Link Building Pricing: What Should Be Your Budget in 2024?
Small to medium-sized businesses spend anywhere from $100 to $2,000 per month in link building.
Larger brands in highly competitive markets can have up to $20,000 per month in their link building budget.
We agree that $200 to $20,000 is a huge range, and if you are searching for a specific pricing model for your own business, you have to look at several factors.
How competitive the market is in your niche is one of the primary factors that will determine how much you will need to spend to get ahead of your competition.
As one of the leading link-building agencies in the region with a successful track record, we can confidently say that you can’t have the same pricing model for every industry.
In this blog, we will dive into the exact factors that determine the cost of your link building campaign, whether you are in an industry with low competition or are trying to beat highly authoritative sites on niches like tech.
Table of Contents
How to Determine the Cost of Link Building
You can’t possibly set the same budget for every website’s link building campaign.
Many factors, small and large, come into play when we acquire links to improve the prosperity of our websites.
We’re not going to talk about every one of those facts. Instead, we compiled them all into these large four criteria that can help you set the cost of your website’s link building.
Domain Rating
Domain Rating (DR) is a metric developed by Ahrefs, one of the world’s leading SEO software.
This metric measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100.
Higher DR = more visibility on Google.
It’s important to mention that Domain Rating is not the same as Domain Authority.
So, how does DR affect your link building pricing?
The higher the DR of a website, the more it may charge for a backlink. A link from a site with a DR between 50-70 might cost around $300, while a link from a site with a DR above 70 could be priced much higher, sometimes exceeding $1,000.
As a result, if you’re trying to get links from a website with very high DR, you will have to expand your budget.
Domain Authority
Similar to DR, Domain Authority (DA) is another metric that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Developed by Moz, DA scores websites on a scale from 1 to 100. The higher the DA of a website, the more likely they are to rank.
If you are looking for a backlink from a high DA website, you will have to spend more on your link building campaign.
Content
Content is very important for link building.
Want to get links via guest posts? You will need to prepare high-quality blogs.
Looking to secure organic backlinks? Your website needs to have linkable content.
A huge chunk of your budget will be spent on content because websites are not likely to link to a landing page where readers can’t find valuable information.
According to Upwork’s Cassie Moorhead, you will have to spend $0.30-$0.50 per word for intermediate content writers.
This means you might need to spend $300 to $500 for a 1000-word article. You can drive the cost down by hiring freelance writers from third-world countries.
Industry
If you are in the SaaS industry, getting links can be much easier than in the finance field.
Competition in your field can highly influence link-building costs.
For example, getting a high-quality link from a reputable real estate website can cost way more compared to links from gaming websites.
Link Building Pricing: In House, Agencies & Freelancers
Most successful businesses either have an in-house team for link building or get the help of reputable agencies. It’s best to stay away from freelancers for link building, as they often provide low-quality links that do more harm than good.
Here’s what the pricing looks like for each mode of operation:
In House Pricing
You will need people and tools in these fields to have a full-fledged in-house team. The salary figures are based in the United States and can be different in other countries.
- Link Building Manager – $60K – $106K: An experienced manager will be the heart of your link building operation. They will be in charge of managing your team and developing and implementing link building strategies.
- Link Building Assistant – $40K – $60K: This entry-level position focuses on the day-to-day tasks associated with link acquisition, such as outreach, content distribution, and tracking the success of link-building efforts.
- Writer – $48,000: You’ll need an experienced writer to craft well-made guest posts and blogs for your own websites. They will be responsible for SEO-friendly content that supports link acquisition efforts.
- Link Cost – $2,000/month: Yes, buying links is usually a no. But it’s going to be near-impossible to secure links from high authority websites without spending for links. Getting 5-6 high-quality links can cost you around $2,000 a month.
- Software: $590/month: You will need SEO tools like Ahrefs, outreach software like Mailshake, and anything that can make your team more efficient. Let’s assume $590 per month for all the tools (this is a lower-end budget, by the way!).
| Cost Component | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost |
| Link Building Manager | $5,000 – $8,833 | $60,000 – $106,000 |
| Link Building Assistant | $3,333 – $5,000 | $40,000 – $60,000 |
| Writer | $4,064 | $48,763 |
| Link Cost | $2,000 | $24,000 |
| SEO Tools | $590 | $7,080 |
| Total | $14,987 – $20,487 | $175,843 – $245,843 |
It’s safe to assume that you will have to spend around $15,000 to run an in-house team for link building in the United States. You can run down the cost significantly by hiring talents from overseas.
