How much does link building cost? This question worries 10 out of 10 content makers when it comes to promoting a website or blog. We all want to spend money efficiently, work with bona fide partners, and get a return that corresponds to the investment, especially if the budget has strict limits.
Today, you will learn plenty of valuable insights about factors that influence the pricing of backlinks, which link-building techniques are the most cost-effective, and how many links you can get by investing a certain amount in the campaign.
Link Building Possible Price Tags
There is no product on the market with a fixed price tag; consider anything, and you will realize that different manufacturers offer at least 2-3 alternatives with different characteristics, including price. Any website owner who wants to upgrade SEO indicators will tell you that you can find link-building services for both $50-100 and absolutely unthinkable price tags of several thousand dollars.
If we start analyzing the costs of the outsourced link-building campaign, we will find a clear gradation. For example, for such topics as fashion or gardening, the customer will have to pay from $200 to $400 per link; in the case of more complex niches like real estate, the figures rise to $600 per link, and the most responsible topics like politics or healthcare have price tags from $700 to $2000+ per link.
Link Building Pricing: DA & DR Roles
Speaking about generating links, not only does the content industry have a big impact on the price, but also indicators such as domain authority and domain rating.
In particular, we have the following approximate distribution:
- A quarter of a thousand dollars for a backlinks form of a site with a DR of 40 points.
- Up to half a thousand dollars from resources with a 50 DR score.
- From $500 for reputable sites with high DR (60+).
The dependency is clear: high authority backlinks come from sites with high DA (DR); however, along with the quality, the price also increases. However, domain authority is only one side of the coin, and this characteristic is not a complete illustration of quality, so we recommend considering a combination of factors.
Link Building Practices Costs Analysis
Building links is a titanic work that requires a lot of time, diligence, and funds for implementation. On social media, you can find examples of hundreds of the most diverse link-building campaigns; however, we highlight two in particular: creating your own link-building team, which you can also find under the name in-house link-building, and hiring specialists of link-building agencies.
Link-building in-house practices
When we talk about the in-house team, we imagine not just a community of friends who gathered in the garage in an attempt to promote a homemade website up the search engines algorithms but a team of professionals with whom you spend seven days a week.
Such an in-house link-building company requires the following amount of investment:
- General Manager. First of all, you will need a specialist who will lead the process and develop an effective link-building strategy, thereby boosting the number of links. This is link building manager, the price tag for whose services starts at $30,000 dollars a year and does not have a higher limit.
- Assistant managers. We mentioned the plural for a reason: because in the course of the link-building process, team members will have to solve many tasks, from analyzing search engine results pages (SERP) displays to negotiations with advertisers. Assistant services cost half as much; that is, the lowest threshold starts at $15,000.
- Guest posting wizard. No matter what anyone says, it’s impossible to attract backlinks without cooperation, which means you need a specialist in writing interesting and exciting texts. Usually, analysts calculate the price tags for content creation based on the number of words, e.g., a voluminous and high-quality link-worthy content for 3000 words will cost you $600. However, one guest post is not enough, so the monthly budget increases to $5,000.
- Paid links. Not all backlinks you can get by writing posts; some of them you need to buy. Cheap backlinks will cost you a little less than $1000 dollars per month, but if we are talking about quality link building, then this figure increases 2-3 times.
- Technological equipment. For all the tasks described above, from customer search to content marketing, it is crucial to use special software. Individually, subscriptions to them are not so expensive; however, in total, the amount seems not so modest. If we round it up without taking into account the sales, then it will take from $300 to $1000 per month.
This was an average pricing calculation in a situation where you decide to organize your own team and not contact agencies; however, for comparison, let’s analyze this strategy.
Link building agencies
In the case of a link-building agency, it makes no sense to describe the process step by step because specialists take on most of the responsibilities, and you just have to wait for the requested result.
However, from the price point of view, there are some nuances here:
- Freelancers. They charge an average of $75 dollars per hour, and this choice has its pros and cons. The pluses include low link-building prices and about minuses; firstly, you need to pay for all additional link-building needs from technical maintenance to promotion, and secondly, the KPIs of freelancers resemble a sinusoid since successes and failures are constantly replacing each other.
- Middle-level specialists. Such agencies take a monthly payment, and depending on the required volumes and link-building quality, the range can vary from several thousand dollars to $20,000.
- Industry giants. Top companies do not calculate their services by months, hours, or days but set a fixed price tag for the entire implementation period; usually, the customer should count on $30000-40000, as big firms have great link-building opportunities.
