Link building is an essential part of search engine optimization (SEO). It is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your website. These links, also known as backlinks, signal to search engines that other websites consider your content valuable, trustworthy, and relevant. As a result, search engines will rank your website higher in their search results pages (SERPs).

Building white hat backlinks take a lot of work as you need to pick relevant and authoritative sources to link with. However, you can reduce the effort by leveraging reliable link-building tools and software. This article will provide you with a list of the best tools to empower your initiative in 2023. But before we get to the tools, let’s describe them and discuss their benefits and drawbacks. So, let us get started!

What are Link Building Tools?

Link building tools are software applications designed to streamline and automate the process of acquiring backlinks. These tools are essential for anyone looking to improve their website’s SEO and ranking in search results. They help users identify and reach out to relevant websites, analyze their backlinks, track their website’s performance, and monitor their competitors’ backlinks.

Several link-building tools are available in the market, each with unique features and functionalities. The most popular link-building tools include Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Pro, Pitchbox, and Hunter.io. These tools offer a range of features, including link research, outreach automation, email finders, competitor analysis, and more.

Advantages of Using Link Building Tools

Link-building is a crucial component of any successful SEO strategy, and link-building tools can help you achieve better results in less time. Here are some benefits of using link-building tools:

1. Saves time and effort: Link building tools automate many aspects of the link-building process, such as identifying potential link partners, sending outreach emails, and tracking your backlinks’ performance. This can save your work hours, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your SEO strategy.
2. Identifies new link-building opportunities: Link-building tools help you identify new websites that could link to your content, expanding your reach and increasing your website’s authority. These tools can also help you find broken links on other websites, which you can use to request a backlink.
3. Analyzes backlink data: Link-building tools provide detailed information about your backlinks’ performance, such as the number of referring domains, anchor text distribution, and domain authority. This data helps you identify which backlinks provide the most value and which need improvement or removal.
4. Tracks your competitors’ backlinks: By analyzing them, you can identify new link-building opportunities, learn from their successes and failures, and gain insights into their overall SEO strategy.
5. Helps you stay organized: Link-building tools often include features such as project management and task tracking, which can help you stay organized and on top of your link-building efforts.
6. Improves your website’s ranking: By acquiring high-quality backlinks, you can improve your website’s authority and ranking in search results. Link building tools can help you streamline this process and achieve better results.

Disadvantages of Using Link Building Tools

While link-building tools can be incredibly useful in streamlining your link building efforts and improving your website’s SEO, there are some potential disadvantages to consider:

1. Overreliance on automation: Relying too heavily on link-building tools and automation can result in generic outreach messages and a lack of personalization, which can harm your chances of acquiring high-quality backlinks.
2. Inaccurate data: Some link-building tools may provide incorrect or incomplete data, leading to ineffective link-building efforts or even penalties from search engines.
3. Lack of human touch: Link building tools cannot replace the human element of relationship-building and networking, which is crucial in acquiring high-quality backlinks.
4. Cost: Many link-building tools come with a significant price tag, which may not be feasible for small businesses or individuals with limited budgets.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, benefits, and drawbacks of link-building tools, it’s time to discuss them. Now, we’ll look at some of the best tools to boost your online presence in 2023. Each tool has unique features and capabilities to help you achieve your SEO goals, from finding new link-building opportunities to monitoring your backlink profile. So, let’s look at the best link-building tools to use in 2023.

Best Link Building Tools

Here is the list of 25 link building tools to discover in 2023

1) Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the largest backlink index that deserves to be on top of the list of link-building tools. It is a complete software suite designed to empower SEO professionals. The best thing about Ahrefs is that it is simple and easy to use, even for non-technical users. But it does not fall short of advanced features that can take your website to the top. These include a robust keyword research tool, rank tracking, and content explore. It also facilitates technical SEO audits. You can use it to find the best outreach opportunities by following the ones your competitors link with through the Link Intersect tool. If its pricing seems out of your budget, here are some alternatives to Ahrefs you can consider.

Pricing: $99-$999 per month

2) MOZ

Another tool that has been around and continues to be a favorite this year is MOZ. It covers diverse aspects of SEO, from link building to competitor analysis, keyword research, and more. The Link Explorer feature shows the sites linking to a URL or domain. You can leverage the information to reverse engineer the backlink profile of your competitors. MOZ also offers the Spam Score feature that lets you check the quality of links and address the concern of too many low-quality ones. It empowers you with a Link Intersect feature like the one offered by Ahrefs.

