Link Prospecting Tool

Turn a list of search queries into a ready-to-use link-building outreach list.

This Actor handles the full list-building workflow:

1. Scrape search results - get results for your queries across Google Search, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
2. Filter already-mentioned domains - remove any sources that already mention your brand.
3. Enrich leads - get contact details for each source so you can run cold outreach.

What data can I extract with Link Prospecting Tool?

This Actor returns multiple datasets:

1. Domains with leads - a list of all domains for which leads were found. You can add these to competitorDomains on subsequent Actor runs to exclude them.
2. Mentions - an overview of all sources found across Google and AI search, including whether each source mentions your brand and links back to your website.
3. All leads - all leads found for cold outreach. To help you organize your outreach, the list is split into three sub-lists: Batch 1, Batch 2, and Batch 3. Each batch includes only one lead per domain.
4. Author list - a list of author names to help you personalize your cold outreach.
5. Sub-Actor results - links to the results of the sub-Actors triggered by this Actor.

When using the Export button you will get the All leads dataset. You need to go to the Storage tab in order to download the other datasets.

Example output

Domains with leads

Output field:

brand_mentioned	Was your brand mentioned in the article?
domain	Domain of the source
source_url	Url of sources appearing in search results
companyLinkedin	Company Linkedin URL
companyName	Company name
companySize	Company size
companyWebsite	Company website
companyCity	City of the company headquarter
industry	Company industry
departments	Departments of the lead
email	Email of the lead
firstName	Lead first name
lastName	Lead last name
linkedinProfile	Lead linkedin profile
jobTitle	Lead job title
twitter	Lead Twitter profile
seniority	Lead seniority level
mobileNumber	Mobile phone of the lead
city	City of the lead
country	Country of the lead

Lead example:

{
  "firstName": "first name",
  "lastName": "last name",
  "linkedinProfile": "http://www.linkedin.com/in/fullName",
  "email": "firstName@example.com",
  "mobileNumber": null,
  "jobTitle": "SEO specialist",
  "industry": null,
  "city": "Prague",
  "country": "Czechia",
  "companyName": "example",
  "companyWebsite": "example.com",
  "companySize": null,
  "companyLinkedin": "http://www.linkedin.com/company/example",
  "companyCity": "Prague",
  "departments": [
    "marketing"
  ],
  "seniority": "vp",
  "twitter": null,
  "domain": "example.com",
  "source_url": [],
  "brand_mentioned": false
}

Mentions

Output field:

url	URL of the source
domain	Domain of the source
queries	Search queries which return this source
brand_mentioned_in_source	Was your brand mentioned in the source?
backlink_in_source	Do you have a backlink from this source?
AIMode	Did the source appear in Google AI mode?
AIOverview_mention	Did the source appear in Google AI Overview?
ChatGPT_mention	Did the source appear in ChatGPT search?
OrganicResult_mention	Did the source appear in Google organic results?
Perplexity_mention	Did the source appear in Perplexity search?

Source example:

{
  "url": "https://www.reliablesoft.net/top-10-search-engines-in-the-world/",
  "domain": "https://www.reliablesoft.net",
  "brand_mentioned_in_source": true,
  "backlink_in_source": true,
  "Perplexity_mention": false,
  "ChatGPT_mention": true,
  "AIOverview_mention": false,
  "AIMode": false,
  "OrganicResult_mention": false,
  "queries": [
    "best search engine"
  ]
}

How much does it cost to use the Link Prospecting Tool?

This Actor is billed per usage and costs approximately $0.02 per query. It also launches sub-Actors that incur additional costs:

• Google Search Scraper - cost per query and sources included. You can use organicResult to limit the number of organic results (costs $4.5 per 1k result). You can also disable some of the AI searches to lower the cost.
• Website Content Crawler - runs once per source.
• Contact Details Scraper - runs only for sources without a backlink. Use maxContactsPerDomain to control costs.
• AI Web Scraper - $25/1,000 sources. Only charged when the power-up is enabled.

To minimize costs during testing:

• Limit organic results to 10
• Provide only one to two search queries
• Limit the number of leads per source with maxContactsPerDomain set to 2.

You can also minimize cost by excluding more websites using ignoreDomains.

How to use the Link Prospecting Tool?

