How to charge link building services? (+ Factors)

Link building is one of the most important factors to position your brand on the Internet. This is because the more links your page has on other domains, the more credibility it will have with search engines.

There are multiple factors that determine the cost of a link building service. The value of a link depends on its quality and how it relates to your site.

Factors such as the anchor text, the type of content, the scope and the status of your website can affect the prices of a link building campaign.

If you do not know these factors well, you risk falling into the trap of link building services that offer very cheap prices, but are inefficient.

Many of these use SEO techniques not allowed by Google (black hat SEO) and can cause your site to be penalized.

Factors that influence the cost of a link building service

There are many relevant factors that influence the cost of link building. If you want to get links for your business, we recommend that you know them well. Otherwise, you could end up paying for poor service.

Having a reasonable pricing scheme and budget can help both your business and the SEO consultants you work with. This list contains the main factors that can change the price of link building.

content and affinity 

The article in which the link to your page is located should have quality content, as well as be on a similar topic.

The content of the article where the backlink comes from must be made with effort, skill, expertise and must follow SEO strategies. You do not want your website to be associated with an article with false or unsubstantiated information.

Finding backlinks with these conditions is more difficult, and therefore more expensive. A quality backlink that shares an affinity with your page can be around 300 to 500 USD per link.

If you want to know more about quality SEO content, check out this guide .

Site data and metrics

There are several statistics of a website that determine its effectiveness and, therefore, the price of a backlink that portal gives you.

• For example, the amount of external links that the page has can affect the quality of the link. If an article contains a large number, say 200, it may be considered spam by Google , lowering its ranking on the web.

If the article has a moderate amount of quality links, Google will consider it trustworthy. Also, if the site has fewer links, it is more likely that users will enter your page instead of another.

• PageRank is a metric used by Google to measure the quality and reliability of a page, it is measured from 1 to 10 and the higher the number, the better. It is one of the factors that determine the position in the Google results page that an article can have. A link with a good PageRank can increase between 30 and 100 USD.
• The spam score is another metric that determines the quality of a link. It consists of a metric that quantifies the probability that a page will be penalized for violating Google regulations. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 17. A link with a Spam score of less than 5 is considered safe.
• Another important metric is domain authority (DA). This measures how reputable and trustworthy a website is based on a series of factors such as monthly visits and backlinks received. The scale is measured from 1 to 100 and the higher the number, the better the ranking. This is one of the most desired metrics in link building, therefore it can add anywhere from 100 to 300 USD to the price of a link.

If you want to know the data and scores of a link, use this tool .

link location

The location of the link you are buying within the article can also influence the price.

Most readers don’t read articles cover to cover, they usually only read 20-28% of the text . This means that the higher up in the article your link is located, the more visible it will be to users. Higher visibility means that the link will attract more clicks to your page, which makes it more expensive.

The location of a link in the article is an important factor to measure its effectiveness, especially when it comes to attracting more visitors to your site, therefore, it will affect the price of the backlink. A good placement can add around 50 USD to your link.

anchor text

The anchor text (or anchor text in Spanish) refers to the words on which the link is, that is, the blue line of text on which you click to go to another page. In addition to the general content of the article, the words in the anchor text can increase the value of a link.

A good link should have the anchor text of the keyword you are positioning or, at least, a synonym for it.

Depending on what your keyword is, the price of the links can increase between 100 and 500 USD per link.

The keyword you decide to work with can also affect link prices. The more competition there is in your niche and keyword, the more difficult it will be to get high-quality links, due to the high demand.

For example, keywords like “best marketing services” are going to be in much higher demand than just “marketing” and even “marketing services”.

Scope

The value of a link is also tied to the reach of your campaign. The price will always be lower for local link building strategies.

A campaign with an international reach will require a much more complex and, therefore, more expensive service.

A link building service with a large reach could double the cost of the links. For example, if a link with a local reach costs 300 USD, a link with a global reach may cost 600 USD.

Why should you hire a link building service? 

Link building is an essential part of building a presence on the Internet, so investing money in hiring experts to do it can be extremely beneficial. But, beyond increasing the number of visits and sales, link building can help with these three aspects:

to build contacts 

Link building services can put you in contact with other companies that share similar themes. If your content is good enough, these companies may want to exchange links or refer you to your page for free.

For example, if your company sells ties, a link building service could put you in touch with a page about fashion. These types of connections can produce long-term benefits, regardless of the backlinks you have purchased.