Pricing: $99-$999 per month

3) Buzzstream

With Buzzfeed, you get to scale your link-building campaigns by organizing your email outreach. The link-building outreach tool lets you actively send emails to linking prospects. It eliminates the need to sift through random Gmail inboxes and spreadsheets for tracking conversations and managing campaigns across multiple projects. You can save time and effort in sourcing high-quality links for your website. The good thing about Buzzstream is that it is customizable, enabling you to adjust the features according to the needs of your website. The in-depth reporting features give it brownie points.

Pricing: $24-$999 per month

4) Pitchbox

Like Buzzstream, Pitchbox is another outreach platform that makes the process a breeze. It automates the workflows, making it ideal for larger-scale campaigns for link building, link insertion and guest posting. You can use the link-building tool to find targets and create personalised campaigns from template emails. It offers an easy UX to create and send campaigns, schedule follow-up emails, and check SEO metrics associated with prospects. Additionally, Pitchbox offers all search metrics, making it a go-to tool for all your SEO needs. The price starts at the higher end, but the features make it completely worthwhile.

Pricing: $500-$2000 per month

5) Buzzsumo

Digital marketers recommend BuzzSumo as one of the winners as it delivers the dual benefits of content marketing and SEO. You can use it to find influential bloggers in your niche, making it relevant for businesses that want to gain acclaim for serving quality content. It even enables you to create high-value content that people want to share. Backlinks come naturally when they share your stuff. The Brand Mentions feature is a value-addition as it keeps you posted about people mentioning your brand in blog posts but not linking to your website. You can reach out and request them for quality backlinks, all with an email!

Pricing: $79-$239 per month

6) Hunter.io

Next on the list of the best link-building tools in 2023 is Hunter.io. It lets you hunt for accurate contact information within a few seconds. All you need to do is upload a list of sites, and you will get contact details right away. The tool boasts an excellent success rate because it relies on multiple sources to gather information. The email verifier feature validates the addresses pulled by the software, so accuracy is hardly a concern.

Pricing: Free-$399 per month

7) Majestic SEO

Majestic SEO is your go-to tool this year if you are low on budget but want the best link-building features. It offers a host of useful link-building metrics that even biggies like Ahrefs miss out on. For example, Trust Flow rates the quality of the backlinks out of 100, while Topical Trust Flow shows the site’s ranking across different categories. The Citation Flow feature measures the number of backlinks, so you have a complete picture of your site’s online standing.

Pricing: $49-$99 per month

8) HARO

HARO is another popular tool that digital marketers rely on. Essentially, it is a platform connecting journalists with sources. Journalists from websites with DR 80+ leverage HARO, making it apt for attracting high authority links. Building backlinks with the tool requires you to sign up at relevant websites and pick your areas of expertise. The tool provides daily emails with relevant requests, and you can filter the best ones. The best thing about HARO is that you can sign up as a source for free. It is a great option to get links if you can craft quality responses.

Pricing: $19-$149 per month (Premium versions)

9) JustReachOut

JustReachOut is another great tool to find and pitch journalists and reporters rather than bloggers. It means you have a chance to get backlinks and brand mentions in the press. The platform offers value for money as it is relatively inexpensive despite the cool features it packs. Marketers love this tool for its sheer simplicity. It comes with an exceptional feature called Source Search. It enables you to search for source requests from Twitter, HARO, and ProfNet.

Pricing: $99-$699 per month

10) GroupHigh

GroupHigh is another tool that supports your outreach campaigns. It helps you find relevant bloggers to create successful campaigns that yield quality backlinks for your website. GroupHigh claims to offer the world’s largest blog search engine, and it is fairly close to the claim. Besides helping you prospect industry-leading blogs, the tool also has a built-in outreach platform to send your outreach emails.

Pricing: $179-$499 per month

11) NinjaOutreach

Like BuzzStream and GroupHigh, NinjaOutreach is a high-quality outreach tool that enables you to get quality links via niche-leading influences. It has an impressive database of influencers running in millions. The fact that it is SEO-focused sets it apart from other outreach platforms. It lets you use social metrics such as Instagram followers and Facebook fans to sort the results. You can even get granular with SEO metrics like Page Authority, Domain Authority, and the number of backlinks.

Pricing: $69-$599/month

12) Mailshake

With Mailshake, you can simplify outreach campaigns by sending mass personalized emails. It even lets you send follow-up sequences according to the interaction with recipients. You can save tons of time and effort with automated campaigns, making the tool relevant in 2023 and beyond. Mailshake also has pre-made templates for diverse link-building campaigns, such as link requests, guest posting, PR pitches, broken link building, content promotion, and more. It even analyzes your email copy for better engagement and deliverability.

