How to Use ChatGPT and AI for Link Building?

In this guide, I’ll discuss 10 ways I use ChatGPT and AI (Artificial Intelligence) for effective link building. I held nothing back.

Heads up: look out for the prompts included. Adopt them as needed for your link building processes.

Let’s go!

10 Ways I Use ChatGPT & AI for My Link Building Process

Keyword Research and Topic Generation

As much as we, SEO [search engine optimization] experts, like to only focus on backlinks during link building. Backlink building is more than just links.

A vital part of link building involves the foundations of on-page SEO. The first one of the 2 foundations (the second one is content creation) is keyword research and topic generation.

• What relevant keywords are easy (but still lucrative) to rank for?
• What topics will get backlinks from high-authority websites even without outreach?

Those two questions can determine the entire success of your SEO link building campaigns. And fortunately, ChatGPT and AI can help answer both.

📌 Here is how I use AI for keyword research and topic generation:

✅️ Keyword research

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Please list 5 lucrative keywords for the term “link building.”

✅️ Topic generation

“Link outreach for small businesses” is a more streamlined keyword with ranking capacity. But it is still too generic and not streamlined enough for a target audience. Let’s break it down further with topic generation.

• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m a link builder who helps small and local businesses in the home and maintenance niche.

Please generate 5 topic ideas for this keyword “link outreach for small businesses.”

1 & 3 look promising, eh?

Content Research, Outlining, and Creation

Content, like backlinks, is crucial to search engines and your link building efforts. In fact, both are the top 2 ranking factors — Andretti Lipattsev [Partner Development Manager, Google].

From practical experience, your content is more critical to finding link building opportunities than other components like outreach. If your content is low-quality, relevant websites won’t link back to it, even when you are an outreach email/pitching guru.

Unfortunately, content writing is not an easy feat. The research itself is a strenuous task that can run into days. Mind you, that’s just for an article.

• What if you need to write multiple articles because content velocity and freshness are a thing?
• Won’t you run out of creative juice?

Good news: ChatGPT can remove all the hectic routines. Instead of days, you’ll get your content in minutes.

How?

📌 Using AI for content writing:

✅️ Content outlining

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m writing a practical, step-by-step guide for small, local home service owners.

Please create an outline for this topic:

DIY Link Building Outreach Plan for Home Service Businesses

✅️ Content research & writing

I prefer Perplexity AI to ChatGPT when writing because it weaves vital reports and studies into articles. And you can crosscheck as it includes links to the sources.

• Visit https://www.perplexity.ai/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m writing a practical, step-by-step guide for small, local home service owners. The topic is:

DIY Link Building Outreach Plan for Home Service Businesses

The target keyword for the article is “Link outreach for small businesses.”

Please write a detailed content on this outline:

I. Introduction

A. Brief explanation of the importance of link building for small local home service businesses

B. Overview of the DIY approach and its benefits

• Continue with the same prompt for other sections on the outline generated with ChatGPT until the entire article is ready.

Anchor Text Ideas

Anchors, like content and keywords, are crucial on-page SEO elements. More importantly, they house your backlinks on other websites.

In summary, anchor texts are critical to link building and how Google interprets your content.

📌 So, how does ChatGPT help with anchor texts?

AI can help generate and optimize anchor texts for your campaigns. Let me show you how.

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m a guest post on “DIY Link Building Outreach for Home Service Businesses.”

Please suggest 10 anchor texts I can use to send links back to my site “serpreach.com.”

Note: my target keyword is “Link outreach for small businesses.”

Please keep the anchors at a max of three words. Thanks.

Frankly, some of the suggestions might not be perfect. But you’d get a headstart and the much-needed variation to balance your mix of anchor texts.

Further reading: Optimization Tips for Anchor Texts

Now, we’re done with the on-page tactics. Let’s dive into the off-page part of ChatGPT link building.

