Backlinks are the chief stimuli for google ranking. Attaining them is hard; but once you start getting them, organic traffic skyrockets. A recent study by Ahrefs suggests that backlinks should be gathered from pages with:
- Multiple referring domains
- High URL ratings
The process of link building is very relational. It all boils down to sending e-mails to total strangers, asking them to add links to your content – which can be awkward. You need to build relationships and understanding with the owners of relevant websites. They’ll add your links to their site only if it enhances their value.
Link building requires a truckload of effort. Here are the steps involved in the process:
- Prospecting
- Vetting
- Find e-mails
- Verifying emails
- Sending e-mails and following up
There’s no point pretending that you can do it without tools. And you don’t need too many, only these will do. So, here are Top Link building tools you can use to build your SEO strategy.
Ahrefs
SEMrush
Google
Hunter.io
NeverBounce
Buzzstream
HARO
FAQ
Ahrefs
Pricing - starts at $99/ month goes upto $999/month
Link builders would agree that finding suitable links is a lengthy and boring task. Ahref’s Content Explorer makes it easier. Here, you can find fresh links that accurately match your requirements.
For instance, if you’re looking for “best mouses for gamers”, you can:
- Search for ‘best mouses for gamers’ in the content explorer
2. Filter the search for "in title"
3. Filter the timeline. [you can search pages published during a specific time period to get fresh results]
4. Select the language of your preference
5. Filter referring domains (preferably, more than 10)
You’ll have an updated list with fresh links instead of an outdated one. Download these links and add them to your collection.
SEMrush
Pricing: starts at $119/ month goes upto $449/month
Do you ever wonder where your competitors are getting backlinks from? With SEMrush's Competitor Gap Analysis tool, you can keep an eye on your competitors' link-building strategies, and explore their backlinks to find suitable ones for you.
Enter your, and your competitors’ domains, and you’ll get a list of sites that link back to them.
You can see if they’re using guest posts, citations, or sponsored posts. It’s almost like spying. These are prospects that you can pitch to link back to your website.
By default, the software shows ‘Best’ links which are the sites that link to your competitors, and not to you.
You can also see shared, weak and unique domains. 'Shared' means sites that only link to both of you, 'Weak' means sites that link only to your competitors, and 'Unique' means sites that link to only one domain only.
Use this data to bridge the backlink gap by finding newer sites that don’t link to your competitors. This way, you’ll always stay on top of them.
Pricing: Free
There can't be a list without mentioning the largest stockpile of web pages, along with the best algorithm on the planet. Mastering this, one can find a truckload of suitable websites without spending a single penny.
Google is the number one source of link prospects and search operators are commands that help you to extract pages, specific to your choice. All search engines like Bing and google have them. They can be unique to them or common.
You can use “intitle:”, “inurl:” and “OR”, with your keywords to find appropriate pages. Your command will look like this:
[keyword] (intitle: resources OR intitle: resource) (inurl: resources OR inurl: resource)
Hunter.io
Pricing: Starts at $49/month goes upto $399/month
After finding the right website, you need to find the owner. You can go scouting on their social media accounts or let hunter 'hunt' it for you. You have to provide the name and domain associated with the person.
If you’d like to pitch a company website for link building, you provide its domain to find relevant e-mails associated with it.
Hunter also provides a Google sheet add-on - which is a Godsend. Suppose, you've collected the links of useful websites to pitch. The Google sheet add-on find e-mails, complementary to those links and adds them to the sheet.
This saves searching and copying time. You can pitch these prospects directly to build more backlinks.
NeverBounce
Cost: $0.008/ per e-mail upto 10,000 emails
Acquiring wrong emails is common. You send personalized e-mails to your prospects, only for them to be bounced. This slows down the link-building campaign.
But, there’s a solution. Upload the list of e-mails you have to NeverBounce. It checks each e-mail and tells you if it’s “valid”, “invalid” or “disposable”. Also, it duplicates e-mails so you have to pay for verification only once.
To automate the whole process, you can add the Zapier integration to combine NeverBounce with Google Sheets. Then, it will automatically tell you if the e-mail you’ve got, is right or not.
Note: You can automate half of your link-building campaign by connecting Google Sheets and NeverBounce. If you've already added the hunter.io extension, use Zapier filters to trigger the automation when you need it. This way, you only need to find and vet link prospects, and the next three steps will happen on their own.
Buzzstream
Pricing: Starts at $24/month upto $999/month
As a link builder, you must often look at a site, and wonder if anyone from your team has reached out to them. Or, you'd want to contact the author.
Buzzmarker pulls out contact information such as social profiles and e-mails from a website, without you having to leave it. It helps you find connections on various websites.
Suppose you want to add new bloggers to your roaster, so you visit a blog with top bloggers in your niche. Buzzmarker’s highlight tool helps you see which of them you’re already in contact with and which ones are new so you can update your connections.
Buzzmarker allows you to compose and send e-mails right there by using their templates. Reaching out doesn’t get easier than this.
HARO
Pricing: Starts at $19/month goes upto $149/month
Journalists, media websites, and health blogs need legit quotes and suggestions for their content. HARO helps them by pitching multiple users to provide them. This is how it works:
- You upload your request on HARO.
- It pitches people via e-mail, to find someone who can provide the information.
- Interested people or websites can reply to the request.
But how does it help you?
Suppose you’re a software engineer with a blog about coding. You get a request for suggestions on top coding languages to learn in 2022. Reply to the request with your suggestions and they’ll link their content to your blog.
This is a brilliant method to acquire backlinks. Whatever your business is, look for relevant requests and provide insightful opinions for a backlink in return.
Rishabh Rathi
Conclusion
Link building is a difficult task only if you make it that way. These tools save your time and energy while automating half of the process. The only reason why you shouldn't use these tools is if you want to delay your Google rankings.
FAQ
What is the best backlink tool?
SEMRush, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Moz Pro, and BuzzSumo are some of the best link building tools you can use in 2021.
What is the best link building strategy?
Guest blogging is considered one of the most popular link building strategies.
How can you make your backlinks stronger?
Create high-quality content, Find Backlink Opportunities and Spy on Your Competitors.
