Brodie Clark conducted a Twitter Poll where he made SEOs vote for which area of SEO, they found most challenging. Of the four options, Local SEO, Technical SEO, Copywriting, and Link Acquisition, Link Acquisition won with over 58.7% of the votes.
That’s how much SEOs dread link-building. But love it or hate it, link-building is a vitally important aspect of SEO.
A single, high DA (Domain Authority) link from a relevant and authoritative website will do wonders for your organic search rankings. It’s the backbone of any successful SEO strategy.
So, how do you stay on top of your link-building game in 2024? Simple: By arming yourself with the right link-building tools.
In this article, we discuss 20 link-building tools that every SEO should be using in 2024:
Pro Link Building Tools
Let’s start with four of the best link-building tools the pros swear by. These are paid tools with monthly or annual subscription fees, but they are worth every penny.
Pitchbox
Pitchbox isn’t cheap. But it’s worth every penny, especially if you run an agency that handles link-building for multiple clients. Pitchbox automates almost every outreach aspect, from prospecting to sending follow-up emails.
No other link-building tool comes even close to Pitchbox regarding features and functionality. If you’re looking for a tool to help you manage backlinks at scale, Pitchbox is the way to go.
Key Features:
- Prospecting: You can use Pitchbox to find relevant websites and influencers in your niche. It offers advanced targeting options, including searching for websites that have previously linked to your competitors. You can also filter results based on metrics like DA and website traffic.
- SEO Email Client: Pitchbox offers a custom email client designed specifically for link-building. It includes pre-made templates, automatic personalisation, and customisation options for follow-up emails.
- Workflow: With Pitchbox, you can create different segments for your team and assign specific tasks to members. That ensures everyone stays on track with their responsibilities, leading to more efficient link-building campaigns.
- CRM: Pitchbox has a built-in CRM that allows you to manage all your contacts in one place. You can also track interactions and keep notes about each contact for future reference.
- Outreach & Follow-Up: Stay organised and save time with Pitchbox’s automatic follow-up feature. You can schedule follow-up emails and customise each recipient’s messaging.
- Reports: Keep track of your link-building efforts with Pitchbox’s analytics and reporting features. Measure your ROI and see which strategies are working best for your campaigns.
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You can use the tool to:
- Find relevant bloggers, influencers, and publishers in your niche
- Automate outreach and follow-up emails
- Create a fully automated link-building campaign
- Track and measure the success of your campaigns
- Make data-driven decisions for future campaigns
The tool automates most of the link-building tasks that you’d have otherwise hired a team of people to do.
Almost every major SEO and link-building company you know uses Pitchbox, so it’s worth checking out.
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Like we said, Pitchbox isn’t cheap. Its price starts at $495/month with annual billing ($550/month with monthly billing).
Their enterprise plan costs $1350/month with annual billing ($1500/month with monthly billing).
The enterprise plan includes all the features of Pitchbox: single sign-on, dedicated account manager, dedicated mailers, data retention policy, multi-region sending, Service Level Agreement (SLA), and Customised Pitchbox service agreement.
Ahrefs
You’ve probably already heard of Ahrefs, one of the leading SEO and link-building tools on the market. With its robust database of backlinks, keywords, and content ideas, Ahrefs is a must-have for every serious SEO.
Ahrefs boasts the world’s largest index of live backlinks, with over 35 trillion external links, 25.4 trillion internal links, and 404.3 billion live pages. It’s no wonder top companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Uber all use Ahrefs to track their SEO efforts.
That data alone should be reason enough to invest in this tool. But Ahrefs offers so much more than just backlink data. With its comprehensive suite of SEO tools, you can:
- Analyse your website’s organic search traffic
- Discover new content ideas and keywords
- Track keyword rankings and SERP features
- Monitor your backlink profile (and your competitors’)
- Audit your website for SEO issues and technical errors
- Analyse the content of top-performing pages in your niche
How to Use Ahrefs for Link Building
Go to “Link Intersect” and enter your competitors’ domains. Ahrefs will show you which websites link to your competitors but not to you.
You can filter through the data based on DR (Domain Rating), the number of referring domains, and other metrics to prioritise your outreach.
You can also use this feature to identify sites likelier to link back to you based on their linking history.
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Ahrefs offers four pricing plans:
- Lite ($99/month)
- Standard ($199/month)
- Advanced ($399/month)
- Agency ($999+/month)
Each plan comes with a 2-month discounted plan with a yearly subscription.