Input

Field	Type	Description
queries	string (textarea)	One search query per line
brand	string	Brand name to search for (case-insensitive)
ownDomains	string[]	Your domains to exclude from analysis
competitorDomains	string[]	Competitor domains to exclude
ignoreDomains	string[]	Other domains to exclude
enableChatGpt	boolean	Include ChatGPT results in the search
enableAiMode	boolean	Include AI mode results in the search
enableAiOverviews	boolean	Include AI Overviews results in the search
enablePerplexity	boolean	Include Perplexity results in the search
organicResult	integer	Number of Google organic results to include per search
maxContactsPerDomain	integer	Max contact leads per source domain (default: 1)
includeMention	boolean	Run lead enrichment for sources that mention the brand but don't include a backlink
department	string[]	Target department for lead enrichment
searchAuthorName	boolean	Enrich results with the author name

Example input

{
  "brand": "Google",
  "competitorDomains": [
    "bing.com",
    "microsoft.com"
  ],
  "department": [
    "marketing",
    "c_suite"
  ],
  "enableAiMode": true,
  "enableAiOverviews": true,
  "enableChatGpt": true,
  "enablePerplexity": true,
  "includeMention": true,
  "ownDomains": [
    "google.com",
    "developers.google.com"
  ],
  "queries": "best search engine",
  "searchAuthorName": false,
  "organicResult": 10,
  "ignoreDomains": [],
  "maxContactsPerDomain": 1
}

Use cases

• Link building - build a list of leads for link building.
• Outreach opportunities - find third-party sites that cover your topic but don't mention your brand, along with contact details for outreach.
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) - track how your brand appears in AI-generated search results.
• Brand monitoring - monitor which queries surface your brand in ChatGPT Search.
• Competitive analysis - understand where competitors are mentioned and you're not.
• Guest post search - find relevant publications and blogs in your industry.
• Affiliate hiring - find affiliates and influencers already ranking for relevant topics.

How it works

For each search query you provide, this Actor:

1. Queries Search engines via Google Search Scraper to sources mentioned in Google organic search, ChatGPT search, Perplexity search, and Google AI mode.
2. Checks brand mentions in the AI response using case-insensitive text matching.
3. Filters sources by removing your own domains, competitor domains, and domains that aren't relevant for link building, like wikipedia.org and github.com
4. Crawls each source page using Website Content Crawler.
5. Checks brand mentions in each source using case-insensitive text matching.
6. Scrapes contacts from sources that don't mention your brand (outreach opportunities) using Contact Details Scraper.
7. Finds author names - when the power-up is enabled, this Actor identifies the author name using AI Web Scraper.

Actors used

This Actor orchestrates four Actors:

• Google Search Scraper - fetches ChatGPT Search results.
• Website Content Crawler - crawls cited source pages.
• Contact Details Scraper - scrapes contact information from outreach opportunity domains.
• AI Web Scraper - power-up to find author names.

FAQ

What is link building?

Link building is the practice of getting backlinks to your website from other websites. It's a key search engine optimization (SEO) tactic for improving your site's authority and search rankings.

What is link building outreach?

Link building outreach is an active SEO method that involves contacting bloggers, industry influencers, and website owners to request backlinks.

How many leads do I need for link building?

You'll typically need to contact up to five people per company to get a response. Don't reach out to all of them at once - sending multiple emails to the same domain can trigger spam filters. Work in batches with one contact per company at a time.

How often should I run this Actor?

AI search results change quickly, so running this Actor on a weekly or monthly basis is recommended. You can exclude domains for which you already have leads to keep costs down.

How many links should you build to a site?

The right number depends on your site's size and existing link profile. A new site may benefit from a handful of high-quality links to start, while established sites may need more frequent acquisition. Targeting websites that appear in relevant searches is a reliable way to identify high-quality backlink candidates.

Can I use integrations with Link Prospecting Tool?

You can integrate Link Prospecting Tool with almost any cloud service or web app. The Apify platform offers integrations with Make, Zapier, Slack, Airbyte, GitHub, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and plenty more:

Alternatively, you could use webhooks to carry out an action whenever an event occurs.

This should allow you to push the lead list to your cold outreach tool.

Can I use Link Prospecting Tool with the Apify API?

The Apify API gives you programmatic access to the Apify platform. The API is organized around RESTful HTTP endpoints that enable you to manage, schedule, and run Apify Actors. The API also lets you access any datasets, monitor Actor performance, fetch results, create and update versions, and more.

To access the API using Node.js, use the apify-client npm package. To access the API using Python, use the apify-client PyPI package. Check out the Apify API reference docs for all the details.

Can I use Link Prospecting Tool through an MCP server?

With the Apify API, you can use almost any Actor in conjunction with an MCP server. You can connect to the MCP server using clients like ClaudeDesktop and LibreChat, or even build your own. Read all about how you can set up Apify Actors with MCP.