Link Building Pricing: How Much Should You Pay for Backlinks?

 ➡️Link Building Pricing Research

I scraped the data of link building agencies and backlink sellers worldwide, and here is what we have. About 50% of the backlink agencies charge for one link on average, not more than 300$. 22% charge between 300-600$. 15% of the sites suggest that backlinks cost you around 600-1500$. A small portion of the websites, around 8%, link-adding pricing ranges 1500-2500$. 5% of the sites are priced from 2500$ to 5000$, and just one percent and even less over 5000$. Based on my research of 1000 sites(that include not only agencies, but also link sellers), the minimum link price identified is $5 per link, and the most expensive is $7000 per link.

You might be wondering how such a big gap can exist. Why should you pay $100, $1000, or even $7000 if found links are priced at $5? In this paragraph, we will explore link building pricing systems or link building pricing models that can change the backlink price. Link building pricing systems are the main factors that change the average backlink price.

➡️Correlation Between Link Building Pricing And Requested Link Quantity

I want to show our link-building packages based on trust and long-term partnership. As you can see, the backlink price can decrease when signing a contract for long-term work. We value all our clients, and if the business has a great goal to win the game with our links in the long term, of course, we create flexibility in the backlink price. It is a small principle of the business to buy on a bulk basis to benefit in the long term, so link building pricing is not an exception.

➡️Correlation Between Link Building Pricing And SEO Metrics

This link-building pricing system is mostly connected to the SEO metrics provided by SEO tools. In the image above, you can notice how the backlink price increases regarding the Domain Rating metric you require to build links.

The cheapest link price is 83$, and the most expensive is 528$. Domain Rating is a metric provided by Ahrefs. Ahrefs identifies the backlinks going to the site and is connected with the quality of the links they get, as a company website gets a Domain Rating(DR).

The alternatives to the metric of DR are Domain Authority provided by Moz, Authority Score provided by Semrush, and many more. There are some differences between how they identify the Rating of the site or their health; however, there are different fans of each metric, and clients can request a data outreach according to their desired. Besides the Authority metrics, there is another important metric that the website owner should know: web traffic.

Web search traffic is the monthly number of visitors to the site. This helps to understand the website’s importance for a niche and its usability for information hackers. In short, this helps you to understand whether you need to add your link to that site. The agency you want to outsource link building, should keep this metric as a must.

Many other metrics of SEO can be part of a link building pricing model, but as a person in this sphere, if someone asked me what the best metric I follow to add links for my projects, I would answer: it’s the websites that have a future and goals for the future.

➡️Correlation Between Link Building Pricing And Business Niches

High-Level Backlink Pricing (Typically $5,000 and above per backlink)

🩺Health & Wellness Link Building Pricing: A range between 105-5000$ per backlink.

💸🤑💰Finance & Insurance Link Building Pricing: A range between 100-20,000$ per backlink.

🏢Real Estate and Related Link Building Pricing: A range between 350-7000$ per backlink.

💡Marketing Organization Link Building Pricing: A range between 100-7000$ per backlink.

🎰Casino Link Building Pricing: A range between 350-5000$ per backlink.

🔞Adult Site Link Building Pricing: A range between 350-7000$ per backlink.

📍🗺️Travel & Hospitality Link Building Pricing: A range between 120-2500$ per backlink.

Mid-Level Backlink Pricing (Typically between $500 and $2,500 per backlink)

🛒E-commerce Link Building Pricing: A range between 120-1500$ per backlink.

🤖SAAS, Technology & Software Link Building Pricing: A range between 120-1500$ per backlink.

🍔Food & Beverage Link Building Pricing: A range between 100-1250$ per backlink.

⚖️Legal Services Link Building Pricing: A range between 100-1500$ per backlink.

🎥Entertainment & Media Link Building Pricing: A range between 100-1500$ per backlink.

🚗Automotive Link Building Pricing: A range between 150-1500$ per backlink.

🏋️‍♀️Sports & Fitness Link Building Pricing: A range between 150-1500$ per backlink.

🛍️Retail & Wholesale Link Building Pricing: A range between 120-1500$ per backlink.

🎮🎧Gaming Link Building Pricing: A range between 70-1000$ per backlink.

Low-Level Backlink Pricing (Typically below $500 per backlink)

🏫Education & Online Learning Link Building Pricing: A range between 80-400$ per backlink.

👜Beauty & Fashion Link Building Pricing: A range between 100-500$ per backlink.

🎗️Nonprofit & Charity Organizations Link Building Pricing: A range between 50-250$ per backlink.

