Every SEO Person Needs This in their Link-Building Toolkit.

Link building is the process of trying to manipulate the inbound links that are directly aiming towards a site. It is an essential part of an SEO campaign but a lot of SEO people do not use or have the essential tools to do the job properly and thoroughly. Even so, the people with the right tools still don’t use them to their full potential and are making life difficult for themselves.

If you want to learn more about building your own spreadsheet then take our Excel Training course ( we also offer advanced excel training), also if you want to learn more about Search Engine Optimisation, then try our SEO Training course in Brighton, Sussex.

I have created an Excel document and a Word document to help you with your link building campaign. The Excel document includes different worksheets with different lists in to enter your data as you go along. For data entry, Excel will always be a useful tool to use as it allows you to switch from cell to cell while entering data with ease.

Normally, link building is an on-going practice and from time to time it can get boring and repetitive, but if you keep it all organised then you will find it a lot easier. Also, if you need to get someone else to do the link building for you, with these resources, you can easily pass on what you have done and they can just pick up where you left off.

You can download the resources at the bottom of this page, but here’s a breakdown of what is in them and what you should be considering when starting your link building campaign -

Keywords List -

You should research which keywords you want as these will be important for your anchor text when you are link building. Anchor text is the text that is in the hyperlink which links to your site; you will need to specify this when linking with other web sites. Ideally your keyword list should be around three to five keyword phrases.

Link Partners –

Research should be undertaken to find out and pick possible people to link with. You should look through your existing businesses and also do some other searching on search engines to find new link partners. In the worksheet I have created there are rows named – Web Site Name, Web Site URL, Subject Area/ Topic, Page Rank, Desired Link Page, Webmaster Name and Contact Info.

Directories –

Yahoo and DMOZ are great directories to get your link on, they are regularly used by search engines to build their indexes with, and that makes them a very useful target for your link building campaign. As you are adding to more and more directories, you will need to keep a record of the links you are submitting. In the worksheet I have included the following field which you should fill in – Blog/ Forum Name, Web Site URL, Subject Are/ Topic, Most Relevant Section/ Forum and Contact Info.

Blog and Forums –

You should post articles on internet blog sites and forums, when you do so you should include links back to your web site, this will increase traffic to you web site. You will want to keep a record of all the places you have posted on, with relevant passwords if you need to. In the worksheet I have put the following fields in – Blog/ Forum Name, Web Site URL, Subject Area/ Topic, Most Relevant Section/ Forum and Contact Info.

PR Sites –

Press Release sites are a great way for you to make and share out online press releases swiftly and with ease; this gives you the benefit of adding easy links as well. You will want to keep a list going of all the sites you add to. On the worksheet I have included the following fields for you to fill in – Web Site Name. Web Site URL and Other Info.

Link Request –

I have created a link request template, read more information on that and download it at the bottom of the page. You will need to keep a record of who you have requested links from so not to pester them or send them more than one request. In the worksheet I have created a link building section, it includes the following fields – URL of Linking Page, Requested Landing Page, Date Requested, Contact E-Mail or URL, Link Received, Link With Anchor Text, Date Link Posted and Follow Up.

Paid Listings –

You will need to keep a record of all expenditures, if you are paying for links of directory listings then this will all need to be logged. I have created a Paid Listings worksheet which you should fill in, the fields included are – Web Site Name, Web Site URL, Requested Landing Page, Start Date, End Date, Payment Amount, PO Number, Invoice Number and Renewal URL/ Contact.

Link Tracker –

With all the time and effort you will be putting into your link building, you will want to see some results, if you track your pages then you will be able to see an impact. I have created a worksheet which you should aim to fill in weekly, depending on how heavily you are link building, fortnightly and monthly is also fine. The worksheet includes the following fields – Ranking, Number of Inbound Links, Organic Traffic Search and Organic Search Conversions.

Link Request Template –

To request a link from someone you will normally need to send them an e-mail request. I have made a simple link request template for you to fill in and send away, it needs a few bits filled in and you can of course alter it for your needs and specifications. All link request email should include the following – A polite and personal greeting, a simple kind word about their site, a short summary of your website, a link request (obviously!), the anchor text you want included and a pleasant sign-off with your name and, if possible, an email address which is the same name as your web site.

Excel Training - Link building Excel Spreadsheet

Excel Training - Link Request Template

Remember that these are general resources and they may differ slightly from your own businesses needs. Some simple editing of the documents will make it relevant for you, but the basics are all there.