Maintaining all the links and how they interact is one of the main aches of running a website. Just as websites require maintenance to function, so do the links. After all, what use is there to a pristine website if it can’t connect properly to the rest of the internet? To alleviate this pain point, SEO.co has a free tool that helps you monitor and manage your website’s links, ensuring that your site remains well-connected and SEO-optimized.

Links are essentially gateways into websites and the primary way people access things online these days. Therefore keeping them in working order is key for search engine optimization. While WordPress is awesome for designing websites in general, it certainly does lack some link-building tools.

Luckily WordPress has awesome plugins that serve as link-building and maintenance tools. And to help you build your perfect website, here are the best free link-building tools. As well as some premium options, in case you want a more powerful tool.

1. WP Links

If you’re looking for the best all-around link-building experience, look no further than WP Links. It’s a premium plugin that handles all external and internal linking with unique rule creation. This plugin allows you to create and manage customizable links on your website.

The main features revolve around external and internal links and visitor interaction. By creating universal rules for external and internal links separately, you’ll be able to direct your users without much hassle. And if you have tones of affiliate links, you can create unique rules based on their keyword.

These two features are extremely important for blogs with many external links but only a certain number of them that they trust. After all, you can’t have a cautionary warning on your sponsored affiliate links. Speaking of cautionary warnings, WP Links has the perfect way to deliver them.

With its Exit Confirmation feature, you’ll be able to create unique exit confirmations for your viewers. You can build everything from third-party site warnings to heartfelt, goodbye messages. And to top it all off, WP Links even offers a broken link checker just in case some of your links get broken or changed.

2. Ahrefs Site Explorer

Ahrefs dashboard

Building links doesn’t just mean managing them and creating rules for them. You must also track them so that you know where they end up. You must know how well your links could perform and if the sites using them are worth connecting to. With Ahrefs Site Explorer, you’ll be able to create a backlink profile for all your links.

That way, you know precisely where your links go and how well they do. The plugin ranks the links that connect to your website and analyzes which site and topic perform the best. That way, you can find your niche more easily. You can even check for link opportunities with the Link Intersect feature.

3. Hunter.io

Finding initial customers can be quite hard, but with Hunter.io, you’ll be able to find emails and contacts from which to start your website. Link building also consists of finding potential visitors, as every website needs to build an initial visitor list to boost its numbers.

With this plugin, you’ll be able to find people interested in your type of website. While it lacks some key link management tools, it is quite a useful support plugin if you want to expand your online business. And if you’re short on time, Hunter.io has premade email templates so you can instantly outreach to your potential customers.

4. Linkody

The best way to improve your SEO is through link tracking. By using Linkody, you’ll be able to grow your site through link tracking and management. You can create link profiles for your website that track links within it.

That way, you’ll instantly know if you need to remove a bad link or if a certain link is outperforming the rest. This plugin analyzes every link you have, thus showing you which link leads to spam, how the backlinks perform, and if the anchor text is optimal.

5. Haro

Haro might be your best bet if you’re looking for a more specialized tool. It is a plugin that links journalists with experts. This can be an immensely powerful tool if you use it right.

After all, every website with blogs and articles should consult experts in their field. And if your visitors know you’re information is credible, your reputation will skyrocket. That being said, that’s about the only feature of this plugin, so if you’re looking for a more robust plugin, this might not be for you

6. BuzzStream

If your main issue with link-building tools is CRM, you should consider BuzzStream. It’s designed to optimize your customer relationship and simplify your backlinking. Spreading links online is good, but retaining a customer is the key to success.

Therefore, strong contact management on your links is crucial if you want to survive in this competitive online world. That being said, it lacks link management features, so it is more of a niche plugin.

Summary

All in all, link management is an aspect of website development people often neglect. But without it, you can’t grow your business.

Using link-building tools guarantees that your links are safe, working, and reachable. And no plugin does that better than WP Links. So, if you want your business to grow, check it out.