What Should Link Building Actually Cost?
Market rates by link type, and how to tell whether you are overpaying.
Link Building
Market rates
Guest posts on sites with genuine traffic run roughly $150 to $600 depending on authority. Link insertions in existing content run 40 to 60 percent less. Digital PR placements in major publications cost substantially more per link but carry disproportionate authority.
What cheap links actually are
Links priced below roughly $50 are almost always from private networks, deindexed sites, or foreign-language sites with no relevance. They will not help and may require cleanup later.
Judging value
Cost per link matters less than cost per unit of authority actually transferred. One relevant link from a site with real traffic frequently outperforms twenty from directories, at similar total cost.
Key takeaways
- Guest posts on real sites run $150 to $600 by authority
- Sub-$50 links are almost always networks or deindexed sites
- Judge cost per unit of authority, not cost per link
- One relevant link often beats twenty directory links
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