The Best SEO Tools for Link Building in 2023
Link building remains one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. Securing backlinks from quality sites to your website proves credibility with search engines and helps content rank higher.
But finding link building opportunities and managing outreach can be challenging without the right tools. This guide will outline the top SEO tools available today to streamline link acquisition and build your domain authority.
We'll look at both free and paid solutions for link prospecting, tracking, metrics, and more. A handy comparison table summarizes the key capabilities of each tool as well. Follow this advice to strengthen your overall link profile and improve search performance through strategic links.
Why Backlinks Matter for SEO
Before jumping into specific tools, let's quickly recap why link building should be part of your broader SEO strategy:
- Backlinks signal trust and authority - More links from credible sites tell Google your content is reputable and boosts rankings.
- Encourages more organic clicks - Quality backlinks drive referral traffic to your site by exposing your content to new audiences.
- Improves domain authority - Total backlinks improve your site's domain authority, which positively impacts SEO.
- **directly impact your backlink profile and search performance.
Focusing on securing earned backlinks from trusted sources provides compounding benefits for overall SEO results. The right tools make this process more scalable.
Top Free Link Building Tools
Free SEO tools provide excellent starting points for basic link prospecting and tracking website backlinks. Here are some solid free options.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console offers valuable backlink data directly from the source.
Key Features:
- Displays links to your site from across the web
- Provides data on total linking domains
- Shows links by type and category
- Filters links by webpage
- Monitors overall link growth trends
This should be your first stop to understand existing links pointing to your site. Google Search Console aggregates links indexes to deliver reliable insights without needing to crawl the web.
Ahrefs Site Explorer
Ahrefs' free Site Explorer provides a sample of your most important backlink metrics.
Key Features:
- Limited backlink data and metrics
- RefDomains and RefIPs numbers
- Top linking domains and pages
- New vs lost links data
- Basic historical link growth
- Enough for basic research and tracking
While limited compared to the paid API-based tool, Ahrefs Site Explorer still surfaces sample link data to inform outreach. For a free look at your site's backlink profile, it's useful.
MozBar and MozLinkExplorer
Moz also offers free link metrics through browser tools.
Key Features:
- MozBar shows link metrics for any page
- MozLinkExplorer provides link data for a domain
- Linking pages, domains, and MozRank
- Link growth over time
- Ideal for page-specific research
MozBar integratesdomain authority research into your browser for any page you visit. This helps assess the value of individual link opportunities as you browse. Comparatively, MozLinkExplorer gives high-level data on site-wide links.
BuzzStream
BuzzStream is free for basic outreach campaign management and link tracking.
Key Features:
- Track links from outreach emails in a dashboard
- Monitor link equity and domain authority per link
- Schedule and automate outreach campaigns
- Manage databases of prospect sites
- Export links to Google Sheets
- Limited use for individuals and teams
The tool provides helpful organization of outreach efforts and central tracking of acquired links. For managing the manual outreach process, BuzzStream is an efficient free option.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts helps uncover new link opportunities through mention alerts.
Key Features:
- Receive email alerts for chosen keywords/pages
- Monitor brand mentions and news events
- Identify relevant link prospects
- Alerts for new backlinks to your content
- Simple and beginner-friendly use
Monitoring brand and root domain alerts makes it easy to find new link-worthy content as it gets created. Google Alerts surfaces opportunities you may have otherwise missed.
Paid Link Building Tools
Robust paid tools provide expanded backlink data, outreach capabilities, and competitor insights for complete link building toolkits. Here are the top paid options:
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is likely the most powerful paid SEO tool for discovering link opportunities and managing outreach.
Key Features:
- Full backlink data with metrics for any domain
- Track new links versus lost links
- Analyze competitor domains for link gaps
- Discover link prospects from tracked domains
- Page-level link metrics and acquisition tracking
- Robust filtering for deep analysis
Ahrefs crawls billions of pages to construct the most comprehensive link index available today. This allows complete insight into your own backlink profile plus analysis of competitors and prospects. For enterprise-level needs, Ahrefs delivers unmatched capabilities.
SEMrush
SEMrush provides its own robust set of backlink tracking and competitor research tools.
Key Features:
- Backlink tracking with graphs and metrics
- Competitive link analysis to identify gaps
- Find link building opportunities from lost links
- Page-level link tracking
- Domain strength metrics for prospects
- Integrates with outreach platform
Like Ahrefs, SEMrush combines strong analytics on a site's own backlinks with data on competitors and prospects. This empowers outreach targeting sites where competitors already have links. The tool also helps assess domain authority for picking targets.
BuzzStream
For managing outreach, BuzzStream is a complete link building platform.
