contact box?
Unlikely. Many of these messages are instantly deleted. Given how much spam comes through them, it’s no wonder some legitimate queries slip through the cracks.
Hunter can help. This software allows you to plug in the name of a company or website and it will show you all relevant email addresses it has for that company.
This is a must-have tool. Everyone from novices to experts can use this. It’s simple, straightforward, and useful. The best part is Hunter is completely free.
The free plan gives you 25 searches and 50 verifications per month. The cheapest paid plan is the Starter package, which is just $34 a month. With this package, you’re able to get 500 searches and 1,000 verifications every month.
If you’re a professional SEO, you’ll probably want the Pro or Enterprise plan. But if you’re a solopreneur or affiliate marketer looking to build links in profitable niches, then the free or starter package should be fine.
4. Mailshake
If your biggest strength is content creation then you’re ahead of most of the competition. If outreach is a struggle, then you need Mailshake.
No idea what to say in your outreach emails? No problem. Mailshake comes with several templates and allows you to reach more people, faster. This saves you a ton of time in the long run.
They offer customizable templates for link-building, content promotion, guest post inquiries, and more. The outreach portion of their software is a reasonable $44 a month and integrates with necessary third parties like Google docs.
5. Buzzstream
Buzzstream is similar to Mailshake. However, it’s more refined, offers more tools, has Ahrefs integration, link monitoring, etc…
With great features comes a greater price tag. The starter option is only $24 a month but the Growth plan is the cheapest plan that’s worth getting.
It starts at $124 a month. It allows for up to 3 users with a $40 charge for each additional user.
The growth plan will also give you performance and link reporting, phone and email support, and more.
6. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best marketing tools around. It can help you optimize your website with audit tools.
You can analyze the competition with their Site Explorer tool. They have a keyword tool and can help you track your rankings in the SERPs.
But how do they help with link-building? There are two tools within the software that can help you with your efforts.
Site Explorer
The first is Site Explorer. Using Site Explorer is pretty easy. Enter the URL of a competitor. You’ll be brought to an overview page.
This overview page will show you the website’s organic traffic along with their organic keywords. You’ll also see a graph with three tabs. One of them says Backlink profile. Click on this tab to view your competitors’ backlinks.
Ahrefs makes it easy to find the links going to your competitors and gives you metrics on the website and the power of the link.
Content Explorer
The second tool is Content Explorer. This tool allows you to research topics, find link opportunities, and get metrics on your findings.
Enter a topic you’re interested in writing about on your website. Use the filters to hone this search. You can do this by time, traffic, and other metrics. Now you can visit these articles, study them, and write a better version.
One great way to get backlinks is by guest posting. It’s one of the best link-building tools on the market for people who have practiced outreach or are using some of the tools mentioned already in this post.
Site explorer can help with these efforts. You can search for content and websites by domain rating. The domain rating is a metric that shows how much authority a particular website has. Websites with higher ratings provide a more powerful link.
Use site explorer to find websites and pitch ideas to them using the templates from tools like Mailshake and Hunter.
One of the coolest features of an Ahrefs account is its Chrome extension toolbar. Download the extension and perform a Google search. You’ll get on-page SEO reports right at your fingertips.
With all of these helpful tools, you’ll be paying a premium price. The cheapest package starts at $99 per month and the most expensive is $999. However, if you pay annually, you’ll receive two months free.
7. HARO – Help a Reporter Out
HARO is an interesting tool. Unlike a lot of tools, it’s completely free. HARO is a website where journalists who are working on a project can ask for quotes. One of the most important parts of journalism is having a source for everything you write in a piece.
Once you sign up as a source, you will receive emails from the website every time a journalist needs a quote from an expert source in your industry.
If you’re asked for a quote, they’ll ask for basic information. Give them everything they ask for and if they don’t ask for website information, give it to them anyway and politely and professionally ask that they include it in their piece.
With the popularity of this website and the fact that it’s free, these reporters are bombarded with potential quotes from people who are looking for backlinks. An important ranking factor in backlinks is how relevant the linking content is to your website. Media outlets typically have a high domain ranking.
So a quote with a link from a journalist can help to give you a robust linking profile and build up the authority of your own website, which in turn will help your site/content move up in the rankings.
Google is known for keeping affiliate marketing websites and blogs in its sandbox for as long as it possibly can. Getting links from an authoritative site can help get your high ticket affiliate marketing website out of the sandbox faster and push more organic traffic to it.
8. Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO is another set of tools designed for professional marketers. Its pricing is similar to Ahrefs and SEMrush. Their cheapest plan is $49.99 a month and it goes up from there.
How does this software help you build links?
One of their newer tools is called the link graph. This tool will plot out links to your website, or a competitor’s, and show you how they all connect. You can look up content and physically see what sites are linking to it, what sites are linking to those sites, and so on.
Aside from the link graph tool, you’ll also get access to their site explorer and backlink checkers, similar to ahrefs and SEM rush.
9. Check My Links
Check My Links is a browser extension for Chrome. It was designed to be able to find broken links on your own webpage.
However, you can use it to check for broken links on any webpage. It’s a free tool and it can be helpful if you know of websites where you would like to have a link to your own website.
Go to the website of choice, scan with the extension, and if you can find broken links and you have a relevant link that it can be replaced with, contact the website owner and let them know. Make sure to include the link to your website that makes for a suitable replacement.
10. Guest Post Tracker
Guest Post Tracker is a handy tool if guest posts are your link-building method of choice. They offer two different types of services.
The first is the guest post tracker. The website keeps a curated list of websites that accept guest posts and organizes them by niche. This way you can get the most relevant links possible to your website. You write the content and handle the outreach. But knowing who to reach out to can save you hours of time.
The second is their guest posting service. They reach out, write the post, and get the link for you. This service costs more but if you want links and writing isn’t your strong suit, then it might be worth trying out.
Lifetime membership is just $99. The managed guest posting service is expensive. The cost ranges from $65-$250, depending on the domain authority of the website where your link will be placed.
Final Thoughts on the Best Link-Building Tools on the Market
Most of the link-building tools on the market are similar. Mailshake has copycats. So does Ahrefs, Hunter, and Buzzstream.
What makes them different? Usability.
Find the tools that make the most sense and are the easiest for you to use. There is also such a thing as too much of a good thing. If a service or software offers more than you need, spend some time looking for something that offers exactly what you want at a lower price.
Ahrefs is one of the most expensive marketing tools. But if you need it then you need it and you’ll be hard-pressed to find something better.
For the average blogger or affiliate marketer, you don’t really need it for link building. Basic tools like social media, creating great content, Mailshake, and Hunter should give you most of what you need.
Thanks for stopping by and reading our content. You may also enjoy this one on complete technical SEO checklist.
