How to Use ChatGPT for Link-Building (2024 Update)

AI chatbot ChatGPT has been making serious waves since its launch in November 2022, and it’s only continued to expand its capabilities in the years after. 

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the world of SEO, and ChatGPT is at the forefront of the revolution.  

It turns out it’s an extremely useful tool for streamlining tasks like keyword research, content creation, and even link-building (which is notorious for eating up tons of marketers’ time). 

Imagine this: Instead of spending countless hours conducting cold research, you use ChatGPT to:

• Brainstorm winning backlink opportunities in your niche
• Craft and edit compelling email pitches 
• Generate original content for guest posts 

The kicker?

You’ll be able to knock out these time-consuming tasks at remarkable speed, allowing you to focus on more important things. 

If you’re ready to unlock the potential of AI-powered link-building, this is the guide for you. 

Stay tuned to learn the best ways to prompt ChatGPT to secure backlinks, find untapped keywords, and produce high-quality content that attracts links. 

A General Overview of ChatGPT

First, it’s essential to understand the basics of how ChatGPT works to get the most out of it for your SEO strategies.

ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot developed by OpenAI. It uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to understand and generate human-like text.

The chatbot can understand natural human language, meaning you can talk to it just as you would a person on the street. 

Initially, OpenAI released ChatGPT in November of 2022, and the platform acquired over 1 million users during its first five days of release. 

People were immediately blown away by the chatbot’s ability to engage in natural conversation, generate engaging content, and answer complicated questions (it even displayed the ability to write code and solve complex programming problems). 

Initially, ChatGPT had more than a few limitations. 

In particular, its training data contained outdated information (pre-September 2021), and it had no direct internet access. 

However, OpenAI has since addressed both issues, as ChatGPT is now online and contains up-to-date data. 

ChatGPT 3.5 and GPT-4

GPT-3.5 and its successor, GPT-4, showcase the growing impact of AI on SEO and digital marketing. These powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) offer significant benefits for marketers, including:

• Content creation: Generate diverse content like blog posts, product descriptions, and social updates.
• Content optimization: Analyze content for SEO, suggesting keywords and improving readability.
• Keyword research: Find long-tail keywords, understand search intent, and track trending topics.
• Translation: Generate and translate content across languages, expanding your audience.
• Personalization: Tailor content and recommendations based on user data for better engagement.
• Competitor analysis: Monitor competitor strategies, identifying strengths and weaknesses to refine your own.

While GPT-3.5 offers a free entry point, GPT-4’s advanced capabilities are available through subscription. Remember, fact-checking remains essential – even in spite of ChatGPT’s internet access and current database. 

‘Hallucinations’ (where the chatbot fabricates information it doesn’t have answers to) remain a persistent problem. 

In fact, OpenAI has admitted that ChatGPT hallucinates and that they currently don’t know how to stop it. Specifically, ChatGPT has a bad habit of making up information about individuals. 

This means you’ll have to take the extra step of fact-checking ChatGPT’s content before publishing it. 

Now, let’s examine how ChatGPT can revolutionize your marketing efforts.

What are the Benefits of Using ChatGPT for SEOs?

Once ChatGPT launched in 2022, it didn’t take long at all for SEOs to begin experimenting with it. They quickly discovered that it’s an incredibly helpful tool for assisting with and speeding up many aspects of search engine optimization. 

There are two main benefits of using AI for SEO professionals: efficiency and cost reduction. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Efficiency gains

Using ChatGPT will provide an enormous boost to your SEO team’s productivity and efficiency. The chatbot can complete tasks that used to take hours in seconds, and its capability for data analysis far exceeds humans. 

Here’s a glimpse at the top ways ChatGPT will boost your efficiency:

Accelerated research and content creation: AI tools can instantly analyze search trends, gather competitor data, and generate content outlines or drafts. This frees up time for high-level strategy and analysis that only a human expert can provide. 

Streamlining workflows: LLMs can automate repetitive tasks like keyword clustering, meta tag generation, or basic content formatting. This allows SEO professionals to focus on more pressing tasks – like maintaining relationships with link partners and media outlets. 

