Link building CRM
A CRM Built for Link Building
BacklinkDone is a link building CRM organized around the things link builders actually work with: websites, the people who edit them, the reason each site could link, what you offered, which page should get the link and how the relationship has gone over time. The records start from your competitor and backlink data, not from a blank sheet you have to type into.
Everything you know about a site, in one record
- Who to contact
- Editor of the tool lists
- Link earned
- Live on the integrations roundup, pointing to /integrations/
- What worked
- Integration screenshots
- Next opportunity
- A tool list that still includes a discontinued tool Qualified
The problem
Why a generic sales CRM does not fit link building
Plenty of teams try to run link building in their company CRM. It works for a few weeks. Then the custom fields multiply, nobody fills them in, and the team drifts back to a spreadsheet. The reason is structural: a sales CRM models a different job.
| Sales CRM concept | What link building actually needs |
|---|---|
| Company | A website with many pages, sections and authors, each a separate chance to earn a link |
| Deal | An opportunity on one specific page, with a reason that site could credibly link to you |
| Contact | The author or editor who can change that page, not whoever answers the general inbox |
| Deal value | A target page on your site that the link should help rank |
| Product or quote | An offer: product access, original data, a tool, an expert quote, an updated example |
| Closed won | A live link, which still has to be checked because it can be removed or changed later |
The data model
Nine records that make up a link building CRM
Every record in BacklinkDone is one of these entities, and each one is connected to the others. That is what lets a single opportunity carry its full context from discovery to a monitored link.
Core
Opportunity
A specific chance to earn a link on one page, with its priority.
Where
Website
The domain, what it publishes, and every opportunity and link on it.
Who
Contact
The author, editor or partner who can make the change.
Why
Reason to Link
The credible reason this site could mention you.
What
Offer
What you bring: access, data, a tool, a quote, an update.
Target
Target Page
The page on your site the link should support.
Status
Outreach Status
Where the work stands, from Ready to Contact to Replied.
History
Relationship History
What has happened with a contact or website over time.
Result
Acquired Backlink
The live link, its anchor and attributes, tied to its source.
Link prospecting
Link prospecting software that fills the CRM for you
An empty CRM is a data-entry project. BacklinkDone starts full. It reads the backlink profiles of your competitors, finds the sites that link to them but not to you, and creates a record for each opportunity worth pursuing.
Each new record arrives with the website, the specific page, why it is relevant, the reason to link, who to contact, what to offer, a target page and a priority. You review it rather than research it from scratch. See how the list is built in the backlink opportunity finder and competitor backlink analysis.
- toolreviewsdaily.comContact: article author · Offer: product access
- growthweeklyhq.comContact: newsletter editor · Offer: expert quote
- devresourceshq.comContact: site maintainer · Offer: free template
Relationship history
Remember every editor you have worked with
The most valuable thing a link builder owns is relationships. In a spreadsheet they live in someone's memory and leave when that person does. In BacklinkDone they are part of the record.
- See what happened with a contact before you write to them again.
- Know which offer earned the link last time, and which page it points to.
- Go back to past partners when a new page or dataset gives you a fresh reason to reach out.
- Keep the context when the person who ran the campaign moves on.
Outreach
From the right prospect to a sent sequence
Outreach tools assume you already know who deserves an email. BacklinkDone starts earlier: it decides which prospects deserve outreach, why, who exactly to write to and what to offer, then writes an AI personalized outreach draft for each one.
On Growth and Agency, the Smartlead integration sends the sequence and syncs every status back into the CRM. On Starter, you send the drafts from your own inbox and mark each opportunity as you go.
After the first email goes out, the opportunity moves to Contacted and then Replied, and the CRM keeps the relationship history. When a link goes live, it moves into backlink tracking as acquired and is then monitored.
Prospects, reasons to link, contacts, offers and target pages.
Inbox, LinkedIn or an outreach tool. You write and send.
Outreach status, relationship history and the acquired backlink.
Worked example
One website, two opportunities, one relationship
How a single relationship builds up in the link building CRM over a few months, using example data.
February: the first opportunity
saasstackhq.com links to two competitors from an integrations roundup. BacklinkDone qualifies it, finds the editor of the roundup as the contact and recommends integration screenshots as the offer. You pitch from your inbox and mark it Contacted.
March: the link
The editor adds you to the roundup. The opportunity becomes an acquired backlink pointing at /integrations/, and the relationship history shows what worked: a concrete asset, not a generic ask.
Later: the second opportunity
A new list on the same site still includes a discontinued tool. The new opportunity sits next to what you already know about the website and its editor, so you write to someone who already knows you, with a reason they will recognize.
FAQ
Link building CRM FAQ
What is a link building CRM?
A link building CRM is a system of record for the sites, people and conversations behind your backlinks. Instead of deals and companies, it tracks opportunities on specific pages, the websites and contacts behind them, the reason each site could link, the offer you made, the target page, the outreach status and the relationship history. BacklinkDone builds those records for you from competitor and backlink data.
Does BacklinkDone send outreach emails or run sequences?
BacklinkDone writes AI personalized outreach drafts for every opportunity on every plan. On Growth and Agency, the Smartlead integration sends your sequences and syncs each status back into the CRM, so Contacted and Replied update without manual work. On Starter you send the drafts from your own inbox. Either way, the CRM keeps the full relationship history. See pricing for what each plan includes.
Why not use a general sales CRM for link building?
You can, but you end up fighting the model. Sales CRMs are built around companies, deals and revenue stages. Link building revolves around pages, authors, reasons to link, offers and target pages, and a "won" link still has to stay live. Those fields have to be invented and maintained by hand in a sales CRM, and nothing fills them for you. A link building CRM starts with them.
How does BacklinkDone compare with link building outreach tools?
Outreach tools such as BuzzStream, Pitchbox and Respona focus on prospect lists and sending campaigns. BacklinkDone focuses on the intelligence before outreach: which prospects deserve it, why, who to contact and what to offer. It then keeps the record of the relationship. Many teams pair it with the outreach tool they already have.
Where do the contacts in the CRM come from?
Contact discovery is part of qualifying an opportunity. BacklinkDone looks for the person who can actually make the change, such as the author of the article, the editor of the list or a partnerships lead, and records them as who to contact. The contact sits on the record next to the website, the reason to link and the offer, so the pitch is planned around a real person rather than a generic inbox.
Can I see what happened with a website before?
Yes. Relationship History is one of the core records in the CRM. The opportunities, contacts, outreach status and acquired backlinks connected to a website stay together, so before you pitch a site again you can see whether you already have a link there, who you worked with and how the last conversation went. Earned links are covered by backlink monitoring.
Backlink Management
One pipeline for every opportunity, contact, offer, target page and acquired link.
Learn morebacklink opportunity finderBacklink Opportunity Finder
Turn thousands of backlinks into a short list of opportunities worth pursuing, each with a reason to link.
Learn morebacklink tracking toolBacklink Tracking
Follow every opportunity from discovery to a live link, with the history of what happened at each stage.
Learn more14-day free trial
Start a link building CRM that starts full
Add your domain and competitors. BacklinkDone finds the opportunities worth pursuing with the reason to link, who to contact and what to offer for each, then keeps the outreach status and relationship history.
No credit card required.