If we want to optimize our SEO off page, the tools for Link Building will be our greatest ally.
I use most of these tools on a daily basis to spy on the competition and know where to get quality links.
Free Link Building Tools
Most of these link building tools are free, although some of them are paid or freemium.
Google Search Console
The only free tool that many SEOs consider is the Google Search Console tool itself.
The reason is that if a backlink does not appear in this tool, Google will not take it into account when calculating PageRank.
And in a way it is very possible that it is true, on some occasion Google has confirmed this statement, such as on reddit.
Although with this tool we will not be able to spy on our competition at the link building level.
Ahrefs
If we want to analyze our competition in Spain, the best Link Building tool without a doubt is Ahrefs.
It allows obtaining various metrics to fully study the quality of the links, such as:
- domain authority
- page authority
- Positioned keywords
- traffic estimation
- outgoing links
- incoming links
- anchor text
Necessary metrics to study the entire strategy of our competition and be able to plan our link building strategy.
SEMRush
If we want an alternative to ahrefs with almost the same characteristics, the most used is SEMRush.
I have used this tool for years, mostly to get a quick overview of toxic links on a domain.
Although for me, where this tool stands out is to do the study of keywords or keyword research.
SERanking
If you want a low-cost tool with a minimum of quality to find new links, SERanking will meet most of your expectations.
Possibly the database is not the same as Ahrefs, SEMRush or MOZ, although the price is much more adjusted to all the features they offer.
Majestic
Majestic is the link building tool I usually reserve for UK projects or when I need to pull APIs.
I don’t know exactly why it happens, but this tool usually finds more backlinks when analyzing UK domain, I imagine it is because of the database.
As for the API, the rest of the tools such as Ahrefs, SEMRush or SERanking also have them, but in the case of the first two the price is higher and in the case of SERanking it does not have integration with Screaming frog.
MOZ
Moz is considered the first SEO tool focused mostly on link bulding, adding several of the best known metrics in the SEO world such as DA, PA or Spam Score.
Their database is amazing when it comes to analyzing external links on US projects.
Although like the rest of the previous tools they have different SEO tools.
Scrapbox
Screapebox is the scraping tool chosen by most SEOs when it comes to extracting bulk content from different websites or from Google’s SERPs.
This tool works with the help of proxy and captchas, and you will have to take this into account if you want to use it.
The learning curve is greater than the rest of the tools, although when it comes to finding sites to analyze in bulk mode it is incredible.
Google footprints or advanced search commands
If you don’t want to use scrapebox because of its difficulty, you can directly use footprints in the SERPs to find sites to analyze.
Among the search commands that you can use you have:
- Find forums on your topic: inurl:/forum/” “keyword”
- Find blogs on your topic: inurl:/forum/ “keyword”
- Analyze the specialization of a domain in a theme: site:domai..com “keyword”
There are more Google footprints that can help you, but that’s up to you.
Screaming frog
Screaming frog, the king of SEO tools hired by Jhon Muller himself, is for me the best tool to analyze the internal linking of a website and the anchor texts it uses.
In addition, we can use different APIs such as Ahrefs, SEMRush or Majestic and analyze the internal and external linking of a website at the same time.
Google alerts
Ideal if you want to monitor the mentions of your brand, checking if they have added a link or it has simply been a mention.
In the event that you have not obtained a link, you can contact the medium to reach an agreement.
What is the best tool for link building in my opinion?
It will depend a bit on the needs of each project, but I use all the tools that have come out on the list normally.
But if I have to opt for a tool for link building, I would choose:
- Google Search Console: Analyze my domain.
- Ahrefs or SERanking: Analyze external links.
- Screaming frog: Analyze internal links.
- Google footpritns: Find thematic domains.
- Google Alerts: Get links from domains that we know