If you ask a typical SEO or digital marketer what the hardest part of their job is, the answer you’ll almost invariably get is “link building.” There’s no doubt about it. SEO link building is challenging in most instances. While that’s the truth, using some SEO link building tools can make your processes much more manageable.
In general, link building is a process that involves a series of steps when done well and efficiently. Luckily, there are some helpful tools you can use at every stage of the process, from the beginning with research and link prospecting, all the way through the end with blogging, outreach, and relationship nurturing.
If you just want to secure a few links, you may be content searching for link opportunities on your own. When you want to get a higher number of high-quality links, it’s advisable to employ the help of helpful link building tools.
Link Building Tool #1: Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Taking a look at your competitors’ websites can be an effective way to identify opportunities to build links. Ahrefs’ Site Explorer is a tool you can use to see what your competition is up to as their activities relate to backlinks. This tool is also useful for drumming up linkable asset ideas if you’re not sure which of your web pages you want to link to yet.
If you’ve already identified the page that you want to build links for, find competing pages and then check out the Backlinks report for each one. This report will reveal every backlink that points to a competing page. Then, you will have the chance to pursue opportunities to secure similar links for your webpage.
In instances where you’re unsure about which pages are competing with your own, you should search for your keywords using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and check out the SERP Overview. The overview will tell you the number of links the pages that rank the best for those keywords have. You can use this information to explore the pages more, learn about their respective links and determine if it’s worthwhile to try to replicate their links on your page.
As far as link building is concerned, you can do a lot more with Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Ahrefs is the world’s largest backlink index so some people can get intimidated by the volume of information the platform can provide. Remember – Ahrefs is a tool that’s supposed to help you. If you’re new to the platform, take it slowly by mastering a few processes before you move on to more advanced Ahrefs’ capabilities.
Link Building Tool #3: GroupHigh
If you want to identify candidates who might be willing to link to your website, you’ll typically need to engage in some blogger outreach. To do that, you’ll need to find bloggers who are relevant to your industry, goods or services.
Claiming to have the world’s largest blog search engine, GroupHigh makes finding bloggers for you to reach out to a breeze. While GroupHigh does have a sizeable blog search engine, you can use the platform for more than “just” finding bloggers who might be willing to link to your website. You can also use GroupHigh to send emails to prospects because it has built-in outreach capabilities.
The sheer volume of prospective bloggers on GroupHigh can be overwhelming given the size of its database. While that’s the case, it shouldn’t deter you from using the platform because you can filter your results using many different criteria, such as domain authority and number of social media followers.
Link Building Tool #4: Google Search Operators
People who aren’t heavily involved with search engine optimization might not be aware that Google has some helpful search operators that you can use as you try to build links. More specifically, the search giant has 42 advanced operators that you can use to facilitate your search for trustworthy links.
Here are a few of Google’s advanced operators:
Advanced Search Operator #1: Cache
“cache:examplewebsite.com”
The Cache search operator will return the date when the site was last crawled.
Advanced Search Operator #2: Site
“site:examplewebsite.com search phrase”
Using the Site search operator, you can find results within a single domain; this is helpful when you need to know if your brand has already been mentioned on a website or when looking for a link opportunity on a page about a specific topic.
Advanced Search Operator #3: Related
“related:examplewebsite.com”
Use the Related search operator to find sites with similar content to a domain with which you are familiar.
Advanced Search Operator #4: InTitle
“intitle:search phrase”
When you want to find pages with a specific search phrase in the title, use the InTitle search operator.
Advanced Search Operator #5: AllInTitle
“allintitle:search phrase”
Looking for content similar to what you are writing, you can leverage this search operator to find pages with a similar title and write content better than the results you find.
Advanced Search Operator #6: Around(x)
“search phrase AROUND(x) phrase”
If you want to narrow search results to find pages where a term appears a specific amount of times, close together, use the Around(x) operator.
While a lot of SEOs and digital marketers know about Google’s search operators, not nearly as many know how to use them effectively. These examples just scratch the surface of what’s possible. Fortunately, there are plenty of places you can turn for help online until your master using Google’s search operators.
Link Building Tool #5: Google and Ahrefs’ Alerts
Both Google Alerts and Ahrefs’ Alerts monitor the Internet for new instances in which a given word or phrase is used. When a word you’re monitoring is used, you’ll receive an alert. Since both of these platforms do the same thing, there isn’t much point to most SEOs using both.
If you’re trying to choose between the two, you may want to go with Ahrefs’ platform. According to Ahrefs, its platform found 2,376% more results compared to Google alerts when the same ten alerts were run on both platforms over seven days.
You may also want to factor cost into your choice. Google Alerts is a free platform whereas Ahrefs Alerts requires users to subscribe and pay.
Finally, capabilities may play a role in your decision. Google Alerts will monitor for the use of designated keywords and phrases while Ahrefs Alerts will keep an eye out for the same things as well as monitor for new backlinks to the websites and individual web pages you choose.
Link Building Tool #6: HARO
HARO is a website that provides journalists with a database of sources for various stories they may want to cover. How does that help you with your link building campaign? You can sign up for HARO and receive alerts about questions and opportunities submitted by journalists. If you answer a question and a reporter uses your quote, you’ll receive credit in the finished piece.
Since journalists tend to link to their sources, this means you’ll earn valuable links from respected news outlets. “The New York Times,” Fox News and “The Wall Street Journal’ are just a few of the outlets that use HARO.
To see more options, learn about the top backlink checkers and other link building tools.
Bonus Tool
SEOlium – Keyword ranking tracker. This can help keep track of which keywords are making the most progress in conjunction with the links you’re building.
Teamwork – Agency project management tool. Ideal to help manage everything to do with a link building campaign, from content creation to task management.
Final Thoughts
If you want to build links but don’t know where to start, you should let Heroic Search conduct a link building campaign for you. We use a proven process that’s highly effective at building high-quality links for businesses across industries. Learn about our SEO link building services now and contact us to arrange a consultation to learn what we can do for you.
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