Advanced data-driven insights: AI can sift through large datasets more quickly than humans, which could reveal patterns or opportunities that you may have missed otherwise. This informs better decision-making and provides more targeted optimization efforts. 

Reduce overhead costs 

Speaking of ChatGPT being free, another perk is that it’ll reduce your overhead costs significantly. 

You’ll still need one of your team members to fact-check everything generated by ChatGPT, and you’ll also need a few SEO tools (because the chatbot doesn’t have access to key SEO metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty) – but you’ll still save money due to the increased productivity of your team. 

Also, with ChatGPT and a few other free SEO tools (like our Google keyword planner tool from The HOTH), it’s now possible for startups and smaller businesses to conduct basic link-building campaigns with just a handful of team members.

Of course, working with a top-tier digital marketing agency with an existing link infrastructure is still the most reliable way to acquire high-authority backlinks. 

However, it’s entirely possible to develop a winning link-building campaign using only free tools, especially for niches that don’t have a lot of competition. 

How To Use ChatGPT To Simplify Link-Building

Okay, now that you’re up to speed with ChatGPT and its SEO benefits, it’s time to get to the good stuff. 

Here’s how you can use ChatGPT to streamline your link-building campaign. 

Content generation

One of ChatGPTs most useful features is its ability to create virtually any type of written content on the fly. 

It can generate blog posts, meta descriptions, social media posts, FAQs, and more within seconds – all you have to do is tell it what you want. 

Also, you can continue to prompt ChatGPT based on previous prompts to uncover even more useful features and tools. 

For example, let’s get ChatGPT to generate 10 keywords for us related to gardening:

Let’s not stop there, though. To build on the original prompt, let’s ask it to write a short blog using the 10 keywords it just generated:

Voila, we now have a short blog post containing 10 relevant gardening keywords. 

This is a very simple example of how you can use ChatGPT to aid with content creation, which is one of the most difficult aspects of link-building. 

For instance, experiencing writer’s block is no fun, and it’s extremely common (78% of business professionals struggle with it). 

With ChatGPT by your side, you can say goodbye to spending hours staring at a blank Google Doc trying to come up with yet another guest post. 

Using ChatGPT to brainstorm new angles and unique perspectives on a topic 

If you’ve been creating content for your business for a while, then you know how difficult it can be to keep it fresh, relevant, and unique. 

You’ve likely covered the same handful of topics in an exhausting amount of ways, which is enough to fry anyone’s brain. 

ChatGPT is a great secret weapon in this regard.

Let’s ask it to come up with a unique approach for a post about common gardening issues (which is a topic gardening bloggers have covered ad nauseam):

ChatGPT recommends that we frame the post as a dialogue – granting you the opportunity to weave a fictional yet relatable narrative into the article. 

Let’s say that you aren’t happy with this suggestion. In that case, you can simply ask for a different idea, and ChatGPT will come up with something else:

From here, rinse and repeat until you land on a unique angle that you think will work. 

Creating an outline and first draft 

Once you have a suitable idea, you can continue to use ChatGPT to develop an outline and create a first draft. 

For the purposes of this example, we’ll go with the idea of framing the post as a series of letters between a garden and its caretaker. 

Next, we need to ask ChatGPT to create an outline of the post for us. 

Carefully review each subheading to confirm that they’re relevant and factually accurate. After that, you can move on to the first draft. 

Now, you have a first draft to work with, even if it’s a bit too poetic. Speaking of tone, it’s crucial to continue to prompt ChatGPT to ensure you wind up with the right voice for your audience.

Here’s what it came up with after we requested something a bit more practical:

This is better, but it still needs some work. 

For the best results, you should A) keep prompting ChatGPT until it gets as close to the tone you want as possible, and B) edit the piece to include your own expertise and experiences (which is essential for Google E-E-A-T). 

Also, don’t forget to fact-check each piece of content before publishing it to avoid inaccuracies. 

Keyword research 

Keyword research, while not as time intensive as link-building, is still something that takes hours when done properly.

