Backlinks are important ranking factors that search engines view as a vote of confidence, signaling that your content is trustworthy, relevant, and worth recommending.
You may already be aware of the importance of backlinks and how link building is closely tied to SEO performance, but building links requires time, strategy, and the right tools.
Find the best link-building tools (both free and paid) to help you measure your current links, find link opportunities, and build a more substantial, more authoritative online presence.
The top 10 list of link-building tools
Here are 10 of the best link-building tools to help you find backlinks, analyse your site’s authority, or run outreach campaigns with ease.
- Ahrefs: Best for deep backlink analysis and competitor research
- SEMrush: Best all-in-one SEO suite with outreach tracking
- Moz Pro: Best for spam detection and domain authority scoring
- Majestic: Best for trust flow and link graph visualisation
- BuzzStream: Best for personalised outreach and contact management
- Google Search Console (Free): Best for free first-party backlink tracking and keyword ideas
- Moz Link Explorer (Free Tier): Best for checking basic DA/PA and spam score
- Ahrefs Backlink Checker (Free): Best for top-level competitor link scans
- Ubersuggest (Free Tier): Best for beginner-friendly backlink overviews
- Google Alerts (Free): Best for finding unlinked brand mentions
Who needs to build links to their website?
Anyone who wants to rank highly on Google (and other search engines) could benefit from building links to their website. Backlinks remain a crucial factor in determining a website’s ranking. They are essentially classed as votes from other websites, showing that they’re happy to recommend you. As Backlinko points out, this tells search engines that your “content is valuable, credible, and useful.”
With that said, it is crucial to understand that quality matters more than quantity. Google’s recently leaked documentation confirms that relevance is critical. This is one reason among many to avoid “spammy”, outdated strategies such as private blog networks (PBNs) or services on Fiverr.
What is a link-building tool and what does it do?
A link-building tool helps you discover, track, and secure backlinks that can improve your search engine rankings. Different tools serve different purposes, with some helping you find new link opportunities, while others allow you to monitor your current links, and even get alerts on lost links.
Each service may work differently, but there are free and paid tools on the market that could help you with your link-building efforts.
Best free link-building tools
Google Search Console
Google’s very own Search Console lets you monitor backlinks for free, showing which domains are linking to your site and which of your pages attract the most links. This can all be done by connecting and verifying your site in Google Search Console, then visiting the “links” report in the sidebar.
These insights can help you analyse your current performance, identify which content earns attention, and spot new backlink opportunities. You can also flag spammy links or isolate pages worth amplifying, all using reliable first-party data from Google.
Includes:
- External and internal link reports
- Top linking domains and anchor text information
- Exportable link data
- Integration with Google Analytics
Moz Link Explorer
Moz’s Link Explorer lets you check backlinks to any domain, analyse competitor profiles, and monitor changes in your link profile.
The platform was initially founded by SEO expert Rand Fishkin, who helped shape many of the industry’s best practices, including domain authority, page authority, and is a renowned white-hat SEO.
While the free tier has usage limits, it remains useful for quick audits, enabling you to check the growth and quality of your backlink profile in seconds.
Includes:
- 10 link queries per month
- Domain Authority and Page Authority scores
- Spam Score
- Lost and found link tracking
Ahrefs Backlink Checker
Usually costly, Ahrefs now offers a generous free version of their backlink tool, enabling you to check the top 100 backlinks to any domain.
You’ll also see referring domains, anchor text, and domain/URL ratings. Ahref’s Backlink Checker is an excellent tool for scoping out competitor profiles or getting a snapshot of your own.
Includes:
- Top 100 backlinks per domain
- Referring domains
- Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR)
- Anchor text overview
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a beginner-friendly platform with basic backlink data. The free version shows who links to you, when they linked, and how your link profile changes over time. It also surfaces new/lost links and allows competitor checks.
This version has limited daily searches, but it’s a great place to start until you can upgrade, allowing you to see what links your competitors are getting and see how your backlink profile is currently performing.
Includes:
- Backlink overview
- New/lost link tracking
- Domain score
- Competitor snapshots
Google Alerts
Another Google tool, but this time it’s Google Alerts. This free tool notifies you when you receive linked and unlinked brand mentions.
