14 Link Building Tools to Drive Traffic and Boost SEO Rankings

As a marketer who frequently writes SEO-optimized content, I can confidently say that link-building is an essential aspect of SEO.

I‘ve found that it’s a cost-effective marketing principle that allows me to advertise on other reputable websites for free while gaining high-quality referral traffic.

If you're unsure what link building is, it means creating links on other websites to increase search engine rankings and drive referral traffic to your site.

I typically embed links to my site via forms of content, including blog posts, infographics, articles, press releases, and images.

The process may sound time-consuming, but there are plenty of link building tools available to help you along quickly and efficiently. Let's explore some link building tools you should check out.

Best Link Building Tools for SEO

Mailshake Ahrefs Check My Links Screaming Frog Scrapebox Hunter Semrush Respona BuzzSumo Pitchbox HARO MOZ Link Explorer Majestic Help a B2B Writer

Best Practices

Best Link Building Tools for SEO

1. Mailshake

Mailshake is a simple-to-use software that sends email requests for link building, guest posting, and networking opportunities. The software allows you to choose from a collection of message templates, personalize your favorite, and send.

This strategy improves your email campaign‘s effectiveness and your business’s overall efficiency.

In addition to saving you time, Mailshake allows you to monitor replies, clicks, and more. The tool costs $29 per month, making it an affordable link-building software solution for marketers starting with their cold email outreach.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a powerful, well-rounded SEO software that provides several link building treats. With Ahrefs, you can analyze backlinks and referring domains, narrow them down with filters, and even secure your profile against suspicious links.

The full suite of options lets you do anything you need your SEO link building software to do.

Ahrefs also features a speedy crawler that crawls over four million pages without delay. Find link prospects by viewing your competitors' data — including their top linked pages, new links, broken links, and more.

To access Ahrefs, sign up for a seven-day trial and choose the best plan that fits your needs and budget after the trial expires.

3. Check My Links

Check My Links is a free Google Chrome extension that crawls through any web page to check for broken links.

It's one of the fastest link checkers you can use, and it registers and reports all of the broken links on a website within 20 to 30 seconds.

This gives you a significant advantage when contacting websites to promote links.

After checking a site with Check My Links, you can compile the broken links that are most relevant to your subject matter and propose replacing them with your functional links.

Hopefully, the site's owner will appreciate you pointing out the broken links and offering a solution and will update the post with your replacement links ASAP.

4. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is another popular software among SEO experts. It's able to monitor link building profiles and generate accurate reports automatically.

Screaming Frog‘s most notable value is that it enables you to thoroughly understand your backlink profile and the other factors that impact your website’s current search ranking.

As a link building software, it ensures all your links work correctly.

Screaming Frog has a free and paid version, highlighting broken links and generating reports. However, for $149 per year, you can enjoy all of the software's features and unlimited website crawling.

5. ScrapeBox

ScrapeBox is a comprehensive link building software that pulls links from search engines that match your keywords. It‘s helpful to analyze your competitors’ link profiles to understand where you should target your link building efforts.

You can even scrape hundreds of proxies to be used in other link building SEO software.

ScrapeBox offers several significant advantages for your link building campaign, including the competitive edge of seeing into other brands' link profiles.

It also allows you to add custom search engines and collect the usual URLs and their proxies.

6. Hunter

This comprehensive platform allows users to set up and manage link building outreach campaigns. I'm especially impressed by its features, such as:

Domain Search: This feature helps users find a point of contact within a company by quickly providing publicly available email addresses associated with the website as well as confidence scores, department filters, and detailed sources. Email Finder: Just enter the website and name of the prospect you're trying to contact, and Email Finder will give you the verified address you need. Email Verifier: This tool verifies the emails on your list to ensure you're sending emails to the correct contacts.

7. Semrush

Semrush has a couple of features that are valuable for link building. One feature is the Link Building Tool, which helps users build backlinks at scale. It identifies link building opportunities by analyzing target keywords and competing websites.

You can then take that information and set up an email outreach campaign. The feature also includes built-in reports to monitor the campaign's effectiveness.

Another feature is BackLink Gap, which analyzes your competitors' backlink profiles so you can find untapped link-building opportunities. BackLink Gap shows what websites link to your competitors but not your website. You can then target those competitors in your campaign.