Pricing: $59-$99 per month

13) SEMrush

An all-inclusive SEO tool like Ahrefs and Moz, SEMrush deserves a place in this top-20 list. It offers advanced link-building features that simplify the job of SEO professionals and ensure effective results. You can use Backlink Analytics for competitive analysis, Backlink Audit to analyze your backlink profile, and Link Building Tool to gather the best link-building opportunities. SEMrush also comes with integrated email outreach, so you can skip dedicated software such as Mailshake or Pitchbox.

Pricing: $99.95-$399 per month

14) Linkody

Linkody is another must-have link-building software for your kitty this year. It is a feature-rich, user-friendly backlink tracker. It is also among the cheapest in the market, making it ideal for low-budget marketers. But you need not worry about the link index because it has a decent one despite the price. With Linkody, you can assess your work by tracking the quality of your backlinks. It monitors crucial metrics such as DA, page authority, spam score, and link anchor text. You can even create handy and meaningful reports with these metrics.

Pricing: $14-$139 per month

15) Link Prospector

Link Prospector is a powerful link prospecting tool you must have in your SEO wishlist in 2023. It lets you cut down the effort of searching for resource pages manually. The tool comes with a large number of pre-made search strings, making it easy to pick relevant searches.  Entering a few keywords related to your website is enough to turn up a list of relevant opportunities.

Pricing: $47-$497 per month (option of pay as you go as well)

16) Google Alerts

With Google Alerts, you can keep track of unlinked mentions and claim them from site owners. The link prospecting tool enables you to discover unlinked mentions quickly and effortlessly. Setting up an alert for your brand name is all you need to do to get the information you require. Google sends an email when a site mentions your company. You can also set up alerts for your competitors or product category to prospect linking opportunities with the same websites.

Pricing: Free

17) Monitor Backlinks

Monitor Backlinks is a comprehensive software suite that monitors your backlinks. In fact, you can use it to monitor competitor links as well. You can keep track of links over time and disavow spammy ones. The tool even offers a lost link checker feature that intimates you when a site removes your backlink. You can connect with the webmaster and address the reason to prevent the loss of quality links. The tool enables you to measure your campaign by tracking your keyword rankings.

Pricing: $25-$144 per month

18) Check My Links

Like Monitor Backlinks, Check My Links  helps you find broken links for your website. You can get in touch with the site owner and ask them to switch the dead link with another similar page. The tool comes as a Chrome browser add-on, making it a handy option for SEO professionals. Just install it to your browser, and you can check links on a page you want. It highlights good links in green and broken ones in red.

Pricing: Free

19) Google Disavow Links

Another offering from Google on this list is the Google Disavow Link tool. It enables marketers to declutter their link profiles by getting rid of spammy links. Your site may attract them due to various reasons, from poor link-building practices to a  competitor directing them to your website. Wherever these spammy links come from, they are detrimental to your site’s health. You must pinpoint them and disavow them at the earliest, and this tool helps you do it.

Pricing: Free

20) CognitiveSEO

CognitiveSEO facilitates the identification of unnatural links in your profile without much effort. It is an SEO software suite that offers backlink analysis features that are similar to Ahrefs and MOZ. But the Unnatural Link Detection feature makes it different from the rest. It warns you if your website or the one you want to link with has a shady link profile. The best part is that it fits into the budget as a cheaper alternative to Ahrefs and MOZ.

Pricing: $99-$499 per month

This comprehensive list covers the best link-building tools and software to consider in 2023. You can assess their features in detail and pick the ones that match your requirements and fit into your budget. You may have to spend a bit on them, but they bring quality, accuracy, ease, and speed into the link-building process. Moreover, you have a chance to focus on other critical aspects of SEO once you automate link building. Overall, these tools can serve as assets for any business that wants to get results with its SEO strategy and sustain them for the long haul.

21) SE Ranking

If you are looking for powerful all-in-one software for link-building and SEO needs, SE Ranking is your solution. This platform provides Backlink Monitoring, Backlink Checker, Keyword Rank Tracker, and various other tools to facilitate your link-building strategy. The backlink checker tools allow you to check the dynamics of new and lost website backlinks, discover pages with the most links, and analyze anchor text distribution. You can also use their backlink monitoring tool to track website backlinks’ status automatically.

