Key Takeaways
46% of marketers report spending more than $10,000 each year on link building, with 22% allocating $1,000 to $2,500 annually.
92% of marketers are confident that links will remain a crucial ranking factor in Google’s algorithm over the next 5 years.
The top-ranking page on Google has 3.8x more backlinks than those in positions 2-10.
93.8% of link builders prioritize link quality over quantity.
89.2% of link builders see the effects of links on rankings within 1 to 6 months.
90% of marketers prioritize high-quality content as their primary link building strategy.
65% of marketers incorporate content syndication into their content marketing strategies.
94% of online content contains zero external links.
Cost of Backlinks and Link Building Budgets
A 31% of marketing professionals allocate less than 10% of their entire budget to link building efforts.
25% of digital marketing clients set aside a portion of their budget specifically for link building activities.
46% of marketers report spending more than $10,000 each year on link building, with 22% allocating $1,000 to $2,500 annually.
41% of SEO experts foresee an increase in backlink acquisition costs due to the competitive nature of search rankings.
61.7% of SEO professionals have noted a significant uptick in link-building costs.
The average cost of paid backlinks, considered a “black hat SEO” tactic, is $361.
Securing high-quality backlinks often exceeds a cost of $1,000 per link.
Experienced link builders offer a 49% cost reduction on a per-link basis compared to other methods.
The shotgun approach is identified as a low-cost, high-return strategy for link building.
Impact and Importance of Link Building
92% of marketers are confident that links will remain a crucial ranking factor in Google’s algorithm over the next 5 years.
65.2% of SEO professionals expect links to maintain or increase their influence on search engine rankings in the coming five years.
59% believe backlinks will gain more influence soon, while 35.5% foresee no change.
56.2% of marketers recognize the substantial effect of link quantity and quality on rankings.
53% of marketers predict a continued significant impact of link building on rankings, whereas 41% anticipate a reduced impact.
69% of marketers report positive ranking effects on Google from purchasing links.
93.8% of link builders prioritize link quality over quantity.
The top-ranking page on Google has 3.8x more backlinks than those in positions 2-10.
Websites with a higher count of unique backlinks tend to rank better in search results.
The quantity of backlinks is directly linked to the volume of organic traffic a web page receives.
Referring domains through backlinks show the strongest correlation with successful SEO.
Links are among the top two factors in Google’s page ranking algorithm.
It typically takes 3.1 months for links to show their impact on search rankings.
89.2% of link builders see the effects of links on rankings within 1 to 6 months.
A positive correlation is noted between social media shares and backlink numbers.
Widely shared content on social media gets 2-5 times more organic traffic and backlinks.
Approximately 94% of online content receives no external links.
67.5% of businesses acknowledge the impact of link building on SERP rankings.
The highest-ranking pages often use reciprocal links.
Long-form content attracts 77.2% more backlinks than shorter pieces.
New websites see a 5% to 14.5% monthly increase in Dofollow backlinks to their top-ranked pages.
More than 46% of businesses expect rising costs in link building.
Link building constitutes an average of 28% of SEO budgets.
Using infographics leads to 178% more inbound backlinks.
Websites with superior Domain Ratings often rank higher on Google’s first page.
Content and Link Building Strategies
90% of marketers prioritize high-quality content as their primary link building strategy.
Link creation is the principal goal for 68% of content marketing initiatives.
65% of marketers incorporate content syndication into their content marketing strategies.
Guest posting reigns as the top link-building tactic, utilized by 64.9% of link builders.
The creation of linkable assets stands as the foremost link-building strategy.
Publishing blogs can boost a website’s backlink count by 97%.
12.5% of SEOs consider content marketing the most effective link building tactic, with guest posting (11.7%) and link exchanges (10.9%) following closely.
37% of SEO experts include broken link building in their comprehensive link-building strategies.
The Skyscraper Technique can achieve a 15% higher success rate than traditional link-building methods.
Repurposing successful content into various formats can significantly increase backlink potential.
Long-form content secures on average 77.2% more links than shorter pieces.
Articles over 3,000 words garner 3.5 times as many backlinks as standard-length articles.
Blog posts featuring more than three videos attract 55% more backlinks than those without videos.
