Category
Link Building
Link building tools come in two flavors: data (already covered by your keyword tool) and outreach (where the picks actually matter). Most small agencies overspend here.
Link building tools fall into two categories that get confused constantly:
- Data tools — backlink indexes, link gap analysis, competitor profiles. Already covered by your keyword research tool. Don’t double-pay.
- Outreach tools — prospecting, email sequencing, response tracking. These are where the actual category lives.
What to buy
For most small agencies, the answer is don’t, until you need to. Manual outreach with Hunter.io ($49/mo) for email finding plus a Google Sheet is fine for the first 50–100 pitches/month.
Once you cross that threshold:
- BuzzStream ($24+/mo) — solid mid-tier outreach platform, good for solos and small teams
- Pitchbox ($395/mo) — top of market. Only worth it if outreach is a primary client deliverable
Hunter.io is in your stack regardless — it’s the email-finder layer underneath any outreach tool you pick.
Where this fits in the stack
Link building is downstream of keyword research (for prospect lists from competitor backlinks) and parallel to content optimization (for the linkable assets you’re pitching).
The honest take: for most small agencies, link building should be a productized service line powered by data from your existing keyword tool, not its own tool category. See the SEO tool stack for small agencies for the full picture.
Articles in this category
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