Pricing: $39-$151 per month

22) Raven

Raven is a professional tool offering an array of features ranging from Site Audit and Competitor Domain Research to Backlink Checker and SERP Rank Tracker. Its link-building-specific tools enable you to check backlinks from fresh or previous indexes. It also provides reports, including information about domains linking to you and your competitors. To check metrics, namely DR, DA, and Trust Flow, Raven takes assistance from fellow Link Building and SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, and Majestic.

Pricing: $39-$399 per month

24) Scrapebox

Scrapebox is used by link-building service providers all around the world. Many users of this tool also describe it as “The Swiss Army Knife of SEO!” One of the best features of this tool is that it allows you to scan thousands of web pages in little to no time to check your backlinks and anchor text. It basically helps streamline numerous, monotonous white hat link-building processes and improves your daily tasks. To reap the benefits of this amazing tool, all you have to do is install it in your system and buy proxies.

Pricing: $97 (One-time purchase)  

25) OutreachPlus

OutreachPlus enables SEO practitioners and marketers to set up outreach campaigns within minutes. Its features include automated follow-ups, automated prospect grading, a Wizard-based approach to campaigns, and prospect dashboard that provides a comprehensive synopsis of each prospect. These features help improve traffic, generate backlinks, and offer higher response rates. The advanced personalized features also allow you to appeal to potential prospects much more efficiently. You can enjoy its free trial to understand the tool in detail before making a final investment decision.

Pricing: $9-$39 per month

Some Other Tools to Consider

Here is a list of some other tools you can check.

26) URL Profiler

URL Profiler is like an API for many top-notch SEO tools and software suites such as Moz, Majestic SEO, PageRank, and more. Unlike other tools, it is not a web application; you need to download this tool to your device and avail an active license. Unlike scrapebox, you don’t need to buy any proxies to be able to audit your URLs. This powerful tool enables you to retrieve a large array of links (with no limits or constraints) while saving your hours. The data collected from the URL Profiler can be used to create a content inventory and add internal links to new content.

Pricing: $19.95-$64.95 per month

27) Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is one of the industry’s leading website crawlers for Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu. After downloading and installing the application, you can begin crawling websites containing up to 500 URLs (for the free version). It is a great tool to check for broken links, find temporary and permanent redirects, and discover exact duplicate URLs with an md5 algorithmic check. You can filter the crawled websites by status code such as 404 and avail useful insights. In a nutshell, this tool is ideal for boosting your backlink analysis process.

Pricing: $185 (1 to 4 licenses) per year

28) WebCEO

Another must-try SEO software tool suite for your campaign needs is WebCEO. It includes nearly 23 pro-level online SEO tools for website audits, quick domain analysis, link building, keyword niche research, and more. The interface of WebCEO is quite easy to use, allowing you to get insights into different campaigns. What makes WebCEO different from other tools is its White-Hat SEO tools that allow you to control user access. It also provides automated reports if the rankings or backlinks drop.

Pricing: $37-$299 per month

29) Linkio

Linkio is a cold blogger outreach software that can help with backlink campaign management. Its features include an anchor text planner and suggestions, backlink monitoring, rank tracker, and more. It helps in improving your existing link-building campaigns using the available insights. Linkio also enables you to set custom percentage targets for specific anchor texts based on the data collected.

Pricing: $19.99 per month (Starting price)

30) Dibz

Dibz is a go-to tool to find numerous link-building opportunities and kick-start your brand growth. Its prominent features include Research and Filtering Functionality, Intuitive Data Management, Powerful Research Types, and Feature Customization (available in paid version). This help simplifies link-building processes such as guest blogging, local citation, content promotion, etc., and saves time consumed in manual process implementation.

Pricing: $ 1.00 price per credit

31) SheerSEO

Using Sheer SEO, you can automate your link-building and rank tracking efforts for Google, YouTube, and Bing. Its top-notch features allow you to perform rank tracking, SEO audit, keyword research, directory submissions, blogger outreach, and backlinks analysis. It helps in discovering backlinks and optimizing the webpage to improve the ranking. Perhaps, it won’t be wrong to say that it’s your all-in-one software for learning, optimizing, building, and monitoring links.

Pricing: $10-$40 per month

Summing Up!

Link building remains an essential component of search engine optimization, and using the right tools can make a big difference in your SEO results. The 25+ link-building tools mentioned in this article can assist you in creating high-quality backlinks, analysing your competitors’ link profiles, and tracking your link-building progress.

By utilising and incorporating these tools into your SEO efforts, you can improve your visibility and ranking on search engine results pages, resulting in increased traffic and revenue to your website.

Frequently Asked Questions On Link Building Tools

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