From our calculations, getting link building managers, assistants and writers with offshoring can cost $100K+ annually or around $9K per month. Here’s our breakdown:
| Cost Component | Monthly Cost (Overseas) | Annual Cost (Overseas) |
| Link Building Manager | $2,500 – $4,167 | $30,000 – $50,000 |
| Link Building Assistant | $1,667 – $2,500 | $20,000 – $30,000 |
| Writer | $1,667 – $2,500 | $20,000 – $30,000 |
| Link Cost | $2,000 | $24,000 |
| SEO Tools | $590 | $7,080 |
| Total | $8,424 – $11,757 | $101,080 – $141,080 |
Agency Pricing
Having an in-house team for link building allows you to control the operation with much more precision. However, it’s also expensive for start-ups.
The pricing model for link building can vary based on different agencies.
One of the world’s leading link building agencies, Linkbuilder.io, charges $2999 to $19,999 per month in their packages.
Some agencies can charge based on campaigns, with the cost range being $15,000 to $30,000 per campaign.
Others may charge a specific number per link, with each link costing $400 – $1,500. However, there is no guarantee of the quality.
Freelancer Pricing
If you look at Fiverr or other freelance websites, people will offer hundreds of “high DR” backlinks in exchange for only $100.
Even though freelancers will claim to “use white-hat methods” to get these links, it’s almost always from link farms that will hurt your website.
However, you can still find qualified freelancers who can do specific link building tasks for you, including outreach or guest blogging.
Instead of going for individuals who will offer a comical number of links in exchange for money, go for someone who can work with you to secure links from reputable sites and will focus more on quality than quantity.
Getting the Best Value Out of Link Building Campaign
To achieve the best Return on Investment (ROI) from your link-building campaign, it’s essential to adopt a strategic approach that –
- Focuses on quality over quantity
- Leverages relationships and
- Aligns with your overall SEO and marketing goals
Here are some tips that can help you get the best ROI out of your link building project:
Focus on Quality over Quantity
Quality links from authoritative and relevant sites have a more significant impact on your SEO than a larger number of low-quality links.
High-quality backlinks can improve your site’s authority, increase traffic, and ultimately contribute to higher search engine rankings.
Create the Best Content
Develop content that naturally attracts backlinks because of its value, uniqueness, or informativeness.
Original research, comprehensive guides, infographics, or tools that serve your target audience’s needs are excellent options.
Relation Building
In-house teams have the advantage of being deeply aligned with your brand’s voice and goals. Use this to build long-term relationships with key influencers, bloggers, and other websites in your niche.
Personalized outreach can lead to more consistent and high-quality link opportunities.
Measure and Adjust
Use analytics tools to track the performance of your link-building efforts.
Monitor metrics like referral traffic, domain authority improvement, and rankings for targeted keywords.
Adjust your strategy based on what’s working and what’s not.
Diversify Strategies
Don’t rely on a single tactic.
Combine various strategies like guest blogging, broken link building, creating shareable infographics, and participating in industry forums or Q&A sites.
Buying Links – Yes or No?
Let’s get to the elephant in the room. Should you buy links?
This is a controversial and complex topic, and Google itself isn’t a fan of it.
Instead of giving you a simple yes or no answer (yes, we know it’s annoying when blogs do this), we will give you the arguments for and against buying links.
Arguments Against Buying Links
- Google Penalties: Google’s algorithms have become increasingly adept at detecting paid links. If Google determines that you’ve bought backlinks, your site could suffer a significant drop in search rankings or even be removed from search results entirely.
- Risk of Low-Quality Links: Many services that sell backlinks may not provide links from reputable or relevant sites.
- Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Risks: While buying links might offer a temporary boost in rankings, the long-term risks associated with being penalized by Google can outweigh these short-term benefits.
Arguments For Buying Links
- Time and Resource Efficiency: Building organic backlinks is a time-consuming process that involves creating high-quality content, outreach, and relationship building. Buying links can be seen as a shortcut to achieve similar results in a shorter time frame.
- Difficulty in Detection: Some argue that if done carefully—buying high-quality links from reputable sources in a way that mimics natural link building—it can be difficult for search engines to detect as paid links.
- Widespread Practice: Despite the risks, the practice remains relatively common in certain competitive industries where the benefits can outweigh the potential penalties.
It’s always better to get links organically. But it’s going to be your decision at the end of the day.
Conclusion
Remember, you don’t always have to spend the most to get the best results. In fact, you must be efficient to secure a decent ROI.
Just because you are putting down as high as a $20K budget per month on link building does not mean that you will secure high-quality backlinks that can drive SERP ranking and traffic.
Some businesses are spending way less and getting excellent results thanks to their unique strategy.
However, sometimes you may not have any choice but to spend a big chunk of your digital marketing budget on link building, especially if you are in a very competitive market.