Once again, ChatGPT speeds things up in a big way. 

We’ve already demonstrated how easy it is for the chatbot to generate relevant keywords for your target audience. 

However, ChatGPT can also classify keywords based on search intent and category, match keywords with buyer personas, and more. 

Let’s run a few examples to demonstrate how you can use ChatGPT for keyword research. 

Brainstorming seed keywords 

Seed keywords are short phrases that broadly describe a topic or niche, and they serve as the starting point for keyword research. 

In the previous example, we had ChatGPT generate 10 keywords for us based on the seed keyword ‘gardening,’ but let’s try another industry this time – something more niche-specific, like project management software. 

These keywords are nice, but let’s push ChatGPT a little further and ask for some related terms. Let’s say that you sell Kanban board software, and you want to focus on related keywords. 

That’s not bad; now we have some additional keywords to explore. 

Generating long-tail keywords and commonly asked questions 

Now, let’s start honing in on some topic ideas for content. Let’s ask ChatGPT to generate some relevant long-tail keywords and commonly asked questions about Kanban board software. 

These are all juicy suggestions that can lead to some excellent pieces of content. However, don’t forget to vet each keyword and topic idea through SEO tools to ensure they’re viable. 

Why is that?

It’s because ChatGPT doesn’t have access to real-time search data, so you’ll need to use it in tandem with SEO tools (like our free offerings). 

Despite this, ChatGPT is still an excellent tool for brainstorming keyword ideas that you may not have stumbled upon otherwise. 

Identifying each keyword’s search intent 

Even though ChatGPT can’t access real-time search data, it’s still quite adept at identifying the search intent behind keywords. 

This is extremely useful since misinterpreting the search intent behind a keyword can have negative results on your SEO (and conversion rates). 

Here’s what happens when we ask ChatGPT to provide the search intent for project management software keywords. 

Analyzing competitor keywords

Lastly, you can use ChatGPT to peek behind the curtain of your competitor’s SEO strategies. In particular, you can ask it to analyze a snippet of their content and pick out the keywords they’re using. 

This will help you find out if your competitors are using any keywords that you aren’t. 

Sticking with the project management example, here’s what happens when we ask ChatGPT to analyze a snippet from project management software company Asana’s blog:

Brainstorm new link-building opportunities 

Link-builders are constantly on the hunt for fresh, new strategies for picking up backlinks, which is one of the reasons why the process takes so long. 

ChatGPT is a tremendous help here. 

It will analyze your niche online and suggest specific strategies like unique content marketing ideas and websites for guest post opportunities. 

This gets rid of a major time and creativity bottleneck, which is yet another reason why ChatGPT is a link-builder’s best friend. 

Here’s a look at the top ways we’ve found to leverage ChatGPT for your link-building.

Finding the best link-building opportunities for your niche 

First, let’s look at how you can get ChatGPT to find the most reliable link-building strategies for your field of expertise. 

In this example, we asked ChatGPT what the best link-building opportunities for project management websites were, and here’s what it gave us:

Its suggestions include guest blogging, creating content like whitepapers, and listing your business on relevant resource pages and directories – all of which are viable tactics in the project management space. 

It’s crucial to note that this isn’t a generic list that ChatGPT generates for every question related to link-building. 

Instead, it’s a niche-specific list of tactics likely to work.

Once again, you shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT to develop your entire link-building strategy, but it’s certainly a helpful tool, and its suggestions make for an excellent starting point. 

Don’t forget that you can continue to prompt the chatbot based on previous prompts. 

Let’s see what ChatGPT has to say if we ask if it has any other link-building opportunities related to project management software. 

And voila, ChatGPT was able to provide us with even more ideas. While it feels that the original list contains the strongest link-building opportunities, expert roundups and industry events are two great (and often underused) tactics.

Find powerful influencers in your niche 

Influencer marketing is another method for acquiring high-authority backlinks, and ChatGPT can tell you which influencers are in your field. 

