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Links and citations

Use the link building pipeline

Ian DuncanFounder, Axiom Flux and AxiomAIReviewed 5 min read

In brief

The Pipeline tab in Link Building tracks your link outreach from first prospect to live placement. Add the sites you want links from, move them through Prospecting, Contacted and Negotiating, and mark each one live when the link goes up.

Key points

  • The pipeline has columns for Prospecting, Contacted, Negotiating, Live and Lost.
  • Add a site with Add prospect, or from the Link gap tab.
  • Drag a card to another column to change its stage.
  • When you mark a prospect live, it becomes a backlink on the Backlinks tab.
  • Enrich authority looks up a DA score for prospects and live links that don't have one.
  • Link Building shows in your sidebar when it is switched on for your workspace.

The steps at a glance

  1. 1

    Open Link Building

    Choose Link Building under Search / SEO in the sidebar. The Pipeline tab opens first.

  2. 2

    Add a prospect

    Press Add prospect, enter the domain and any other details, then press Add prospect in the dialog.

  3. 3

    Move it along

    Drag the card to Contacted or Negotiating as your outreach moves on, or change the Stage in the edit dialog.

  4. 4

    Mark it live

    Drag the card to the Live column when the link is published, or use the arrow icon. Enter the Live URL and press Mark as live.

  5. 5

    Record losses

    Drag the card to Lost if a site says no, so your numbers stay accurate.

The Link Building pipeline is a board for tracking link outreach, from the first site you want a link from to the day the link goes live. Links from trusted sites help search engines rate your website, and they can help AI engines trust you too.

Link Building sits under Search / SEO in your sidebar. It appears when it is switched on for your workspace. It has three tabs, Pipeline, Backlinks and Link gap. This article covers Pipeline. See backlinks and link gap for the other two.

The Link Building Pipeline board with prospect cards in stage columns

How to use the pipeline

Add a prospect

  1. Press Add prospect at the top right. You can also press the plus icon at the top of any column to add straight into that stage.
  2. Enter the Domain, such as a local news site or trade association. Only the domain is required.
  3. Add DA (Domain Authority) if you know it. Leave it blank and the app tries to look it up for you.
  4. Pick a Stage, and add a Contact email, a Relevance tag and Notes if they help.
  5. Press Add prospect.

Move a prospect between stages

Drag a card and drop it on another column. The change saves straight away. You can also hover over a card, press the pencil icon to open Edit Prospect, change the Stage and press Save.

When your link is published:

  1. Drag the card onto the Live column, or hover over it and press the arrow icon. In the edit dialog you can also pick the Live option at the bottom of the Stage menu.
  2. Enter the Live URL in Mark as Live, the page where your link appears.
  3. Add the anchor text (the clickable words of the link) if you like.
  4. Press Mark as live.

The prospect leaves the pipeline and becomes a backlink. It shows in the Live column and on the Backlinks tab.

Remove a prospect

Hover over the card and press the cross icon, then confirm.

What each part of the screen means

Stats

Total prospects counts every card in Prospecting, Contacted, Negotiating and Lost. Live links counts the cards in the Live column. In progress counts Contacted and Negotiating together. Lost counts the Lost column.

Columns

Prospecting is for sites you plan to approach. Contacted is for sites you have reached out to. Negotiating is for sites that have replied and where you are agreeing the details. Live shows backlinks with the status Active. Lost is for sites that said no or went quiet.

The link icon at the top of the Live column takes you to the Backlinks tab.

Cards

Each prospect card shows the domain and a DA badge. Green means a DA of 61 or more, amber 31 to 60, and red 30 or less. A dash means there is no score yet. The card also shows the contact email, notes and relevance tag if you added them. Prospects added from the Link gap tab carry the tag Link gap and a note of which competitors the site links to.

Live cards show the domain, the page the link is on and the anchor text. Click one to open that page.

Enrich authority

Enrich authority looks up a DA score through OpenPageRank for every prospect and live link that doesn't have one yet. A message tells you how many were updated, how many weren't found and how many were skipped because the domain wasn't valid.

Refresh

The circular arrow reloads the board.

Common problems

It shows in the sidebar only when it is switched on for your workspace. See plans and credits for what each plan includes.

A card still shows DA with a dash

The lookup couldn't find a score for that domain, or the domain was typed with extra text. Check it is a plain domain such as example.co.uk, then press Enrich authority again, or type the DA in yourself.

I can't drop a card on Live

Dropping on Live opens the Mark as Live dialog, and the move only completes when you enter the Live URL and press Mark as live.

I don't know which sites to approach

Start with the Link gap tab. It lists sites that already link to your competitors. The Sources tab and cited pages also show which sites AI engines cite for your topics, which are good targets too.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I see Link Building in my sidebar?

Link Building appears in your sidebar when it is switched on for your workspace.

What is DA?

DA stands for Domain Authority, a score from 0 to 100 that gives a rough idea of how strong a website is. You can type it in yourself, or the app looks it up for you through OpenPageRank.

What happens when I mark a prospect as live?

The prospect leaves the pipeline and becomes a backlink, with the live URL and anchor text you entered. It then shows in the Live column and on the Backlinks tab.

Does the pipeline send outreach emails?

No. The pipeline is a tracker. You contact sites yourself and record the progress here.

Can I get prospects suggested for me?

Yes. The Link gap tab finds sites that link to your competitors but not to you, and you can add them to the pipeline from there.

Keep reading

Help

Track backlinks and find link gaps

Keep a record of the sites that link to you, and find sites that link to your competitors but not to you. Add the best ones to your outreach pipeline.

Help

Compare yourself with competitors in AI answers

See how often AI engines name you against your competitors, with position-weighted share of voice, prominence, who the AI recommends and a URL Analyser.

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See which sources AI cites and which AI bots visit

See which kinds of pages and sites AI engines cite in your market, open the exact sources, and check which AI crawlers visit your website.

Help

See which pages AI engines cite

Find the domains AI engines cite most for your prompts, and every time an AI answer cited a page on your own website, with the prompt and the engine.

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Plans, allowances and credits

What each axgeo.ai plan includes, how weekly allowances work, which extras use credits, how credit top-ups work and what happens when credits run out.

Help

Change your workspace details, logo and report colours

Change your workspace name, website, industry and Google Place ID, upload the logo for your PDF reports and pick the report colours in Settings, Workspace.