Updated On: September 20, 2024
Thinking about enhancing your link-building strategy or hiring a team of experts? The big question on everyone's mind: What’s it going to cost you in 2024?
Let’s break it down.
Let’s break it down. We spoke to top industry experts to get the real scoop.
First up, according to Ahrefs, placing a link on a website with a Domain Rating (DR) of 50+ can cost around $600.
Sounds steep? Just wait.
Take Patrick Whitener, for example. His podcast link-building campaign cost $4,520 for 14 links over two months. That’s an average of $332.82 per link.
Quite the investment, right?
Here’s what Authority Hacker has found out after surveying 755 link builders:
✅ Prevalence of Paid Links: 74.3% of link builders pay for links and, on average, are paying $83 for a link.
✅ Cost Differences: The average link is 75% more costly for in-house SEOs than the rest of the website owners. The costs for more experienced link builders also tend to rise, reaching 221%.
✅ Budget: SEOs paying for links assign 30% of the SEO budget to link building, which is 42.85% more than those who do not pay for links.
Talking about experienced link builders…
At Editorial.Link, our prices start at $1,750 for 5 links per month. Perfect if you’re just starting out 😉
Manual link building isn’t cheap, and it might not suit every business:
Quality links in high-value verticals like legal and finance can cost $800-$1,000 or more. In industries like casinos, loans, and real estate, the costs can go even higher due to the competitive nature and high value of these sectors.
Conversely, if you’re in a lower-value vertical such as hobbyist sites or education, costs can drop significantly, often falling below $100 per link.
Intrigued? Let's explore the ins and outs of link-building costs for 2024.
So how much are businesses investing in link building these days?
Based on our 2024 Link Building Statistics report, here are some key points to consider:
Cost per Link:
For links with a lifetime value of $7,000 or more, manual link building is recommended. A hybrid strategy of manual and organic link building is ideal for link values between $3,000 and $7,000.
For link values below $3,000, focusing on generating links through high-quality content and organic rankings is more cost-effective.
Most link-building vendors charge between $500 and $1,250 per link, with methods like guest posts and paid links being common. Siege Media prefers generating links through on-site content, which can also be a cost-effective strategy.
Considering these variations can help you make a well-informed budget decision. Let’s dive deeper into the economics of link building and break down the costs involved in a typical project.
Grasping the different costs of link building is key to making smart budget decisions. Now, let’s dig into the details and compare in-house teams' expenses versus agencies' expenses.
Starting with an in-house team for link building is often the first move companies make. Especially, SEO teams. However, they quickly realize that link building is a full-time job that needs dedicated experts.
So, what’s the cost of building an in-house team of link builders?
According to Glassdoor, hiring a full-time SEO link-building specialist in the U.S. costs between $47,000 and $84,000 per year.
When you add benefits and overhead, the real cost is about 1.4 times the base salary. This means an average salary of $63k+ per year turns into roughly $88,000 annually, or $7,300 per month. If you’re planning on paid link-building partnerships, these costs can double.
Training is another big expense. If your new hire isn’t familiar with your niche, you’ll need to invest time and effort to get them up to speed.
Also, consider the cost of tools for outreach and backlink monitoring.
For example, GetProspect uses:
These costs are for a small-scale operation. As your needs grow, so will your expenses.
Partnering with a reputable link-building agency can yield great results, but it comes with a substantial investment.
Alexandra Tachalova, CEO and Founder of Digital Olympus, explains:
Some agencies have lower minimum spend per month, or none at all, like we at Editorial.Link. For example, Dofollow requires clients to spend at least $4,000 per month for 4-5 links.
As you remember, at Editorial.Link, prices start at $1,750 for 5 premium links.
Research by uSERP shows that 46.5% of respondents spend $5,000 to $10,000 per month on link building, and 18% spend more than $10,000 solely on links.
Guillaume Deschamps, Digital PR Manager at uSERP, adds:
All in all, deciding between an in-house team and an agency depends on your budget, goals, and the scale of your link-building needs. Each option has its pros and cons, so consider them carefully to choose what’s best for your business.
The cost of link building highly depends on the techniques used to gain backlinks. Some methods, like HARO link building, require relatively little effort and fewer resources, while others, like paid guest posting, can take much more time and money.
Check out the best link-building techniques below and find the most cost-effective option for your project.
Help A Reporter Out (HARO), now part of Connectively, connects writers and sources. By subscribing to their daily newsletter full of quote requests, you can share your expert opinions with reputable sources and earn valuable backlinks.
HARO can be effective if you're willing to put in the time and effort. The number of links you get depends on the opportunities available and the quality of your submissions.
Danny Browne, Director at HARO Links, shares:
A lot of link builders rely on HARO for a steady stream of high-quality backlinks. But its popularity has made some content writers skeptical, and as a result, some top publications no longer use the platform.
The great thing about the platform is that it gives you access to a wide variety of topics and niches. On the flip side, it doesn't track mentions, so you'll need to keep an eye on each submission yourself.
Is HARO worth it for link building?
Sure thing!
It's free, doesn't require much content creation, and can get you into high-quality publications. However, it mainly builds links to your homepage and needs insights from your internal experts, with no clear timeline for when the links will go live. So keep this in mind.
Guest posting is still a go-to link-building technique. It involves writing articles for other websites and including a link back to your site. It's one of the safest ways to get natural links, however, it can also be quite resource-intensive.
Here’s what Nebojsa Jankovic, CEO at Heroic Rankings, has to say about guest blogging:
The cost and effectiveness of guest posting can vary.