💆🏻Lifestyle & Personal Development Link Building Pricing: A range between 50-350$ per backlink.

➡️Correlation Between Link Building Pricing And Business Location

🌎International Link Building Pricing

International backlinks price starts from 120$. An international link building company can charge the same price for any link obtained from global sites or separate the countries and suggest specific prices for each added link on each specific location-based platform. Companies interested in global link building understand the value of the brand name for a company’s long-term existence.

📌Local Link Building Pricing

There are no strict standards on local link building pricing, as all connect with the exact country links you need for your platform.

💶European Link Building Pricing

During our research, we understand that in some European countries, link builders even build links not only via email or chatting. Some interesting things are happening in Germany, where SEO specialists build links via calls. This factor boosts the price of links that can be added to the sites, so the minimum price of a European country backlink can start from 200$.

🧧Asian Link Building Pricing

From low-traffic Asian sites to premium country sites(Japan, Singapore, Korea), link insertion can vary 30-1000$ per backlink.

☀️African Link Building Pricing

From low-tier African blog sites to premium African websites, the price of link building varies 20-700$.

🦘Australian Link Building Pricing

Varies 150-700$ if you are looking for trustworthy Australian backlinks.

🗽🍁North American Link Building Pricing

Varies 100-1500$ per backlink from US or Canadian-based sites.

🗿South American Link Building Pricing

In South America, you can get high-quality backlinks for $60–$150 typically, but premium sites can cost up to $300 or more.

➡️Correlation Between Link Building Pricing And Spent Time

Link building hourly pricing is mostly seen on platforms as Upwork, Freelancer, and many more. Backlink hourly pricing can vary from 15$ to 300$. This is not a guarantee that they will build a link within an hour. In general, link builders show the link price in the hourly rate place, or they really charge the same amount for the links for the work, having an agreement to be paid based on the quantity of links they discussed before with the client.

For example, a link builder can charge for one link 150$ and fill the blank in the Upwork with the rate of 15$ hourly; they just mark that they have worked 10 hours and that is it. Another version of hourly backlink pricing can include much more than link creation. Link builders’ hourly rate may include tasks as link management, content creation, backlink consultation, or something connected to backlinks.

➡️Performance-Based Link Building Pricing

This is customized, and there are no limitations on charging for such a link-building pricing model. Sometimes clients want to see the results first and then pay. This is a case where you should be 100% ready to complete the deal in a positive finish.

I truly recommend that my partner agency owners or freelance link builders sign a link building contract where everything will be filled, starting from what the client expects, the timeline, the responsibilities of the 2 parties, and the amount of money that should be paid after you do the job. In these cases, I recommend signing a specific link building contract based on concrete achievements and talking with a legal company. Do not work without a link building contract.

As a bonus of my link building pricing factor research, I would like to share my thoughts about inflation and backlink prices. I copied the data on historical inflation rates, and taking into account the data, the average annual inflation rate can be around 2.5% if I count from the 2000s(the year when backlinks started being a great factor of ranking). Let’s say we had 10.000$ in the 2000s. So, to calculate the future value (2000-2024), we should use the future value formula. So, approximately, if I want to buy things over 20 years costs around $18,087.26.Link building expenses are not an exception, so the sphere becomes more expensive over time. If it does not even hit the business directly, it can be indirectly as factors connected with some link building agency tools, employees’ salaries, office renting, etc.

To make the right decision, you should take into account the amount of money that should be spent on it and the value you want to get. I am not writing this article you think we want to promote the idea that outsourcing is a better option, so I am sharing some ideas on when you can outsource backlink building and when to hire an in-house link builder. Which options are expensive and valuable?

When to Outsource Link Building and Do Not Worry About the Spent Money👇

I honestly recommend that businesses outsource backlink building when:

1. The project is a short-term project. You just need a boost on backlinks for short-term testing or a short-term usable URL.

2. You have a monthly plan on getting, for example, 50 links, but your SEO team can handle 20.

3. Understanding that your in-house link builders or local SEO specialists can not provide the valuable links you mostly expected.

4. When you count the cost of link building and outsourcing to a special backlink agency, it is cheaper than hiring an employee or employees.

5. When you launch a new product, I truly recommend outsourcing, as agencies mostly have a good network, and that can help boost awareness, too.