Overall, hiring an outsource link-building squad simulates a repair scenario. If you do everything yourself, then you will have to spend a lot of effort on link-building, but the result will depend only on you, and with a successful combination of circumstances, you can achieve high results. If you contact an agency, then you do not lose your nerves, but only top specialists will not inflate the price tag, will guarantee the result, and the question “How many backlinks can you generate?” will answer that they can acquire links up to several hundred.
Link Building Pricing Influential Determinants
The pricing concept is applicable to goods on supermarket shelves, clothing in a Gucci store, and link-building services. Experts do not take link-building costs out of air or randomly; there are a number of factors that have a significant impact on the final price tag.
High-quality content
Content is the main tool of any SEO specialist, with which he can attract the attention of authoritative and relevant websites. However, every day, tons of new content enter the digital space, which not only increases competition but also complicates the task of mining backlinks.
Therefore, we recommend each content maker follow three success rules, in particular, generate material that will be unique, exciting, and eye-catching. This advice applies to all link-building strategies, whether it’s writing guest posts or the SkyScraper method.
If your content impresses users and encourages them to visit your blog frequently, it will, firstly, increase organic traffic and, secondly, contribute to the appearance of high-quality backlinks on your website at affordable prices.
Mobility
Very often, people create content, driving themselves to strict limits, but this is an outdated approach from all sides. But what effect does it have on the price of backlinks? The answer is straightforward: the lack of creative flexibility strongly correlates with prices because the more restrictions you set when creating content, the fewer people you can attract.
In contrast, if a company behaves more relaxed, regularly experiments, and applies audacity or non-standard thinking, then it will be easier to find customers and increase its base, which means that the cost of link building will decrease.
The authority of the company
The most insidious aspect that affects the price is brand awareness and reputation. At first glance, everything is very simple; authoritative websites can easily generate links because the audience has a credit of trust and loyalty to them, which means it is not difficult to attract attention.
However, there are always pitfalls, and in this case, it is a situation when website owners, knowing about the high authority, set sky-high prices for backlinks and cheap link-building strategy turns into inflating budgets. Therefore, when working with top brands, you need to be very careful about the formation of link-building costs.
Link quality matters
A simple example, you create fashion-themed content. How do you think a link from which website will upgrade your monthly organic traffic, from the world’s most famous fashion magazine “Vogue” or a publisher whose history began six months ago? Of course, the first option will provide you with an unrealistic boost in increasing search engine rankings.
Question number two: in which case the link cost will be higher? Again, the first option is because high-quality links have the highest price, but at the same time, they give the greatest return and carry fantastic value.
Link Building Pricing and Niche Category Connection
The leitmotif of this review is the industry to which your content belongs because among all the factors, most likely, this one most affects the link-building cost.
When it comes to buying links, specialists divide niches into the following three large categories:
- Entertainment, hobbies, and charity. This group includes not only these three topics but, in general, all those that deliver positive emotions and interest to readers. Hundreds of authors work on content about video games or popular hobbies, and as we know, the more resources, the cheaper the backlink.
- Technology, nutrition, and law. Creating content on such topics requires a high level of expertise; therefore, to avoid low-quality links, it is necessary to conduct a lot of analysis to find a reliable and responsible website from which you can get a backlink. Accordingly, when you filter out some of the content, the price increases.
- Finance and real estate. Topics that are always in the top, a huge number of content makers want to interact with the authors of such sites. In this regard, it is not surprising that due to such competition, you have to pay a lot extra.
On the whole, let’s clarify once again that this is an approximate graduation and, depending on trends in search engines, the price of organic link building can vary greatly.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQ
Which strategy is more effective: organize an in-house team or contact a third-party agency?
In the case of an in-house squad, you get all the threads of control and distribution of finances in your hands, which means you can monitor the process more effectively. In favor of agencies, we can name a faster implementation, save your time, and have high expertise.
Is it possible to determine an average price tag on backlinks?
In this matter, initial conditions have a huge impact, e.g., if you need low-quality natural links, then you will not spend more than $100, and if they are of high quality, the price tag may rise to $1000. If the site has a low DR, then the investment will have limits of around $350, and if the DR is high, then $1500+, the industry also affects the price.
Is it worth spending money on link building, or is it an empty idea?
The answer is unequivocal: yes, but only if you build links with a thought-out plan. You can buy links from financial, medical, and other websites once, but this will have a short-term effect, and if you develop the strategy systematically, you will reach consistently high indicators.