SEMrush
SEMrush is another all-in-one SEO tool that’s been around for over a decade, even before Ahrefs. It has a robust backlink database, competitor analysis, keyword research, site auditing, and rank-tracking tools.
Like Ahrefs, SEMrush is trusted by some of the biggest names in the industry.
SEMrush shines the most in data analysis. You can get in-depth insights into your competitors’ SEO strategies, including their backlinks and keywords.
You can also use SEMrush to:
- Find new link-building opportunities
- Analyse the links and vet them
- Reach out to the website’s owner
- Monitor your brand’s online reputation
- Track keyword rankings and overall organic visibility
- Audit your website for technical SEO issues
- Conduct keyword research for both organic and paid search
In theory, SEMrush is enough to handle all your backlink-building needs all by itself. But it’s not just for link-building; it’s an all-in-one SEO tool perfect for businesses of any size.
How to Use SEMrush for Link Building
Go to “Backlink Analytics” and enter your website or domain. You can see a list of all your backlinks, including referring domains, their DRs, the anchor text used, and more.
You can also see which pages get the most backlinks and track your progress.
Next, enter your competitors’ backlinks individually and analyse them as well. You can then use this data to identify new link-building opportunities and reach out to these websites.
SEMrush also features an outreach link-building tool. This feature lets you connect your Gmail or Google Workspace account to send outreach emails directly from SEMrush, eliminating the need for a separate email client.
They even have link-building templates you can customise and use for your outreach campaigns. And like Ahrefs, SEMrush also offers a backlink analysis tool to help you find sites likely to link back to you.
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SEMrush has three pricing plans:
- Pro ($129.95/month)
- Guru ($249.95/month)
- Business ($499.95/month)
Each plan comes with a 17% discounted annual subscription option.
MailShake
MailShake is an excellent alternative for businesses that can’t afford Pitchbox or don’t need all the features it offers.
MailShake is an email outreach tool that lets you create and automate email campaigns, follow-ups, and personalisation at scale. Its key features include:
- A drag-and-drop email editor
- Personalisation options (such as first name, company name, etc.)
- Automated follow-ups
- Advanced campaign tracking and analytics
- Integration with other tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Sheets (to manage email lists)
You can use MailShake to connect with your prospects by sending personalised emails in bulk without sacrificing quality and personalisation.
You can also use MailShake to create an email sequence that sends follow-ups automatically if your initial email doesn’t get a response.
How to Use MailShake for Link Building
- Create an email template in MailShake, then connect it to your Gmail account. You can also personalise each email by adding custom fields like first name and company name.
- Next, create a list of prospects using tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. Then, import this list into MailShake and send your outreach emails.
- Monitor your campaign’s progress through the built-in analytics, and follow up with any prospects who haven’t responded yet.
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MailShake offers two pricing plans:
- Personal ($58/month)
- Team (contact MailShale for pricing)
FindThatLead
FindThatLead is one of our favourite tools for finding email addresses for our link-building prospects. It’s simple, straightforward, and affordable.
FindThatLead has an intuitive interface that lets you find email addresses for individuals or entire companies in seconds.
We know many tools can help you find your prospect’s email addresses. The problem is that the emails they find are often outdated and no longer in use.
That’s why we recommend FindThatLead for its accuracy and up-to-date data.
It’s an all-in-one email-checking tool that helps you verify email addresses and even checks for typos in the address. It’s simple but effective, and it saves you time from manually checking each email.
FindThatLeads comes with a few features to help with your outreach efforts, such as:
- An email verification tool
- Local prospecting
- Email personalisation
- Complete outreach email management
- Integration with popular CRM tools like HubSpot and Pipedrive.
How to Use FindThatLead for Link Building
FindThatLead is incredibly easy to use. Simply enter the website URL, and it will give you a list of all email addresses associated with that site.
You can also search by individual names or job titles within a company. Once you have a list of email addresses, you can use a tool like MailShake to send your outreach emails.
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FindThatLead has four pricing plans:
- Growth($55/month)
- Pro($150/month)
- Business($399/month)
You get a 20% discount if you pay annually (Growth: $41/month, Pro: $125/month, Business: $333/month).
Ontolo
Ontolo is a link-processing tool that helps you find better link-building opportunities. It does so by automating the prospecting process and helping you find new websites to contact.
Ontolo is an excellent tool for businesses that don’t have the time or resources to do manual research for link-building prospects.
Its advanced features include:
80 different prospecting methods
Ontolo uses these strategies to crawl the web and find relevant websites for your link-building campaigns.