6. Agencies can have specific ways of getting links. So you may understand what link building is and how it can help your business, but you do not have a strategy for getting from the sites you can not. As an example, we have spent on different automation and AI integrations around 85.000$, so we have in-house tools that can help us find link-building opportunities, organize link building outreach, and emails that help us increase the value of the spent time and get backlinks. You should know that the agencies can have their own secrets, and they can use them when you outsource to them.

7. Sometimes taxes hit the business. Companies that hire a link builder should pay employee income taxes, buy a computer, a desk, and many other expenses. When you outsource the expenses of a link builder can be fixed and calculated as an expense of a company. Organizations that operate with value-added tax rates can understand what I mean.

When to Hire an In-House Link Builder👇

1. In case you need full control of backlinks that are built for your website. You want to know the website name, metrics, and placement before asking to add the link.

2. In case it is cost-effective, then outsourcing

3. In case it is not acceptable for you to outsource anything regarding your brand awareness. This is a thing that I can name an ego-friendly business.

4. In case the link builder should have knowledge of your sphere. So you prepare the link builder to be the best fit for your business. For example, if you have a business related to medicine, your employee link builder should understand the targets of your business.

5.It is great when you find a link builder with your business interests. So, imagine a business that introduces a specific niche of selling parrots. If I had that type of business and got some email that someone is a link builder, and like parrots, keep one parrot in house, that is one of the great candidates. Another example, imagine you have a publicly traded business and one of link link-building position candidates invested in your business. Exactly, that is one of the link builders that can be interested in being part of your business, and just imagine how accurate the links will be built. Of course, this is an example that can fit with outsourcing, too.

I just separated the backlink creation minimum expenses that you may face with the minimum desire to build 10 backlinks within a month. Let’s say that one backlink will be added freely with the guest post on a friend’s site

• Link building specialist salary. This is based on the location where you want to find a link builder for your project. The minimum salary that I faced was around 350$, that do not include other expenses and taxes for the worker. You may pay more than the minimum I saw.
• Content writer for guest posts: 50$ for one piece of content. You may pay more than the minimum.
• Email finder: We spent 150$ for 5000 emails getting data for email hunting. You may need less or more.
• Google Cloud: Per line of scraping 0.05$ (for each campaign we scrape 5000 lines)-250$ total.You may need less or more.
• Email Senders: There are free options too, but let us imagine you have a campaign and about 10$ per month for sending emails. You may need less or more.
• Gmail: 6$ for one month for one email. This is the basic plan price.
• Link building software: That can be Ahrefs 250$.You may also need Semrush, Moz, or something else.
• Link cost: Let’s say the minimum average for you can be 70$.So for 10 links 700$.

So, the cost of 10 backlinks with one guest post can be around 1666$ for a company. This does not include expenses of office and employee-related taxes. Also, as in every business, there are many unexpected expenses in link building process.

Let’s say that link building expenses are much more than we require for 10 links. As I like to say, information is gold, and if you appear on this page, you get a bar of gold.

I am always getting emails from different backlink sellers and service providers. One of them sent me a message with the document of backlinks they can provide to me. What can I say about them? Avoid, avoid, and again avoid.

It is not the first time people ask me why I should pay you if I can add links for 5$ per link. I am starting to explain what PBN is and how it can hurt your SEO, but sometimes people do not listen to us and buy links of low quality. The funny thing happened when I told the same thing via our call, they do not accept my thoughts, and after some time, they again have a meeting with us but the topic is not our services of backlink building but “how to avoid penalties and what to do if I got a penalty“.Cheap backlinks are good for your business expenses, but low-quality backlinks are not.

We name them PR backlinks. It is not about the effectiveness of backlinks or just the quality. Businesses that are paying for such a backlink are mostly interested in a platform where they add a link, not only the page. These should be platforms that businesses believe in for the future. They pay for the brand awareness, unless Google or another search engine ranking factor.

You can get PR backlinks from platforms as Forbes, Entrepreneur, BBC, or something related to that. Also, PR agencies charge for such a thing over 3000$ and can reach 20.000$ sometimes.And it is normal as to be a member of Forbes Council (business group) can cost you 2000-5000$ per year.

Another reason why these backlinks are very expensive is that the platforms have a good user internal activity, and appearing on websites like Forbes can be a boost in direct traffic acquisition without ranking keywords.

In conclusion, I want to speak a bit about the future of backlinks. Many people in our sphere and out of it consider that backlinks will not play a role in the future, so paying for backlinks can be a waste of money. My answer is short and clear: Even if Google one day claims that links no longer matter, there will still be people and business owners who want to be mentioned everywhere, because true business expansion is about being visible everywhere.

😎Since you think someone bought a link from us.