SEO link building tools might not be the most entertaining task that you can do, but it is extremely important for increasing the online presence and outreach of your site. As a matter of fact, quality inbound links are a vital part of website marketing and search engine optimization.
The greater the number of high-quality inbound links, the greater the chances that you will be discovered by potential visitors. If you don’ believe us, let’s take a look at the main ranking factors that involve inbound links, to better understand why you should take the time to build backlinks:
- External link popularity: 71% very high performance (VHP)
- Keyword focused anchor text from external links: 73% VHP
- The trustworthiness of the domain based on link distance from trusted domains: 66% VHP
- Diversity of link sources: 67% VHP
As you can see, inbound and backlinks are extremely important for rankings, so you should take the time to build, or earn them. While some tasks of the SEO link building process have to be done manually, others can be automated for maximum results.
Let’s take a look at 10 link building tools that will help you better manage your links, control your outreach campaign and also find prospective sites:
1. Ahrefs
Search Engine Journal’s Chuck Price, considers ahrefs.com to be the best link building tools that he’s ever heard of. If you play around with this SEO link tool you will see why: it has a brilliant backlink analysis feature which offers unparalleled data about your page’s inbound links, including your Arl rating (visitors following each link per month). Last but not least, you can share the compiled data through social channels.
2. Open Site Explorer
The Open Site Explorer is quick, convenient and efficient. It allows you to access important information, and for a free honest, the data is pretty complex.
The idea is to type in your competitor’s websites and look for inbound links, linking domains and Anchors Text, in order to devise a linking strategy. This is one of the SEO tools that webmasters should not be caught without. You can even upgrade it to the paid version to pull out more data.
3. Majestic SEO
No list would be complete without the superb Majestic SEO tool which allows users to track any type of information from your site and your competitor’s site. With it you can quickly access pages, links, images, no follow links, referring domains, redirects, subdomains, etc.
Also, if you verify the ownership of your own domain you will receive detailed reports of links and their anchor text.
4. Link Research Tools
The Link Research Tool’s Competitive Landscape Analyzer features are one you will definitely love to have because it not only identifies potential sites that you can contact for links, but it also helps you determine the SEO value of the links placed there and branded links.
It even compares to your competitor’s and helps you understand why you might have lost your rank within SERPs.
5. MozBar
The Seo Moz Bar extension works on Firefox and Chrome, and it will automatically help you pull out tons of valuable information and link prospecting information quickly, within the browser window.
You can even choose to highlight no-follow versus do-follow links, internal or external and even the presence of specific keywords to get an idea on how the competition is doing.
6. BuzzStream
BuzzStream is undoubtedly one of the most effective SEO link tools on the market right now, and every webmaster, beginner or professional, should have it in his toolbox. The software features great modules that focus on link research and prospect relationship management.
It also has some great backlink tracking and management options for better SEO link building strategies. It sells for 30$/month which makes it an even better option for people who may not have the required budget for Ontolo or Raven Tools.
7. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
Even if Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is not a link building platform per-say, it is still worthy of a mention. It is basically a micro-hiring program which can complete tedious tasks for you, and therefore automate the process of link building tools.
8. Raven SEO Tools
The entire Raven SEO Tools suite also incorporates an interesting Link Manager feature with which you can easily build backlinks and check your linking profile.
Raven will automatically alert you if any changes occur on an active link (like for example, turning from do-follow to no-follow, or if the anchor changed). This will make the link building tools process a lot easier.
9. HubSpot Website Grader
If you are looking for a free SEO tool that provides SEO scores based on inbound links, social popularity, traffic, and other vital factors, look no more. HubSpot Website Grader is one of the best free SEO link building tools on the market.
It is as easy as submitting your URL, along with the competing site URLs and you will receive a detailed report about the PageRank, a number of indexed pages, inbound links, and competitive analysis details.
10. Ontolo
The last software on our SEO link tools top is Ontolo. You may not have heard about it, but it offers a comprehensive suite of link research tools for 97$/month. It is worth the money because it has some innovative features that set it apart from other tools on the market.
For example, it includes automated link prospecting and detailed competitor link profiling for better external benchmarking.
What service are you using to build backlinks? Write it in the comments form and let us know more about your experience using it.