Key Features:
- Central database of outreach contacts
- Email sequencing and nurturing campaigns
- Track status of outreach emails
- Follow-up and reminders for after outreach
- Link monitoring to quantify ROI
- Comprehensive outreach CRM
The software centralizes prospect data and sequences multi-step outreach tailored to different targets. This level of organization and automation is ideal for teams and agencies to streamline and scale quality outreach that drives tangible link building results.
Pitchbox
Pitchbox is another robust solution optimized specifically for link outreach.
Key Features:
- Automated personalized outreach sequences
- Templates and workflows optimized for links
- Prioritize outreach by Page Authority and traffic
- Tracking and analytics within platform
- Integrations with email and other martech
- More affordable scaled pricing
Similarly, Pitchbox provides excellent tracking and automation for managing the outreach process at scale. The tool simplifies tailoring pitches while optimizing your workflow. And the pricing structure makes it friendlier for growing agencies.
Linkody
Linkody combines prospecting, outreach, and link tracking in one platform.
Key Features:
- Discover link prospects from various data sources
- Automate and personalize outreach
- Track link building KPIs within one dashboard
- Monitor rankings and organic traffic
- Schedule social promotions along with outreach
- All-in-one solution to streamline link building
Having the prospecting, outreach, and tracking tools integrated together makes executing link building smoother and more organized. Linkody aims to provide an end-to-end solution.
Link Building Tools Comparison
Here is an at-a-glance comparison summarizing the key features provided by these link building tools:
| Tool | Free Option | Backlink Tracking | Competitor Link Research | Prospecting | Outreach Management | Link Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search Console | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Ahrefs Explorer | Yes | Limited | Yes | |||
| MozBar | Yes | Yes | ||||
| BuzzStream | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Google Alerts | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Ahrefs | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SEMrush | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| BuzzStream | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Pitchbox | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| Linkody | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
This table provides an easy way to compare the scope of link building features each tool provides. Consider your needs around tracking existing links, discovering new prospects, managing outreach, and measuring success to choose the right solution(s).
Optimizing Your Link Building Outreach
The tools help drive the process, but crafting effective outreach is still essential for securing links. Here are some quick tips:
- Personalize all messages - Use the contact's name and details about their content. No spammy templates.
- Provide value to the site - Demonstrate how your content adds value for their audience.
- Make it easy to link - Include anchor text and a link-ready URL.
- Follow up politely - Only follow up a few times if no response. Avoid badgering sites.
- Reply promptly - Being responsive builds relationships and credibility.
- Pitch varied targets - Don't just stick to the same big sites. Find unique opportunities.
- Track and monitor results - Quantify your ROI on time spent outreaching.
Even with automation tools, tailored and meaningful outreach remains vital for securing earned links versus bought links.
Measuring Link Building Effectiveness
To optimize your efforts, be sure to track key metrics around link building:
- Total backlinks acquired - Measure raw numbers for new links over time.
- Referring domains - Focus on landing links from a diversity of domains.
- Domain authority and Page authority - Prioritize links from higher authority sources.
- Anchor text diversity - Balance links with your target keywords as well as branded and generic anchors.
- Link velocity - Speed of new links acquired month-over-month and year-over-year.
- Qualitative factors - Assess the contextual relevance of linking pages.
Regularly monitoring your link profile provides the data to refine your outreach and prospecting approach to maximize value and visibility gains.
FAQs Around SEO Link Building Tools
Here are some common questions about leveraging tools for link building:
What is the best free link building tool?
For basic tracking and research, Google Search Console provides the most helpful free link data. Sign up here: google.com/webmasters
How much do paid SEO tools cost?
Entry-level link building tools start around $50/month. Robust options like Ahrefs are $99+/month. Full outreach software pricing may range from $100-$500+ per month.
When should you start link building?
Focus on producing in-depth, useful content first. Then pursue links secondarily. Don't build poor-quality links just for numbers.
Can you do SEO without link building?
While possible, lacking quality backlinks will severely limit rankings potential. At minimum, earn links through outreach when you publish great content.
What is the most powerful link building technique?
Creating and promoting pieces of truly unique, high-quality content that naturally attracts links remains the most sustainable white hat approach.
Key Takeaways for Link Building Tools
- Link building should be an integrated part of your overall SEO strategy, not just an ad hoc addition.
- Free tools provide a starting point to understand your current link profile and find prospects.
- Robust paid tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush offer the most powerful capabilities for pros.
- Enhance manual outreach with automation tools like BuzzStream and Pitchbox to increase link success.
- Monitor key metrics around links acquired, referring domains, authority, diversity, and velocity.
- A process incorporating high-value content, targeted outreach, and link tracking will compound results over time.
The right toolkit tailored to your resources will help streamline and enhance your link building process to boost rankings.