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3 Link Building Tools That Will Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

 Link building is not easy. No matter what tactics you use, ultimately it will take time, effort, and money. Link building can be done manually by creating content on your website and distributing it on the right social channels and websites. But with all the automation tools out there, why not use them?

If you look up link building tools online, search engines will return thousands of results. It could be difficult to determine which ones could be beneficial, especially if you’re new to link building.

Keep in mind that link building can be broken down into several steps.

You need to find relevant links, determine if they’re valuable or not, reach out to blogs and websites, and track results. Find a tool that can simplify each step of the process for you.

In this blog post, we’re going to discuss nine link building tools that will boost your search engine rankings. We’ve included a tool for each step of the process, so you can begin incorporating them into your existing strategies right away.

Let’s get started.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is undoubtedly one of the most powerful link building tools currently available. Whether you’re analysing links or tracking results, it can help you and provide valuable data through each step of the way.

Ahrefs combines several essential functions in one tool. It includes the following. 

Site Explorer

This is a tool that shows you valuable data about your competitors. You can see which keywords they’re ranking for, the sites linking to them, and which ads they’re paying for.

Each piece of information Site Explorer provides can help different aspects of your link building strategy.

If you see the keywords your competition is ranking for, you can analyse their content and determine how to create something better.

If you see which websites are linking to them, you can attempt to gain links from those websites as well.

Keywords Explorer

Keywords Explorer is a goldmine of keyword ideas. It provides the following information:

• Keyword Suggestions – You’ll discover thousands of keywords you never would’ve thought of, keywords that could lead potential clients to your website.
• Search Volume – This is the amount of traffic a keyword generates during a weekly, monthly or yearly basis.
• Keyword Difficulty – This scores how difficult it would be to rank for a given keyword. The higher the keyword difficulty, the steeper the competition is for a keyword.

Ideally, you should prefer to rank for a keyword with a high search volume and low level of difficulty. However, given the amount of content being published each month, finding such a keyword is now difficult.

Instead of targeting keywords based on search volume alone, keep user intent in mind when narrowing down your list of keywords.

Search intent is the reason why a user is looking for something online. They could be looking for information, comparing products, or are ready to purchase something.

Even if a keyword has a high search volume, the search intent behind it may not earn you more clients. For example, the keyword “massage therapy” may generate thousands of hits per month, but the search intent is too broad. People may simply be looking for its definition.

Use the information provided by Keywords Explorer as a guide, but always put keep search intent in mind.

Content Explorer

Content Explorer is valuable to have in your toolbox during the content creation process.

Due to the deluge of content being published online, creating “quality” content is no longer enough. You need to create content that’s better than what’s already topping search engine results.

This is where Content Explorer comes in. It shows you the most popular articles on any given topic based on organic traffic, backlinks, and social media shares.

Armed with such valuable information, you can utilise the Skyscraper Technique to improve search engine rankings.

With the Skyscraper Technique, you create better content than what’s already ranking in search engine results. Once that’s done, you reach out to blogs that linked to the top-ranking content and offer your content instead.

It’s a technique that requires plenty of time and effort, but the results will be worth it.

Rank Tracker

Tracking your monthly progress is necessary for link building success. It lets you know if you’re moving closer toward your goals and allows you to determine if your existing strategies are effective or not.

The results for each keyword you’re targeting could be vastly different. If you’re rising in rankings for some keywords, take a step back and examine your strategies.

What type of content have you been creating for those keywords? Which sites linked to you?

Examine each step of your link building strategy every month or so. Determine if they’re working or not and adjust accordingly.

HARO

HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. It’s a website where you can volunteer to register as a source for journalists. Once you’re chosen as a source, you can then generate valuable links from high domain authority websites.

But how do you even begin using HARO?

First of all, decide which person in your company should be a source.

• Who has the relevant educational background for your field?
• Who has the most years of experience?
• Who has been published in relevant publications?

Once you’ve decided, the person with the most “authority” in your industry should sign up for an account. Go to the HARO website, and click on the I’m a Source button.

After you create an account, you will receive three scheduled emails daily. These emails contain information about journalists looking for sources. Sift through each one, determine which ones are relevant to your field, and send a pitch.

Your pitch should:

• Be short and to the point.
• Be unique.
• Include your content information.

Make sure to only contact journalists who are looking for sources in your field. If you’re a digital marketing expert, do not pitch journalists who are looking for sources on engineering, climate change, and so forth. Doing so could get you penalised and even banned.

MozBar

MozBar is a free Google Chrome extension.

Before we discuss how MozBar can help you, let’s define a few terms first.

• Domain Authority – This is a scoring system created by Moz. It rates a website’s chances of ranking in search engines. The higher the score, the better.
• Link Juice – This is the “authority” that one webpage can pass to another. If you receive a link from a high domain authority website, you will receive plenty of link juice.
• No Follow Link – This is a link that doesn’t pass link juice from one webpage to another.
• Follow Link – This is a link that passes on link juice from one website to another.

MozBar shows you a website’s domain authority and whether links are follow or no follow. Knowing the aforementioned information could speed up the link building process.

For example, if you’re reaching out blogs, you could determine which ones you should prioritise. Ideally, you would prefer links from blogs with high domain authority.

You may also think that you should only attempt to generate follow links, but that would be a mistake. If Google sees that your website only has follow backlinks, it will think that those links may not have been received organically.

You have to generate a diverse number of no follow and follow links. Google will think you receive those links organically and not through an aggressive link building campaign.

Conclusion

Link building tools streamline and speed up the link building process. You immediately receive plenty of information that tells you which keywords to target and what kind of content to create.

Ahrefs is one of the most powerful link building tools you’ll ever find. It can help you through each step of the process–from keyword research to tracking results.

HARO is a wonderful tool for generating backlinks from authority websites. Create an account and pitch to be a source for relevant topics.

MozBar is vital when you’re reaching out to blogs. You can tell right away if their links are follow or no follow and if they have high domain authority.

Need a top-class SEO strategy? Cornerstone Digital is an SEO agency in Sydney that can lead your ideal customer to your website. Call us on (02) 8211 0668 or email us at info@cornerstone-digital.com.au.

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Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.