This is an excellent option for link reclamation, allowing you to see where your brand or website has been mentioned without a link.
Includes:
- Brand or keyword tracking
- Daily/weekly alert options
- Great for link reclamation
Best paid link-building tools
Hint: Many paid tools also offer a free backlink checker. It could be worth using their free tools or signing up for a free trial before committing to paid link-building software.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers one of the largest live backlink indexes available. It lets you explore any site’s backlink profile, analyse anchor text, track lost and new links, and run competitor gap analysis. The content Explore tool is also helpful in finding pages worth adding.
It’s one of our favourite platforms for keyword research, competitor analysis, and various other metrics that help identify link-building opportunities. Much of our successful work has been established using research from the data provided by this site.
Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool that features additional features, such as keyword research and the ability to filter competitors and backlinks, which can aid in your own ideation or backlink strategies.
Cost: From £99 per month
Includes:
- Complete backlink profile and link intersect tools
- Anchor text, referring domains, and link growth tracking
- Competitor comparison and link gap reports
- Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) metrics
SEMrush
SEMrush is a data-driven market tool and a solid competitor to Ahrefs. It provides backlink analytics with outreach tools, allowing you to research, pitch, and track your campaigns all in one place.
There’s also a backlink Gap tool to compare your profile against competitors to see what you’re missing and what content or links you could be adding to your website.
Cost: From $117.33 per month (around £87 per month)
Includes:
- Backlink audits and toxic link detection
- Outreach and campaign tracking
- Competitor link gap analysis
- Authority Score and anchor text breakdown
Moz Pro
Moz Pro provides comprehensive access to Link Explorer, offering detailed insights into backlink profiles, competitor comparisons, and spam risk analysis. It’s a trusted platform for SEOs looking to evaluate link quality.
Cost: From $99 per month (around £73 per month)
Includes:
- Domain Authority and Spam Score metrics
- Lost and new link tracking
- Link intersect tools for competitor overlap
- Ongoing backlink monitoring
Majestic
Majestic specialises in evaluating link quality through its proprietary Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics. Trust Flow measures the trustworthiness of a page based on how closely its backlinks are to highly authoritative “seed sites,” making it especially useful for identifying high-quality or toxic links. You can also analyze link profiles by topic using Topical Trust Flow, which shows the relevance of referring domains across categories such as tech, health, or finance.
It’s one of the few tools that offers detailed historic backlink data, along with bulk link analysis for domains at scale.
Cost: From £39.99 per month
Includes:
- Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and Topical Trust Flow
- Historic and fresh backlink indexes
- Bulk backlink and referring domain checks
- Visual link graphs and site comparison tools
BuzzStream
BuzzStream is a dedicated outreach CRM built for link building. It’s an all-in-one that helps you find prospects, organise contact data, and manage personalised email outreach at scale. The built-in Chrome extension automatically pulls emails and site details, making prospecting more efficient.
It’s especially useful for teams running link-building or digital PR campaigns where outreach volume and follow-up tracking are key.
Cost: From $24 per month (around £18 per month)
Includes:
- Contact discovery and prospecting tools
- Customisable outreach templates
- Automated follow-ups and open/reply tracking
- CRM-style contact and project management
How to choose the best link-building tool for you
The right tool depends on your goals, experience level, and how much of the process you want to manage yourself. Some tools specialise in backlink data, others focus on outreach, and a few combine both.
If you’re just getting started or auditing your links, a free tool like Google Search Console or Moz Link Explorer may be enough. If you’re building a comprehensive campaign, tracking competitors, or managing outreach, tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or BuzzStream offer more in-depth capabilities.
Many of these link-building tools can be used alongside each other, with free tools such as Google Search Console enabling you to spot ranking opportunities, Google Alerts notifying you of unlinked mentions, and Ahrefs giving you a complete package to track keywords, analyse competitors, find future opportunities, and monitor links to your websites.
Summary
There’s certainly no shortage of link-building tools in the space, and many of them come with benefits. The key is finding the most suitable tools for your specific goal and budget. There are free and paid tools available to help strengthen your current marketing approach.