Infographics Link Building

Infographics is one of my favorite link building tactics. It is fun and visual. But it can be strenuous because I’m not entirely into design.

Now, imagine when I discovered that AI can design infographics.

Why is infographic link building such a big deal anyway?

Infographics are easy to share and attract backlinks.

📌 Back to using AI for infographics link building. Here is the detailed step:

DALL-E (another ChatGPT tool) can help with image generation. However, I’ve not had significant success with it for infographic design. That is why I prefer Piktochart AI.

Plus, Piktochart AI is free, unlike DALL-E.

• Visit https://piktochart.com/generative-ai/editor
• Type in your prompt using this format:

• Next, pick from any of the suggested templates.

• Click “edit infographics” and then the “download icon” to download the infographic.

• Here is the final infographic in full:

Note: Piktochart AI freemium is limited to 4 uses and 2 downloads per day.

Guest Posting

Guest posting needs no introduction. Let’s dive into doing it with ChatGPT as an assistant.

✅️ Finding guest post ideas and opportunities.

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi, I’m a link builder looking for guest posting opportunities.

Please list 15 high-authority sites in the SEO and link building niche that will likely accept guest posts. Thanks.

✅️ Crafting guest posting pitches.

• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I want to guest post this “DIY Link Building Outreach for Home Service Businesses” on Neil Patel’s Blog.

Please, craft a 100-word pitch. Thank you.

Pro tip: don’t rely fully on AI to create personalized outreach messages.

Resource Page Link Building

This link building strategy might not be as popular as infographics or guest posting because links from resource pages and directories are somewhat low-quality.

Regardless, resource pages are crucial to sales. Prospects visit directories. Besides, your competitors are listed there, and they are free.

So, create a listing for your business on relevant resource pages to drive in more traffic.

Fortunately, you can bypass the stress of manually searching for directories. ChatGPT can help.

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

List 20 top directories for link builders. Thanks.

Influencer Link Building

Influencer marketing is one of the recent link building strategies. Unlike other link building techniques — at least the ones I’ve tried, and I’ve tried it all — it has the most influence on sales.

Imagine big shots like Brian Dean or Neil Patel recommending your SaaS tool to their followers. Just that one recommendation will lead to thousands of dollars in sales.

That’s the power of influencer marketing and link building. But scraping social media for relevant influencers can be hectic.

Thankfully, ChatGPT can assist.

📌 Here is how to use ChatGPT for influencer link building:

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m a link builder looking to partner with influencers in the SME business niche.

Please list 10 of such influencers. Thanks.

• If you have a limited budget, focus the prompt on identifying potential influencers like this:

Hi,

I’m a link builder looking to partner with influencers in the SME business niche.

Please list 10 of such influencers. Also, consider that I have a small budget. Thanks.

Podcast Link Building

Like influencer marketing, podcasts are trendy digital marketing strategies. Almost everything has a podcast in 2023 — from individuals, groups, and agencies to corporations.

I’m not complaining, but it’s hard to say if this strategy is here to stay or just another bandwagon move.

But here is what I will say:

While podcasts are trending, use them to build high-quality backlinks. How?

• Get invited on popular, niche-relevant podcasts as an expert
• Then, you’ll be featured in the summary post
• You will also be featured in the newsletters

The last two translate to backlinks.

📌 So, how can ChatGPT help with any of the above steps?

✅️ Find relevant podcasts that fit your link building needs.

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m a link builder looking to partner with podcasters.

I need 10 authoritative websites that publish podcast episodes related to  SEO, content marketing, and link building. Thank you. 

Online Forums/Communities

Have you heard of Superpath?

It’s a content marketing agency. That aside, Superpath has a Slack Community.

In the community, you’ll find experts across all SEO facets.

Where am I going?

There are requests for expert sources in Superpath channels — similar to HARO. In other words, you’ll get a backlink by answering a question.

Outside Superpath, other communities and forums have channels where expert sources provide seasoned opinions and get a backlink.

