Using AI to Build Links: What Works, What Gets You Ghosted, and What’s a Waste of Time

There are dozens of AI-powered link-building tools out there, but which are actually worth the investment?

That’s the question we’re going to answer today. At this point, we’ve tried out countless AI link-building tools, and we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. 

Right off the bat, we should tell you that any tool promising to fully automate the link-building process isn’t worth your time. Steer clear of any platform that promises ‘auto backlinks.’ Link-building is far too complicated and delicate a process to leave entirely up to machines. 

Things like personalized outreach and high-quality content are both absolutely crucial for link-building success, and they both require expert human oversight to do properly (especially considering the types of high-quality links you need to build to improve visibility on AI search tools). 

However, using AI to automate certain aspects of our link-building campaigns has saved tons of time and helped us discover opportunities we wouldn’t have otherwise. 

In this guide, we’ll teach you the smart way to use AI to build backlinks. 

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. AI tactics that enhance the outreach process
2. What gets you ghosted
3. AI tools to avoid entirely 
4. The most reliable way to build high-quality backlinks 

AI Outreach: What Works in Practice    

First, let’s look at how AI tools can enhance the outreach process. No matter how you cut it, outreach is a time-consuming process, and there are plenty of ways that AI can speed things up without sacrificing quality. 

When done properly, your automated emails will be practically indistinguishable from your handwritten ones, but this takes a lot of calibrating to achieve.  

Here’s what we’ve found actually works. 

#1: Smart templates with dynamic variables 

If you’ve got a jaw-dropping number of outreach emails to send, AI can undoubtedly speed things up, but the trick is not losing your personal touch and originality. 

One of the best ways we’ve found to preserve our voice is to use smart templates with dynamic variables. These are placeholders that get filled automatically by AI tools, and we’ve found them extremely useful. 

Examples include placeholders like {first name}, {website topic}, and {recent article}. Whenever you feed the template to the AI tool, it will fill in the gaps with up-to-date, accurate information. 

Here’s a quick example of a smart template with dynamic variables:

Hey {first name},

I enjoyed your {recent article} about {topic}. Would you mind adding a link to my guide on {keyword}?

A high-quality AI tool can take a simple template like that and turn it into something like this:

Hey Sarah, 

I enjoyed your article on optimizing for AI search in 2025. I especially appreciated the section comparing Google’s AI Overviews to ChatGPT – that’s a question we often get from clients. I thought you may find value in our guide on AI Search Visibility tactics. Would you mind adding a link to it?

The great thing about this tactic is that your templates can be very short and direct. Thanks to the dynamic variables, savvy AI tools can fill in the blanks with personalized sentences and contextual understanding, not just static data. 

The AI link-building tools that feature high-quality dynamic variables include:

1. Respona – This tool has dynamic variables for contact data, website data, content references, and custom fields.
2. Postaga – Postaga’s AI will scan prospects’ content for relevant snippets and insights (and provide unique advice). 
3. Pitchbox – Its AI Template Assistant features dynamic personalization for each prospect, including suggested phrases and context-aware fields. 

#2: Prospecting lists filtered by topical relevance

Manually filtering a prospect list can take a ton of time (and make you want to pull your hair out). Typically, building a prospect list involves creating a massive list of potential link targets (from blogs, media outlets, and directories) and then filtering out the irrelevant sites one by one. 

This is another area where we found AI link-building tools were a massive help. 

LLM-powered tools can analyze a website’s content on the semantic level without relying on things like keyword matching. 

Because of this, they’re able to quickly determine whether a website’s content is either topically or contextually relevant to yours. This dramatically speeds up the prospecting process and, in our experience, yields high-quality results. 

Here are the tools that we trust for link prospecting by topical relevance:

1. Ontolo – Ontolo has filtering options that let you hide irrelevant domains and niches. 
2. LinkDR – This tool’s AI focuses on topical alignment and filters out irrelevant domains. 
3. Semrush (Link-Building Tool + Copilot) – Combining Semrush’s Link-Building Tool with its Copilot AI lets you filter prospect lists by topical relevance. 

#3: Personalization powered by AI tools trained on tone 

To us, dynamic variables are only one piece of the personalization puzzle. While they make excellent conversation starters and make templates feel fresh, they won’t speak in your brand’s unique voice. 

That is, unless you train them to. 

With the advanced NLP of modern AI tools, it’s possible to train them to speak in your brand’s voice. They achieve this by analyzing your existing content and mimicking the tone. 

With this piece in place, the personalization puzzle is complete. The dynamic templates help you align each message to each prospect, and the brand voice training ensures that each message sounds like it came straight from you. 

Tools that feature brand voice training include Respona and Postaga, which are two of our all-time favorite AI-powered link-building tools. 

In our experience, the methods we just outlined are the most effective way to use AI to speed up outreach. 

Here’s a recap:

1. Use an AI tool to build a prospect list filtered by topical relevance. 
2. Create a series of brief smart templates with dynamic variables. 
3. Train an AI tool to speak in your brand’s voice. 
4. Generate authentic, personalized emails for each prospect (that you quickly review for accuracy) 

What Gets You Ghosted (and Possibly Blacklisted) 

Next, let’s explore what not to do. These methods will undoubtedly get you ghosted, and they may even cause your email to get blacklisted, so tread carefully:

• Obvious GPT-written emails. Messages that were written by ChatGPT stand out like a sore thumb. These types of emails have no personalization and are incredibly generic. That’s why we recommend going the extra mile by using brand personalization and dynamic variables. 
• Mass emails with no context. Nobody likes being spammed with emails, especially if they’re completely out of the blue. You should always have a good reason for emailing prospects, like adding a link to a helpful, relevant resource. Also, don’t spam prospects with emails. If you don’t hear back right away, wait at least 3 days to send a follow-up.  
• Asking for a link without offering value. It’s called link-building and not link-begging for a reason. Anytime you target a prospect for a link, you MUST have a way to provide value to their site, even if it’s as simple as providing a helpful resource with the link (like linking to one of your free tools or ultimate guides). 

What You Should Avoid Entirely 

Lastly, here are the types of tools that you should avoid at all costs:

• Any tool that promises auto backlinks. As we mentioned before (but it bears repeating), you should steer clear of all tools that promise to automate the entire link-building process.

• Tools that select prospects based on DA/DR scores. The link-building game has evolved beyond raw authority scores in lieu of AI search tools. LLMs do not use DA or DR scores when contributing authority to domains, so you should focus on contextual relevance instead. 

• Systems that build links without human review. Even the most robust AI link-building tools require human review. While it’s tempting to skip this step, laying eyes on every outreach email is a must. 

Wrapping Up: AI-Powered Link-Building Tools 

AI can definitely help enhance link-building, but it has to be done the right way. Ensure that your outreach emails, while featuring some automation, are still personalized and written in your brand’s voice. 

Want to know the best way to find success with modern link-building campaigns?

Outsource the process to battle-tested experts like us. Our ABC Packages provide results that stick, so don’t wait to sign up.