This is another huge time saver, as it can take hours browsing social media sites like Instagram and TikTok trying to find relevant influencers to spark a relationship with  – and even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll score any backlinks out of it. 

That’s why it’s best to ask ChatGPT which influencers are prominent in your field, reach out to them, and then move on to other tactics. 

Here’s what ChatGPT generated for us when we asked it who the top influencers were in the project management software space:

Whenever you use a similar prompt, don’t forget to ask for the top online influencers in your niche; otherwise, you may wind up with a list of influencers that are too big to reach (i.e., TV show hosts, celebrities, mainstream authors, etc.). 

In the example provided, ChatGPT listed online influencers that have websites and blogs, which is what you want. 

Assist with writing outreach emails 

Outreach is another area where ChatGPT is an enormous help. In particular, it makes writing outreach emails easier than ever. 

You can use it to brainstorm ideas for outreach emails, or you can get the chatbot to write complete emails for you from scratch. 

Remember, ChatGPT is a permanent cure for writer’s block.

To give you an example of what the chatbot is capable of, we got it to generate an entire outreach email for us to a project management software website. 

This is an excellent template, but it’s crucial to edit and rephrase it to make it your own. People are able to tell if something is written entirely by AI, so don’t forget to add your personal touch to it.  

The more details you can add about your website, the more specific ChatGPT will be when writing outreach emails. 

So whenever you’re conducting outreach for backlinks, make your prompts detailed and highly specific.  

Important Considerations when Using LLMs for Link Building

By now, we’ve looked at all the net positives involved with using ChatGPT for link-building. 

Yet, like anything else, there are some potential downsides to using LLM chatbots, so let’s take a look at the top things you should avoid.  

Potential penalties

Google’s guidelines stress high-quality, original content. 

Overusing LLM output may raise flags in the future, especially if it’s low-value or detectable as AI-generated. 

As stated several times throughout this article, ChatGPT is an excellent starting point and brainstorming tool – but you shouldn’t let it generate 100% of your content. 

Quality control 

We’ve already gone over how chatbots ‘hallucinate,’ so it’s crucial to ensure everything ChatGPT spits out is correct. 

Always fact-check rigorously before using a chatbot’s output. Credibility is vital in link building, and inaccurate content will undermine your efforts, so beware! 

Ethics

Using LLMs to generate outreach disguised as fully human-written content could be deceptive, particularly in guest posting. 

The risk here is that if people find out you are solely using AI, you could potentially damage your reputation.

For example, a site owner may discontinue providing you with backlinks if they discover that you’re using AI to generate all your outreach emails. 

Originality is crucial

LLMs excel at streamlining repetitive tasks, but unique insights and genuine value propositions come from human experts. Generic content offers no compelling reason for sites to link back to you. 

Also, Google’s 2024 March Core Update began cracking down on purely AI-generated content in a big way, so you’ll need to add original insights and experiences to your content to avoid manual penalties. 

Here are some best practices for creating original content: 

• Prioritize human-led outreach: Let the LLM handle the first draft, but leave space for personalization, original insights, and first-hand experiences.
• LLMs as ideation partners: It’s best to use ChatGPT exclusively for brainstorming unique link-worthy content ideas or angles but not for final output without significant editing.
• Quality always wins: Never compromise content quality for speed. If you want to find true, lasting success with your SEO, then you should focus on creating content that truly provides value to your audience.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t use ChatGPT or that it won’t significantly speed things up for you. It’s an extremely useful tool for link-building, but it still has some limitations that may land you in hot water if you don’t know what you’re doing. 

Wrapping Up: Using ChatGPT for Link-Building 

By now, you should have a solid understanding of how to use ChatGPT for link-building and better search engine rankings. 

The AI chatbot will uncover link-building opportunities, help write guest posts, assist with outreach, and discover relevant websites and influencers in your niche. 

As long as you combine ChatGPT’s speed with your own expertise and experiences, you should have a positive experience with the tool. 

Do you need expert help with link-building at your business?

Then don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our five-star managed SEO services. Not only that, but our link outreach services are second to none, so don’t wait to try us out today.