For one, you can’t build link farms anymore as Google has become smart enough to detect and penalize such websites. Adding too many links or irrelevant links just for the sake of adding links is also not permitted. Overall, SEO experts are now moving towards more ethical link-building practices. You now have to earn the backlinks rather than just getting them the easy way. For this, you need to reach out to other websites and influencers in your niche and look for link-building opportunities. This can be a daunting task if you try to do it manually, without any help. That is where link-building tools come into the picture. These can help you quickly find link-building opportunities, assess each opportunity, and then reach out to the ones that you want to pursue. Some link-building tools offer end-to-end services like link prospecting, outreach, vetting, analysis, etc. Some, however, only focus on the prospecting and outreach aspects. In this post, we have curated a list of 11 link-building tools. These include all types of tools, within different price ranges. So, there is something on this list for everyone.

Applications: Link opportunities, backlinks analysis, link outreach, bulk analysis for link vetting SEMrush is an all-in-one SEO tool with powerful link-building capabilities. It can help you find link-building opportunities, vet them, and do the outreach. Overall, it is an end-to-end link-building solution for your business. Moreover, it has tons of other useful tools that come with the subscription, thus offering more value for money than niche link-building tools. This includes tools for SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, advertising, and more. You can try it for free for 7 days and upgrade to a paid plan if you like it. Applications: Link tracking, backlink analysis This is a simple link-tracking and backlink analysis tool that provides good value for money. You can use it to analyze your backlink profile and disavow bad links.  However, it does not offer much in terms of identifying link-building opportunities and reaching out to get more links. One good thing, though, is that you can try it for 30 days without providing your credit card details. Applications: Link opportunities, backlinks analysis, link outreach Majestic is a complete link-building toolkit that can meet all your business needs. From discovering link opportunities for your website to analyzing your backlink profile, it really can do it all. The unique feature is Link Context that helps you discover links based on their position on a page. It also provides additional SEO features like keyword research. Applications: Link opportunities, backlinks analysis, link outreach, bulk analysis for link vetting Ahrefs is most comparable to SEMrush because it also offers tons of SEO and marketing tools and is not limited to just link building. It also provides end-to-end link-building capabilities including bulk analysis to vet links. One of its most useful features is the ability to sort your pages by link growth. This helps you identify which pages are getting the highest number of backlinks, so you can replicate that strategy for other pages. It does not, however, offer a free trial. You can pay $7 to try it for 7 days. Applications: Link outreach, link prospecting, link vetting This is a specialized influencer outreach and link-building platform suitable for businesses and agencies alike. You can use it to find and connect with the top influencers and publishers in your niche. You can easily reach out to them for link-building opportunities using their outreach templates. What makes it more than an email marketing platform is the fact that it is integrated with SEO tools like SEMrush, Moz, and Majestic. This allows it to pull SEO metrics for link vetting. There is no free trial and the pricing information is also not available on their website. Applications: Link prospecting and outreach   BuzzStream is a powerful tool that helps with all aspects of your link-building campaigns. From link prospecting to outreach, it can help you run effective link-building campaigns. It also offers some project management capabilities to track and measure the progress of your link-building campaigns. It also helps you find and collaborate with influencers, which is another way of building quality backlinks. Moreover, its Digital PR feature lets you build a list of journalists and bloggers to earn placements.  Overall, it is a useful link-building tool but does not offer any other bells or whistles. You can try it for free and see if it works for you. Applications: Link prospecting and outreach If you are looking for a tool that can help you get placements on news and media websites, then this is the one for you. As the name suggests, it just helps you to reach out to journalists and earn a link placement. You can use it to create targeted lists of journalists and influencers. It also provides you with outreach guidance to get the best results for your outreach campaigns.  Though the monthly price is mentioned to compare with other tools, it does not allow you to subscribe for just one month. All their plans are billed annually. This makes it more expensive than multi-functional tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs, without offering more features. Applications: Link opportunities, backlink analysis, link outreach, link vetting, etc. This list would not be complete without the mention of Moz. After all, Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMrush are the most versatile SEO tools with powerful link-building capabilities. For link-building, though, we would specifically focus on its Link Explorer tool. It helps you analyze the backlink profile of any website. You can use it to find link opportunities, remove bad links, and repair broken links. It also shows which anchor text sites generally used to link to your website. This helps you select the right keywords for your future content and get more backlinks.  Moz offers a 30-day free trial. So, you can thoroughly assess its interface and features before upgrading to a paid plan. Applications: Link prospecting and outreach This is more of an email marketing and influencer search tool that you can use for link outreach. You can use it to find relevant influencers in your niche and reach out to them for link-building opportunities. What’s more, is that it also offers additional influencer marketing features that specialized link-building tools don’t provide. But, it is also more expensive than such tools.  To get the most out of this tool, opt for one of their annual plans, which are available at as much as 60% off. You can try it for 7 days for free and then decide if you want to upgrade to a paid plan. Applications: Link prospecting Citation Labs offers a set of tools, sold separately, that can help you with your link-building process.  The first is the Link Prospector tool that, as the name suggests, helps with finding link-building opportunities. These include sponsorship opportunities, link addition opportunities, people who can review your products or services, and more. Basically, it is one of the most comprehensive link prospecting tools. The best part is that you can pay as you go, without a fixed monthly fee. Applications: Backlink analysis (identifies broken links) This is another useful link-building tool by Citation Labs. It is included as a separate tool because it is sold separately from their Link Prospector tool. This tool helps you analyze your website’s backlinks and fix broken links. If someone is linking to an obsolete page then you can suggest them an alternative page to link to. This, in turn, helps you get more backlinks to your website. They have a 30-day refund policy, so you can try it out and see if it meets your business’ requirements. However, it is a bit expensive, given that it performs only one specific function.