To build referral traffic

Paying for your link building can help you attract users from trusted pages to yours, and if your content is good, it benefits both parties. If you buy a backlink on a page that receives a lot of visits, part of these visits will be redirected to your page.

In this way you can rely on the positioning and reliability of other websites to improve your image.

For company branding

A good link building service can do wonders for your company’s branding. Buying a couple of backlinks is not the same as having a strategic marketing plan designed for the long term.

In addition to the individual value of each link, together they contribute to building an image of trust and quality in your specific niche. Given enough time, hiring a link building service can establish you as an authoritative voice in your industry.

Hiring a link building service can provide you with the help of experts capable of building links that align with your brand image. In addition to increasing visits or metrics, they can improve the positioning of your brand and perfect its image.

The Big Risk of Bad Link Building

You have probably already noticed, but link building can have very high prices. Obviously this depends on the type of service you hire, but some companies hire cheap options expecting good results.

Since April 2012, Google implemented the Penguin Update , which changed the rules of SEO and gave a lot of credit to websites with links from high-quality sites, with valuable and unique information. Therefore, link building is not effective without significant investment.

Not all companies can make this type of investment, at least not without taking risks, but in the long run this investment will be more profitable than paying cheap prices for inefficient services.

It is not good to get carried away by statistics and packages that offer a large number of links that are not usually of quality. It’s about balancing the quantity with the quality of backlinks.

The difference between quantitative link building and qualitative link building

Initially, link building was based on getting as many backlinks as possible for your page, since Google gave greater preference to sites with a greater number of links. Today, although the rules have changed, there is no denying the value of having a high number of backlinks.

As long as Google thinks your links are organic, getting a high number can be very beneficial. One way to achieve this is to do it progressively .

If Google notices that your page went from gaining 20 monthly links to 500 in the same period of time, it will suspect that the links are inorganic, which could cause them to penalize your page.

Quantitative link building is effective but risky. Ideally it works much better if it happens organically: this is achieved by uploading high-quality content and providing new information.

On the other hand, qualitative link building is more in line with Google’s requirements. Quality links not only generate more visits, but also increase the authority of your website and raise its PageRank.

In the eyes of Google, having quality backlinks on the same topic is proof that your site is trustworthy and contains valuable information.

At the same time, if you manage to rank your page and increase its authority, other websites are more likely to start citing it organically.

In a perfect scenario, you want to have both quality and quantity, but you should always focus more on the quality and thematic affinity of the backlinks.

Although the investment is higher, opting for quality is less risky and more likely to be effective.

Link building payment vs. organic link building

Organic link building consists of getting links naturally, without money or a moderator involved.

For example, this is what happens when an article cites your page because the information seemed interesting or useful, or when a user shares your article in the comments of another website.

This type of link building has several benefits, starting with the fact that Google favors the use of this technique, since it is considered white hat marketing.

Another benefit is that it is free: the resources are invested in creating excellent quality content, instead of buying the links.

The way to get organic links is mainly to write relevant and unique content. The idea is to have content that other pages want to cite.

Another strategy is to manually insert your links to blogs within your niche, either by sharing your website in the comments or by guest-blogging.

However, this type of link building has certain disadvantages. It is a much slower process and without the help of an external agency each backlink can take a lot of time and work to achieve.

Also, if you don’t have knowledge about SEO you can end up making mistakes, such as relating to poor quality pages or spam.

Paid link building works differently: if you choose the right agency and invest enough money, you can get quick and effective results without risking being penalized by Google.

Having the guidance of specialists offers knowledge and security, unlike organic link building. The biggest disadvantage is that it requires a large investment cost to be effective.

In conclusion, it is advisable to use a little of both strategies. For example, organic link building can be more effective when you are starting your website, while the paid form can be more effective when you already have your site more developed and want to expand it.

Conclusions: How to charge for link building services?

On the Internet, you can find a huge number of options when it comes to links, and with such a wide range of prices, it is difficult to know how much money you should invest.

Without the correct guidance, you can end up getting carried away with very cheap services that do not generate profits, and can even lead to penalties for your website.

Recommended prices per link are around 325 USD at the low end and 750 USD at the high end. For particularly competitive niches, the numbers may be higher.

There are many factors that determine the quality of a link, but they can be easily summed up in one sentence: quality is the most important thing in SEO.

Google goes to great lengths to favor higher quality web pages and discourage unreliable ones.

The same thing happens in link building: if a link is not of good quality, it is probably not worth it, even if it is cheap.