8. Respona

This link-building outreach platform comes with various pre-built campaigns to boost organic traffic. Some of my personal favorites are:

Link-Insertion: Finds relevant, non-competing articles to link back to your site. Skyscraper Technique: Discovers backlinks to the the top search results for your keywords. Product Reviews: Gathers reviews for your product. Podcast Outreach: Finds interview opportunities on podcasts within your niche.

9. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a brand monitoring and content discovery tool that offers many perks. For example, the tool allows you to discover and track domains that link to your competitors.

Even better, you can export those domains to a spreadsheet for reference in your next link building campaign.

You can also set up alerts for when a website links to your competitors. Finally, BuzzSumo also tracks your own backlinks and sends alerts when you get a new backlink.

10. Pitchbox

Pitchbox provides several ways to find prospects and build links. With Blogger Outreach, you can find and contact blogs within your niche to post about your products and services and link to your website.

You can also use Pitchbox's many templates to execute link building strategies. And if you already have prospects, you can import them into a spreadsheet to be referenced in your campaign.

11. HARO

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is mainly a resource for reporters looking to gather sources; however, it can be a useful link building tool if used correctly.

I use HARO to secure backlinks in different publications and both small and large media outlets. The New York Times and Mashable, for example, are reachable via HARO.

All you need to do to see the benefits is sign up to be a source on the platform.

You‘ll then receive email requests from journalists needing your expertise or information, which you can offer, and they’ll typically link to your website in their content.

12. Moz Link Explorer

This tool from Moz is an excellent way to stay competitive. All you have to do is enter the URL of the website or page you want link data for. Then, you can see all of their backlinks and receive metrics, like the site's domain authority.

13. Majestic

Majestic offers information regarding the number of backlinks a website has, referring domains, and anchor text analysis.

But its standout feature is its Topical Trust Flow, which measures how many links a website has from trusted “seed” websites.

14. Help a B2B Writer

Help a B2B Writer works the same as HARO, but it's a service for content marketers rather than journalists. As you would on HARO, you register as a source with Help a B2B writer and you get daily emails with source requests.

You can also select specific categories to get relevant emails that suit your niche.

Link Building Best Practices

The bare-bones definition of link building is strategically acquiring links pointing back to your website to increase organic rankings and drive referral traffic.

However, successful link building is more than that — it also means carefully considering where you place your links, the type and format of the links, the links' anchor text, and how diversified the backlink portfolio is.

I've found these best practices to be practical parts of an overall link building strategy:

Create excellent content: The more valuable and engaging your content is, the more likely you can earn coveted spots on popular websites. I always ensure my content is easy to read, with helpful information like stats, quotes, and other trustworthy data. Keep links relevant: The links should also lead back to high-quality and relevant information on your site. Search engines emphasize relevance, which is another reason targeting websites within your industry is important.

For example, if my site offers professional cleaning services, linking to a site offering cleaning equipment would be more relevant than linking to a sports equipment company.

Less is more: I've realized that placing a few links on high-quality sites is much more effective than putting a more significant number of links on suspicious or spammy sites.

For instance, with the correct social media management tools, you can make the most of your link building software on the most visible online platforms. It's all about quality over quantity.

I also recommend diversifying your link portfolio to have a mix of different kinds of links.

Build relationships: Popular blogs are quickly becoming where we go for reliable, relevant news for almost any industry. Take advantage of the existing audiences on blogs in your industry by commenting on posts or even guest blogging. Blog comment links won‘t pass any clout, but they will grab the author’s attention.

If you are adding value, that will make it easier to partner up on content opportunities. Similarly, developing strong ties with industry influencers and reputable authors can help you add well-placed links to your arsenal.

Aim for resource pages: One of the more proven link building strategies is to get links included on a popular resource page. Websites often list helpful links and resources for specific topics, such as a recipe page on a food blog centered on a particular restaurant.

If you have a recipe or related content to share, you can contact the website's author to ask if they could include your links on the page. It can become a home run if it fits the page and your brand well.

Link building is essential for the success of any online business, which you can measure by the volume of targeted traffic to your website.

By following proven best practices and investing in the best SEO link building software, you can ensure that traffic and prosperity remain high.