You can even customise the prospecting techniques for more targeted link results.
Link-quality analysis
Ontolo’s link-quality analysis tool helps you determine which websites are worth reaching out to based on factors like domain authority, traffic, and relevance. That saves you time by avoiding low-quality or irrelevant prospects.
How to Use Ontolo for Link Building
First, create a project in Ontolo and enter your website URL. The tool will then crawl the web and find potential link-building opportunities.
Next, filter these results based on your requirements and use a tool like Pitchbox or MailShake to reach out to these websites.
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Ontolo offers three pricing plans:
- Pro ($97/month)
- Agency ($297/month)
- Custom (contact Ontolo for pricing)
Link Whisper
Link Whisper has long been considered one of the best link-building tools.
Powered by AI, Link Whisper helps you automatically find and add internal links to your website.
But what sets it apart is its ability to suggest relevant external link opportunities for your content. It can save you time and help improve the overall quality of your website’s linking strategy.
Link Whisper also offers a bulk editing feature that allows you to quickly add or remove multiple links simultaneously, making it an excellent tool for managing a large website with many internal and external links.
How to Use Link Whisper for Link Building
Install the plugin on your WordPress site, and it will automatically suggest relevant internal and external link opportunities as you write content.
You can also use the bulk editing feature to add or remove multiple links simultaneously.
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Link Whisper offers three pricing plans:
- Single Site ($97/year)
- Three Sites ($137/year)
- 10 Sites ($187/year)
Link Whisper is a must-have tool for any website looking to improve its internal and external linking strategy.
Free Link Building Tools
While paid tools offer more advanced features and automation, there are also some great free link-building tools that you can use to enhance your outreach efforts.
Here are a few options:
The Backlink Blacklist
The Backlist Blacklist is a free tool that helps you analyse websites and determine if they have a history of toxic or spammy backlinks. This can be helpful when evaluating potential link-building opportunities to avoid damaging your website’s reputation.
Simple: just enter the domain or URL you want to check, and the tool will provide a report on its backlink profile.
If the link is blacklisted, it’s best to avoid reaching out to them for a backlink.
LinkMiner
Another free tool, LinkMiner, helps you find broken links on websites in your niche. This can be an excellent opportunity for outreach and offering your content as a replacement link.
Enter the website URL, and LinkMiner will provide a list of broken links and their corresponding link metrics.
Open Link Profiler
Open Link Profiler is a powerful free link-building tool that comprehensively reviews a website’s backlink profile. It provides information on the number of backlinks, referring domains, and top anchor texts for any website.
It’s simple: visit the website, enter the URL you want to analyse, and click “Get Backlinks”.
You’ll have to sign up for a free account to view results.
You can use the tool to analyse your competitors’ backlink profiles and find potential opportunities for your own link-building strategy.
See:
- How many backlinks do they have
- How many are broken
- The number of referring domains
- The number of referring pages
- their number of crawled pages
- Backlink TLD types (com, gov, edu, etc.)
- Anchor text distribution
- Semantic Location (footer, comments, body, etc.)
And most importantly, the backlinks’ links, their ranks, anchor text, and domain authority grade.
Wiki Grabber
Wiki Grabber is an excellent tool for finding link-building opportunities on Wikipedia pages.
It allows you to search for relevant keywords and see which Wikipedia articles include them. The tool will help you identify potential opportunities for adding your content as a source or reference on the page.
Enter your keyword, and Wiki Grabber will list relevant Wikipedia pages that mention it.
It will bring up:
- Dead links: Which of the links are broken?
- Citations Missing: Which pages include the keyword but don’t have a citation for it?
With this information, you can sift through and edit the pages, offering your website or content as a citation and potential backlink.
Wiki Grabber does all the heavy lifting for you, making finding and securing backlinks from high-authority Wikipedia pages easier.
Hunter.io
You can’t be an introvert and succeed in link-building.
You must know how to reach website owners and pitch your content. Let the world know that you have the content it needs.
Hunter.io is an excellent tool for finding email addresses for website owners and bloggers.
It helps you find contact information by entering a domain or company name, saving you the hassle of manually searching for email addresses.
How to Use Hunter.io
Visit Hunter.io and enter the domain or company name of the website you wish to contact. The tool will then provide a list of email addresses associated with that domain and their sources.
These are no generic emails but personal ones, making them more likely to result in a response.
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Hunter.io offers four pricing plans:
- Free (25 searches/month)
- Starter ($34/month)
- Growth ($104/month)
- Pro ($349/month)