But finding relevant online communities is hectic. This is where ChatGPT can help.

📌 Using ChatGPT to build backlinks through online communities:

• Visit https://chat.openai.com/
• Type in your prompt using this format:

Hi,

I’m a link builder looking to connect and collaborate with other SEO professionals.

I need a list of 10 online communities like “Superpath” and their websites related to content marketing, link building, and SEO. Thank you.

• Alternatively, you can look for live events. These also have link building potential. Use this prompt:

Hi,

I’m a link builder looking for annual, live events for SEO professionals.

Please list 10 of such events and their websites. Thank you.

Track Changes on a Competing Page

The end goal of link building is to outrank your competitors. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you will only get to position 4 on search results.

In cases like this, you’d check what competitors did and tweak your content to increase the chances of outranking them.

• But what if the competing pages are doing the same?
• How can you check the exact changes your competitors are making to their page?

I’ve not had a genuine tool for competitor tracking until AI.

📌 How does ChatGPT help?

ChatGPT doesn’t track changes on competing pages. Harpa AI does. Here is how 

✅️ First, install Harpa AI

• Go to Chrome Web Store > Harpa AI 

• Add the extension to your Chrome

✅️ Visit a competing page

• Once on the competing page, click the Harpa AI extension
• Select “automate” > “custom monitor” > “monitor page updates”

• Start the “automate page monitoring” button

3 Limitations of AI for Link Building

Outside the well-known errors in content writing and false stats, ChatGPT and AI have some link-building-specific. Here are the top 3:

AI and Link Building Outreach 

No link building campaign can do without outreach. It helps to scale link acquisition and get targeted backlinks.

In essence, outreach email is vital to backlink building and its result.

Besides, an outreach email is what website owners will first see before your linkable asset. If the message is poorly written, non-personalized, with undefined offers, you’d likely not even get a response. And it wouldn’t matter if you sent 10 follow-ups; you’d still be ignored.

📌 Can ChatGPT help with something so vital to the success of your link building campaigns?

No diss intended; ChatGPT’s pitches are not good enough. They are always too long and generic.

I recommend that you write outreach emails without AI and machine learning tools.

Also read: How to Do Outreach Like a Pro

AI and Broken Link Building

Broken link building is one of the popular ways to get quality backlinks. And because the technique is based on value-first-link-later and relationship building, it fetches the highest-quality links. 

Unfortunately, ChatGPT and other AI tools can’t identify broken links effectively. Neither can they replace broken links.

The free version of ChatGPT can’t access the web to even see existing links. So, that’s not for broken link building. The same thing applies for Perplexity and Harpa AI.

Only SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush are accurate when building backlinks via broken links.

AI and Search Result Rank Tracking

Increased search engine rankings are the most visible signs that your link building campaigns are successful.

You don’t need to see clicks, impressions, or conversions. Just moving one rank up is enough proof.

As such, it is a shame no AI tool comes with a rank tracker. While Harpa AI comes close with its bit-part competitor analysis, there is still a wide gap in what rank tracker does.

Verdict: What Is the Best AI Tool for Creating a Link Building Strategy?

There is no one best AI tool. Use all the innovative tools to make your campaigns successful. But for specific needs, some might be better than others.

Here’s  a quick rundown:

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the overall best, as other AI tools are built off its API. Despite that, using ChatGPT for link building can result in inaccurate solutions and redundant phrases – especially when generating content.

DALL-E

DALL-E is the perfect AI tool for creating images. Its images are high-quality and as authentic as they can be.

Harpa AI

While Harpa AI can help to generate content ideas, meta descriptions, and fin relevant keywords, I use it only for technical tasks. The entire setup is SO technical that you need to read guides to use the tool.

Perplexity AI

This AI is the best for content writing. I love that it includes the sources of its content. But combine it with ChatGPT for the best result.

Piktochart AI

This AI is undoubtedly the best for creating editable infographics in one click. Its free trials are appealing.