Last month, my team built over 1,200 backlinks for client and internal projects.
How is hitting these numbers possible without sacrificing quality?
It takes experience, robust processes, a reliable network of partners, and - crucially - the right tech stack.
Today, I’ll share exactly which five AI-powered tools make that possible: Insert.Link, BuzzStream, Postaga, Surfer AI, and Ahrefs Brand Radar.
You'll learn what each tool does - and how we use them in our daily workflow to streamline our prospecting, simplify outreach, and automate content creation.
AI Link Building Tool Overview
| Tool | Main Use Case | AI Features | Best For | Automation Level |
| INSERT.LINK | Link marketplace for niche edits and guest posts | AI matches relevant anchor texts | Fast link placements without outreach | High — fully automated matching and link placement |
| Postaga | Personalized outreach campaigns | AI-generated personalized emails | Streamlined cold outreach and PR campaigns | High — automated email creation |
| BuzzStream | CRM and outreach management | AI-assisted email drafts | Managing large-scale outreach and follow-ups | Medium — requires manual input |
| Surfer AI | SEO-driven content creation | AI-generated optimized articles | Creating high-quality content to earn organic links | Medium — requires human editing |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Monitoring brand mentions in AI searches | AI-tracked unlinked mentions & outreach targets | Identifying missed opportunities in AI search results | High — automated tracking |
1. INSERT.LINK
INSERT.LINK is an AI-powered link-building marketplace we built to help us find high-quality pages for niche edits and guest posts.
Essentially, it’s a vast database you can search by keyword, which uses AI to identify pages that include relevant anchor texts.
Thanks to that, you can find relevant pages where you can place your links quickly. By quickly, I mean 2-3 days.
Here’s what the search results look like for “keto diet.”
As you can see, the results page includes a relevance score, content snippets with the target anchor, insertion price, and page metrics, so you can quickly decide if it meets your criteria.
Speaking of metrics, you can filter the search results by DR/DA/AS, RD count, traffic volume, keywords it ranks for, and pretty much every other metric you may need to vet publishers.
It doesn’t stop there:
You will soon be able to use the platform to find relevant listicle placements (“Top X Tools for Y”, “Best X Alternative to Y”, etc. ), which Google’s AI Overviews and AI chatbot responses are often based on.
The sign-up is simple, and unlike in other marketplaces, you don’t pay any funds to access full search results.
Prices start at $10, so it’s an affordable solution for local businesses with tight budgets or SEO agencies that build links at scale.
2. Postaga
Postaga is an AI-powered outreach platform we've integrated into our workflow to streamline our link-building and PR campaigns.
In short, it helps us personalize email outreach by extracting information from a prospect’s online content. This makes our messages genuinely personal and significantly improves response rates.
Here's how it works:
You select a campaign type, such as guest posting or resource page link-building, and Postaga’s AI analyzes your content to identify relevant prospects.
It then extracts contextually relevant quotes or snippets from your target’s articles, so crafting highly personalized emails is dead easy.
It also automates finding contact information-emails, Twitter handles, LinkedIn profiles. That's countless hours saved on manual prospecting.
On top of that, Postaga has built-in CRM features, so it helps us track responses, automate follow-ups, and organize our entire outreach process in one place.
Postaga has a free tier, but to take advantage of its full capabilities, you need a paid plan: Pro, starting at $84/month, or Agency, starting at $250/month.
3. BuzzStream
BuzzStream is another outreach platform we use to manage link-building and digital PR campaigns.
Its AI features aren’t as well developed as Postaga’s, but they’re still a massive help when crafting outreach emails and subject lines.
Simply put, BuzzStream offers an AI writing assistant powered by GPT-style models to streamline email creation. This reduces tedious manual input, saves time, and most importantly, improves personalization.
BuzzStream also shines as a CRM for link monitoring, tracking email opens and replies, and managing follow-up sequences. So you don’t miss any opportunities, and your team has all interactions recorded in one place.
BuzzStream pricing starts at $24/month, but as an agency, you’ll most likely need either the Growth or Professional plans, which cost $124/month and $299/month, respectively.
4. Surfer AI
Surfer AI is a content optimization tool that powers our content creation.
It helps us create content for our link-building campaigns, including guest posts and evergreen articles, and reports that attract links over time.
How does it work?
You enter the keyword, select the template, set the tone of voice, and choose your organic competitors from the provided list (Surfer analyzes SERPs for the keyword to identify relevant articles).
Next, you can paste your outline or edit the one suggested by Surfer and add your proprietary data or other E-E-A-T signals. Once you’re happy with the outline, you hit “Write with AI,” and it produces an SEO-optimized draft.
As with any AI-generated content, its quality depends on what’s already in SERPs.
If there’s good content available, the quality is excellent. If you’re targeting long-tail keywords or the SERPs are mixed, the result can be pretty random.
But we will never publish AI content without editing thoroughly, so it doesn’t matter that much.
Surfer has three pricing plans. The lowest one, Essential, starts at $79 a month and allows you to generate 60 AI articles a year. The Scale plan ($175/month) includes 240 AI articles annually.
If you need more credits, pick the Enterprise plan or buy add-on AI packages.
5. Ahrefs Brand Radar
Brand Radar is a new Ahrefs tool built in response to the rise of AI-driven search. Think AI Overviews, AI Mode, or ChatGPT search.
In a nutshell, its AI-powered tracking shows how your brand is mentioned and cited by Large Language Models (LLMs) and identifies opportunities for link reclamation or fresh placements on influential pages.
Which is priceless for PR and link-building teams.
How it works:
Brand Radar tracks your brand’s mentions across AI-generated search results and highlights exactly which domains are cited by LLMs. So we get a clear list of authoritative targets for your next outreach campaign.
It also shows us which topics and keywords to target to fill gaps in AI visibility compared to competitors.
Finally, the tool benchmarks AI visibility over time, so we can easily spot shifts in performance and stay ahead of trends.
The tool is currently included with standard Ahrefs subscriptions, which start at $99 a month.
AI Link Building Tools FAQs
To wrap up, let me answer a few frequently asked questions about AI link-building tools.
What is an AI link-building tool?
An AI link-building tool is a software that uses generative AI to streamline the link-building process.
These tools automate and optimize tasks such as prospect identification, outreach personalization, content creation, and link tracking.
This makes the link-building process easy to scale, helps you identify unique opportunities, and ultimately, increases the likelihood of securing quality backlinks.
Are AI tools better than manual link building?
AI tools offer significant advantages over manual link building: automation of repetitive tasks, greater scalability, enhanced accuracy in prospect targeting, and more.
However, I wouldn’t recommend using them without human oversight because nuanced strategy and genuine relationship building still require human judgment.
For optimal results, integrate AI’s speed and efficiency with the strategic insights and creativity only human expertise can provide.
Is AI link building safe for SEO?
AI link building is safe for SEO when used ethically and responsibly.
In fact, using AI tools that help you identify genuinely relevant prospects, personalize outreach, and create valuable content reduces the risk of violating search engine guidelines.
If, on the other hand, you use them to automate spammy practices or secure unnatural link placements, you put yourself at risk of penalties and jeopardize long-term growth.
Final Words
AI link-building tools allow teams to scale their operations without cutting corners.
Actually, they can help you identify prospects and personalization opportunities that a human eye might miss. By doing so, they improve the effectiveness of the link-building process.
If you’re interested in incorporating any of the tools into your workflow, start by signing up for free trials or free plans. They come with limited capabilities, but will allow you to get a sense of the benefits and user experience they offer before you swipe your credit card.