Writing a 1,500-word article for just one link takes a lot of time and isn't very scalable. So, what’s the alternative? Many pros use a 3-way link exchange through guest posting.
They team up with other companies, each including the others' links in one post. In return, those companies link back to their site.
This strategy can turn a single guest post into a dozen valuable links.
An editorial backlink comes naturally from a reputable publication. When you publish unique, valuable content on your site, other reputable sources link to it because it benefits their readers.
However, creating content that drives links naturally isn’t free.
According to Upwork, long-form, well-researched content like white papers can cost between $500 and $5,000. Even if you use in-house writers, it still takes time, resources, and possibly additional tools.
At Editorial.Link, we make this process easier. We help companies earn editorial backlinks without the hassle of creating link-worthy content.
Have you ever wondered how big brands get mentioned everywhere online?
Digital PR is all about getting your brand noticed online. By getting your name in articles, news sites, and top-tier publications, you boost your site’s SEO, enhance your reputation, and drive more traffic to your website.
Imagine you run a tech startup, and your app just hit one million downloads. With Digital PR, you can get bloggers, YouTubers, and online publications talking about your milestone. You can also host a virtual event or create a special podcast episode.
Yup. Digital PR links are the real deal. They are one of the most effective tools in our link-building toolkit.
They come from well-known, high-authority sites, which means Google trusts them. This trust rubs off on your site, boosting your credibility and SEO. They also bring in visitors who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
How can you get digital PR links?
According to Siege Media, in 2024, the cost of such links depends on how complex and extensive your campaign is:
Earning backlinks through podcasts is a relatively new approach. It involves contacting podcast hosts to either sponsor an episode for a link or appear as a guest to earn a link organically.
Getting back to Patrick Whitener here who shared his results from a two-month campaign. He spent $4,520 to gain 14 links, averaging $332.82 per link.
With a high acceptance rate of 25%, podcast link building proves to be a worthwhile strategy.
This white hat method focuses on building strong relationships with other content teams or link builders to earn backlinks almost for free.
Tamara Omerovic, Marketing Consultant for B2B SaaS brands, explains:
Relationship-based link building cuts out the need for paid guest posts or link placements. However, it does require having a link-building expert on your team or covering agency costs.
What else drives up the price of your link-building project?
Check out a few more factors below.
Where you place your link is key. According to Nebojsa Jankovic, high-authority sites charge more because they have more traffic and influence on SEO.
For example, insights from Ahrefs reveal that a site with a 60+ domain rating might charge over $600 per link.
Your business sector can really impact costs. In highly competitive fields like finance and insurance, link costs shoot up because everyone’s vying for those top spots.
On average, links in competitive niches cost about $361.44 (Ahrefs). In niches like fashion and finance, site owners are often less willing to accept link insertions, which can hike prices even more.
You get what you pay for with links. Sure, you can get hundreds of links for $50. But will those really boost your site's authority? Nope, they won’t.
In January 2024, we asked 12 digital PR agencies like Search Intelligence, SiegeMedia, and Builtvisible about their pricing. They told us that a PR campaign usually costs between $6,000 and $20,000, and you can expect to get 10 to 40 editorial mentions from it.
If you want top-notch, relevant links, be ready to spend more. On reputable sites, a single high-quality backlink can easily go for over $1,000.
Why do these links cost so much? It’s all about quality.
Even if placing a guest post on someone else’s site is free, it doesn’t mean it’s cost-free for you. Often, it's more cost-efficient to pay $300 for a direct link insertion than to spend days writing a guest post.
Plus, about half of high-authority websites that accept guest posts actually charge for it.
Nebojsa Jankovic finds this odd too, but it’s a common practice in the industry.
Backlinks can disappear if the site owner doesn’t guarantee how long they’ll stay up. To ensure your links are permanent or last longer, you’ll likely need to pay extra.
Let’s not forget about the tools. Link-building agencies rely on a ton of different tools to do their job well. As these agencies grow, so do their tool expenses.
For instance, here at Editorial.Link, we shell out $42,490 a year just for Ahrefs.
Our CEO, Dmytro Sokhach, recently shared a list of the many other tools we use to get top results for our clients.
From keyword research to outreach and optimization, these tools play a big role in the overall cost of link building. So, it’s something you definitely want to keep in mind when budgeting for your link-building projects.
How you secure links can really impact your costs. You might spend more upfront if you’re manually building links and aiming for high-authority sites.
But, if done right, this approach can yield better long-term returns on your investment. However, it does require constant tweaking and expertise, which adds to the overall expense.
If you’re aiming for a super-specific audience, you might pay more per link. The upside is better engagement and higher conversion rates, making your campaign more efficient.
When you’re zeroing in on a niche crowd, the relevancy and context of the linking site become even more critical, and this can push up the costs.
The cost of link building can fluctuate throughout the year. Prices tend to jump during peak times, like major industry events or key sales periods such as Black Friday.
To keep your costs down, try to plan your link-building activities outside of these high-demand periods.
A link within the main content of a high-authority article is generally more valuable—and more costly—than one tucked away in a sidebar or footer.
Articles featuring rich media content, like videos and images, also come with a higher price tag due to their greater impact on SEO.
You bet it is.
Quality backlinks boost your site’s authority and improve your rankings, drawing in more potential customers.
So, should you hire an in-house link builder or outsource to an agency?
Here’s some expert advice:
Elena Osipova, Head of SEO at GetProspect:
Tamara Omerovic, Marketing Consultant for B2B SaaS brands:
If you're looking to climb those search rankings with top-notch backlinks, we've got you covered.
At Editorial.Link, we're your go-to team for link building. Let us help you earn those high-quality editorial backlinks!