Understanding link building pricing is a key to establishing your off-site SEO budget. At the same time, it’s really difficult to calculate. Variables such as the linking domain’s rating/authority/traffic, the type of links, and the differences in rates between websites all impact the ultimate price of each backlink. To add to that, you also have to include the varying costs of off-site services if you work with an agency or a freelancer. But don’t worry, we will help you with the estimates – just read this article!
What Affects the Cost of Link Building?
Before we show you some calculations, estimates and statistics, you need to understand the relationship between particular backlinks features and their price. Below, you’ll find the most important factors that impact the overall cost of acquiring an inbound link, explained in a nutshell.
- Domain authority/rating – While there is no official data from Google, many SEO tools use metrics such as domain authority or rating to establish how trustworthy a website is in the eyes of the algorithms. These metrics are just estimates, but often, they are used as a basis for link pricing – the better they are, the higher the price.
- Industry – It’s much easier to acquire links in a common industry, let’s take clothing, than a niche one, for instance, cold chain containers. With more alternatives comes competition, and with competition, lower prices. This means that if you operate in less common industries, the links might be more expensive.
- Website traffic – Like DR/DA, website traffic is also important for those website owners searching for linking opportunities. But unlike these SEO metrics, you don’t estimate the traffic – you know it. Therefore, it often impacts the costs of link building, making them higher the more users visit a site each month.
- Type of links – Simple link insertions are usually much cheaper than guest posts; niche edits will cost you a bit more than an entry into a directory. Each type of backlink has its own price that will affect your overall costs of link building.
As you can see, there’s quite a lot of data to consider. Therefore, treat all our estimations as broad ones, as it’s difficult to be precise in this matter.
How Much Does Link Building Cost in 2024?
Okay, so now let’s get into the details. How much does link building cost? Let’s look at some examples.
If you take Ahrefs’ domain rating score as the basis for your calculation, one link should cost you, more or less:
- $300-350 for a DR 40 domain,
- $350-450 for a DR 50 domain,
- $450+ for a DR 60 domain.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to buy guest posting from us, you will find the following rates:
| DR-Based* | DR | ||||
| Words | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60+ |
| 600 | $120 | $160 | $210 | $240 | $310 |
| 850 | $135 | $175 | $225 | $255 | $325 |
| 1000 | $150 | $190 | $240 | $270 | $340 |
| Traffic-Based | Monthly Organic Traffic | ||||
| Words | 5000 | 10000 | 15000 | 20000 | |
| 600 | $120 | $160 | $210 | $240 | |
| 850 | $135 | $175 | $225 | $255 | |
| 1000 | $150 | $190 | $240 | $270 | |
As you can see, our guest posting prices already don’t fit into the general estimates. This is perfect proof of how different variables affect pricing and that it’s really difficult to calculate how much you need to spend for each backlink. But what if we consider whole link building strategies in general?
This adds one more variable to the list – the costs of the link building service. On the other hand, in many cases you will pay just for such services, and link acquisition costs will be included in them. Plus, if you decide to outsource off-site experts, you are likely to receive higher-quality, more effective, and efficient help, hence accelerating the long process of link building.
Again, the price will be dependent on how many links are included in it. Nevertheless, you can expect anything between $100 and $20,000 per month.
I Found an Offer with Cheap Prices Per Link – Is It Good from an SEO Perspective?
At some point in your search for link building services, you will stumble across quite cheap services, often advertised to be extremely effective. Is there a catch? Usually, yes.
If the price of the links is much lower than the average, this might mean that the company or freelancer uses black hat SEO practices. This means that Google will likely penalize their link-building efforts. This won’t be immediate though – you might see good results for the first month or two. Therefore, it’s easy to fall into this trap and end up with thousands of dollars spent on link building that did more harm than good.
This is why you need to be really cautious when you see great offers. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Also, this underlines how important it is to actually check the reviews of the service you are looking for. Nevertheless, cheap doesn’t always mean better, so beware.
Link Building Marketplaces – Are They Worth It?
Apart from link building services, there is one more way to acquire high-authority links: link building marketplaces. But are they really cost-effective?
Usually, yes. A link building marketplace, such as Linkhouse, is usually a source of multiple offers, which means that the publishers need to compete with each other while you can select the most affordable option. At the same time, trustworthy marketplaces are a great source of high-quality links, acquired with the SEO best practices, which ensures that your link building efforts are white hat. Therefore, a marketplace is usually a good place to search for links.
We have one “but” when it comes to such platforms, though. While at Linkhouse we ensure that all the links are of the highest quality, this cannot be said about all marketplaces operating on the internet. Similarly to the case with backlink services, you might stumble across marketplaces with extremely low prices, which use PBNs or link farms. Paying for such links will cause you to lose both money and ranking positions, so be careful when using platforms other than ours.
How to know whether a platform is good or bad? Look into their transparency. For instance, in our link building marketplace, you will find info on the parameters of each site in the top SEO tools and their monthly traffic. What is more, you can choose between creating your own content or ordering us to do so. Finally, you know exactly what you get, and you don’t have to worry about your links disappearing for unnatural reasons (many shady link building providers form such contracts that they can erase all your links when you leave them!).
Due to this straightforward approach, even a user who has never heard about our platform before knows what to expect – and that’s the key to showing that the links are really worth it.
The Takeaway
Estimating link building costs is difficult, as there are so many factors involved that it’s really hard to make accurate predictions. Nevertheless, you should expect it to cost anything from $100 to $20,000 per month, depending on how many backlinks you want to get and who you work with.
Want to try handling link-building on your own? Check our link building tool – the Link Planner.
FAQ
Is paying for link building services really worth it?
Yes, paying for link building services can be worth it if you want to efficiently build links and improve your site’s SEO. Professional link building agencies have the expertise and resources to create effective link building campaigns, ensuring good link placement on high-authority sites. This can be more effective and time-saving compared to in-house link building efforts.
What is the average cost per link when using link building services?
The average cost per link can vary widely depending on the quality and authority of the linking site. Typically, the cost ranges from $100 to $500 per link. Higher authority sites with significant traffic can charge more. It’s important to consider that the link cost often reflects the value and impact it will have on your SEO efforts.
How does the pricing model work for link building packages?
Link building packages typically have a set number of links, content creation, and placement services included. The pricing model can be based on the authority and traffic of the linking sites, the number of links, and the type of content required. Link building vendors may offer different packages tailored to various budgets and SEO needs, ensuring flexibility in cost and scope.
Should I hire a link building team in-house or work with an agency?
Whether to hire an in-house link building team or work with an agency depends on your specific needs and resources. In-house teams offer more control over the link building process, but building links can be resource-intensive and require significant expertise. On the other hand, link building agencies bring specialized knowledge and can execute a comprehensive link building campaign efficiently. Agencies often provide a better return on investment for businesses looking to scale their link building efforts quickly.
