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If you want to rank well in Google, there’s no way around it…
You need to build backlinks.
There are ways to attract links naturally, but most of the time, this isn’t enough on its own, and the last thing you want to do is leave money on the table because you haven’t built any links.
And when it comes to building backlinks, there are tools that can help.
The tools listed below won’t just aid you in acquiring links; they’ll also give you a link building process.
You see, link building isn’t about making a heroic effort and getting hundreds of links all at once. It requires consistency, and if you keep at it, you’ll continuously rank higher, week after week, as you continue to build new backlinks.
Here are the tools that can help you out.
Link building apps for SEO
The link building tools collected here will give you a variety of strategies and systems for gaining new backlinks. You might want to use two or three, so make sure to review them all carefully.
1. SEMRush
SEMRush is an all-in-one SEO suite with everything from backlink analysis to rank tracking. It’s an invaluable app for SEO and one of my favorite tools for promoting a WordPress website.
How to build backlinks with SEMRush
There are lots of ways to use SEMRush in your link building, but the most straightforward approach is to use their designated Link Building tool.
To get started, you’ll enter up to 10 keywords and competitors, and SEMRush will return a list of recommended pages to get links from.
In my experience, it returns around 2,500 results every time, which is a LOT of link building opportunities.
Even better, there’s an outreach management system and even a built-in emailing tool. This makes it easy to track your progress as you decide which sites you’ll reach out to and update the status as they respond.
As part of our partnership with SEMRush, you can signup for a free trial through our link if you’d like to try it out.
Start Your SEMRush 14-day Free Trial
2. LinkMiner
Most marketers have heard of tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs, but Mangools is awesome too.
They have a suite of SEO products, including one called LinkMiner, which is their backlink analysis app.
Like all of their tools, the interface is beautiful and easy for beginners to use.
How to get links with LinkMiner
One of the best ways to get started with link building is to copy your competitors’ links, and LinkMiner makes that easy.
You can enter a competitor’s domain and LinkMiner will pull up a list of all their backlinks, including sorting and search options.
Then you can look through their links to find any that will be easy to copy. For instance, you might find a link from a list post where your product could be included. Or, you may find a guest post link, which you could copy by submitting your own guest post.
When you find a link you intend to copy, you can click the star icon next to it to save it to your Favorites list. When you’re finished prospecting for link targets, you’ll work your way through the list, copying links as you go.
In practice, I’d recommend starting with smaller websites as large sites with millions of links can be intimidating to analyze in this manner.
3. HARO
HARO stands for “help a reporter out” and is a free service that connects journalists with sources.
As a link builder, you’ll sign up as a source and receive an email digest three times per day with source requests from journalists.
How to use HARO for link building
Journalists using HARO are looking for expert quotes, and if you provide them with a quote they use, they’ll also include a link to your website.
The strategy for building links with HARO is pretty simple: write a compelling answer to a request, and your quote is likely to get selected for publication. The key is to only answer questions where your expertise makes sense because your title is what gives you the authority in the article.
The big drawback of using HARO for link building is that your answers aren’t guaranteed to be used. This can lead to a lot of time spent writing quotes without getting any links. This is why it’s important to stick to requests where your expertise will make you stand out, and understand that you might need to write 3-5 quotes before you get any links.
4. Text expander
This last tool might seem out of place, but I use it for link building outreach emails all the time.
It’s called TextExpander, and it lets you write short abbreviations that expand into larger portions of text. For instance, you could create an abbreviation called “!email” that outputs your email address.
How to get backlinks with TextExpander
Your link building will most likely include some email outreach, and this is one area where TextExpander can be extremely useful.
Instead of rewriting your emails or copying & pasting them, you can create a new snippet with your entire email text. Then type the abbreviation you assigned it to automatically output the full text.
The best part is that it works at the OS level, so you can use it to enter text into an email client like Gmail, a contact form, or any app on your computer.
Which link building tool is best?
There are lots of ways to build links. The hard part coming up with a system and sticking to it.
The best link building tools are those that give you an organized system that you can follow along with to get your backlinks, and those are the types of tools I’ve tried to highlight here.
For most link building, SEMRush’s Link Building Tool is excellent because it finds prospects for you and helps you organize your outreach.
I hope this collection of the best backlink building tools helps you get the links you need to outrank your competitors.
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