Link building is one of the most exhausting, frustrating processes associated with online business. Whether you run a shop or a blog, you are constantly trying to use SEO tactics to promote. Which means cultivating positive relationships that will lead to viable backlinks.
What if you could keep up with this necessary evil while maintaining your sanity and staying organized? All while being able actually work less on the task? Sounds impossible, I know. But these 6 tools can help you get there.
1. Organize: Excel for SEO
Learn all you need to know about using Microsoft Excel for great search engine optimization. This is a complete guide that provides a full rundown of what to do, including lessons to teach you to fully utilize the resource. They say you can jump ahead if you know the basics, but they created a guide that starts you out assuming you are the complete beginner. So if you don't know anything about the topic at all, you are in good hands.
Related tools:
- Scraper: Super efficient, this is one of the best tools you can have at your disposal. It is a Google Chrome extension that works by taking the data found in any web page and exporting it to an easily managed, organized spreadsheet. It is still in its early form, so expect a few bugs. But if you are a semi-advanced user who is comfortable with Xpath, you will love it.
- Spreadsheet hacks for marketers and Searching Twitter from Excel and Google Spreadsheets: Two of my articles that show more uses for using data in the spreadsheets.
2. Sort within Prospects: Wordtracker
What would you say is the biggest time waster when link building? Most would probably say creating inbound prospects, and they would be half right. That does take a long time, but even worse is sorting those links while still ensuring that they are credible, high quality and authoritative. This is a program that essentially does that for you. It works to give you thousands of links in seconds, sorts them and makes sure they are relevant. They have a seven day free trial, and then it is $69 per month, or $449 per year. Costly, but the time you will save makes it pretty worth it.
3. Spend Time only on Best Opps: The Link Prospector
Here's a huge, very detailed review describing why Eric Covino of SEObook loves the tool. Basically what it does is finding you lots of great link building opportunities based on your niche. The in-built Link Target Score lets you sort out only really sure-fire opps!
4. Recognize Contacts: Rapportive
Has this ever happened to you? You are sitting in Gmail, maybe writing an email or chatting with a client. Suddenly, a random IM box appears. The person is in your contact list, but you cannot, for the life of you, remember who they are. This can be nerve wracking. Are they an important network from another site?
A former client who might have work? Maybe a connection you made at a conference that you don't want to offend? It could have been avoided with Rapportive. This is another add-on that works on Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Mailplane. It shows all of your contact's details right in Gmail, including their associated Twitter feed, among other things.
5. Track Status: Backlink Tracker
Tracking your backlinks is a nightmare. The more you have, the more work that is involved and the greater likelihood of confusion and so mistakes. No longer will you have to use a spreadsheet and manually keep track of every site's links. Instead, you can track them through this handy tool that keeps a list of all backlinks and where they are located, while alerting you or guest posts being removed, links being no-follows, getting analytics on your most effective link sources and more.
6. Organize Contacts: Buzz Stream
Having two tools, one for link building and one for social media and PR, this is a way of networking to create buzz around your product, service or website. It is all about building relationships with others in and out of the industry, which can help further your goals through a mutually beneficial connection.
They have some of the biggest brand names using their product, such as Coca Cola and Rubbermaid. There is a fourteen day free trial, then plans $29 to $249 per month depending on features. They do have a cheaper plan for $19 a month, but it is only a solo plan and won't allow for other users.
Conclusion
It isn't difficult to organize your link building campaign if you have the right tools on your belt. These 6 are all very useful, and you are sure to find a few good ones to always keep at hand.