The Best Tools for Linkbuilding for eCommerce Brands

Link building has changed over the years with a distinct shift from quantity to quality. Digital PR professionals now have to earn backlinks instead of being given them.

As an eCommerce brand, to build top-quality links you need to conduct outreach, and to do this effectively and efficiently, you need the right tools in your kit. Luckily for you, the NOVOS team has invested thousands of dollars and many hours testing out the latest and greatest tools. 

Below, I, along with the help of my team, have listed the top 4 tools for building backlinks for eCommerce brands which have been categorised by function. While some of these tools do come at a price, some are free to use — there’s no excuse to not up your link building game!

Ahrefs is a great tool for analysing, building and monitoring links thanks to its vast link index.

Its best functions for link building include:

• Quickly and easily identify the quality of a domain that you want to target
• Analyse a website’s referring pages and domain’s at one glance
• Undertake competitor analysis, so you know which publications to target
• Find new and lost backlinks
• Find valuable link opportunities using the ‘Link Intersect’ function
• Download the Ahrefs Chrome extension for even faster analysis

Buzzstream is an outreach tool that helps you simplify the process, ultimately allowing you to scale up your outreach efforts. The great thing about Buzzstream is it works seamlessly with Google sheets, Majestic, Afrefs and more, meaning you can easily copy your media list onto the platform and let Buzzstream do the rest. 

The best functions of Buzzstream include:

• Create targeted media lists at speed
• Schedule pitches and follow-up emails ahead of time
• The history function allows you to see past interactions with a contact
• Input notes onto a writer’s profile along with other data points such as a link to an article they’ve previously written
• Seamlessly share projects with your team
• Track the open and click-through rates of each sequence
• The Buzzstream Chrome extension allows you to find a contact’s email address and add them to a project without switching tabs

Vuelio has a vast database of media contacts with an interface that is easy to use. It lists a writer’s history, mobile number, email address and preferred method of contact. It covers journalists from around the world but has a particular focus on UK-based writers.

The best functions of Vuelio include:

• An easy-to-use interface
• A vast and up-to-date contact book
• Allows you to search via a person’s name or publication
• Link to a writer’s Twitter and domain for further analysis
• Allows you to narrow your search by location, topic, domain type and more
• Internal ranking algorithm explaining how influential each domain is

*Twitter is also a very effective tool for a more in-depth analysis of a writer and can help you track down a person’s contact. Pro tip: set up TweetDeck and follow the hashtag #journorequest and #prrequest

Google Analytics is a tool that is freely available and can help you easily track your digital PR efforts. By using the ‘click referrals’ tool, listed under ‘acquisition’, you can track backlinks through Google Analytics, as well as the traffic coming from individual websites. By creating segments, you can gain invaluable insights into the way your content is being interacted with from the moment it is logged.

Tracking which links are actually sending traffic back to your website can help to identify where your target audience is. Outside of Google Analytics, we also suggest having an internal tracking system that logs all live and confirmed links.   

Benefits of Google Analytics include:

• Easily view the traffic driven from PR placement
• Easily view the contributions PR placements make in conversion activity
• Track traffic coming into your client’s website from PR placement 
• Keep tabs on your domain’s backlinks 
• Find data relating to the “search bar” function of a website which can be helpful for ideation 

While these tools are placed in high regard in 2021, it’s important to remember to keep an open mind. I, for one, am guilty of falling into a particular way of carrying out a task but we must remember there are so many great tools and methods out there, it’s important to keep learning.