“Why” posts, “What” posts, and Infographics secure 25.8% more links than “how to” posts.
Pages in the top 10 search results feature a diverse anchor text profile, with only 13% of anchors being exact-match keywords.
Shared content can generate 2-5 times the amount of natural traffic and backlinks.
52% of marketers view brand mentions as an effective strategy to influence organic search rankings.
Only 2.2% of all online content generates more than one unique backlink.
SEO Professionals and Market Practices
Over 60% of businesses outsource their link building to professional agencies and contractors.
79.7% of SEOs view link-building as a crucial component of their SEO strategy.
58% of SEO professionals believe link building will continue to be an essential SEO practice in the future.
53% of marketers believe link building will have the same influence in the near future, while 41% believe it will have less.
94% of marketers anticipate that links will still be a ranking feature in Google engines in five years.
65.4% of SEOs prioritize domain authority over the number of links on the target page when assessing search rankings.
52.3% of digital marketers find link-building to be the most challenging aspect of SEO.
28% of SEO budgets go towards link-building.
51% of SEO professionals regard competitor backlink analysis as a vital element of their link-building strategy.
13% of SEO experts believe that link building is the most valuable SEO tactic today.
48% of marketers report that “nofollow” links are a part of their process as well.
42.6% of link builders use metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) to gauge the success of their link-building activities.
53% of marketers use page rankings as the main KPI to gauge the success of their link-building campaigns.
17.7% of link builders use digital PR to earn connections.
Around 6.02% of website owners create digital PR links.
73.6% of domains with good authority use a reciprocal link strategy.
Agencies have the largest percentage of experienced link builders, with 59.4% having more than five years of expertise.
46.6% of SEO professionals have observed that the process of link building now demands 1-3 months more time than in previous practices.
Tools and Measurement
45.3% of SEOs utilize Google Search Console.
Ahrefs is a go-to for 64.9% of link builders in their SEO tasks.
When assessing link quality, 65% of marketers look at domain authority, 48% use domain rating, and 36% evaluate page authority.
Given only one metric to assess link quality, 67% would choose domain rating, while 42% would focus on domain authority.
38% of marketers identify page rankings as their primary KPI for gauging link building success.
49% of marketers observe significant improvements in rankings and organic traffic one to three months after their link-building efforts.
30% of marketers note it takes three to six months to witness the impact of their link placements.
On average, converting an outreach email into a backlink takes eight days.
The global SEO software market is projected to hit approximately $1.6 billion by 2027.
Outreach and Engagement
Only 8.5% of cold emails used for link building generate results.
It takes 8 days on average for an email to convert into a backlink.
Sending out 3 follow-up emails doubles the results.
Using the recipient’s first name in the initial outreach increases the final result by about 50%.
Personalizing the subject line and text of outreach emails boosts response rates by 33%.
Sending follow-up emails in link-building outreach campaigns results in 40% more links being acquired.
The best days to reach out are Mondays and Fridays.
To achieve 10 high-quality backlinks, contacting over 1000 separate recipients is necessary.
Up to 12 back-and-forth emails are needed to place an A-B-C link, a technique involving exchanging backlinks among three parties.
The average company that outsources link building completely spends 25% of its entire SEO budget on link building.
Personalized email outreach is the most successful method of acquiring backlinks, with 79% of respondents achieving success using this approach.
28% of marketers consider influencer marketing to be an effective link-building strategy.
46.3% of link builders said they used Help a Reporter Out (HARO) frequently.
61.7% of link builders use social media to connect.
Link builders leveraging social media see a 22% increase in monthly links.
23.5% of link builders use Facebook for outreach and contacts.
LinkedIn is the choice for 17.3% of link builders seeking connections.
Almost a third of marketers continue their outreach campaigns for up to four weeks after releasing new content to secure backlinks.
Around 74.3% of contributors pay for link exchange.
60% of respondents agree to outsource their linking building activities.
Miscellaneous Statistics
Only 5% of all websites online have backlinks pointing at them.
Only 55.24% of websites have zero backlinks, while 29.79% have fewer than three.
5.7% of earned backlinks came from websites that linked before.
SaaS companies tend to get ~85% of their links directed to the homepage.
82% of local businesses consider link building an essential component of their local SEO strategy.
68% of local businesses consider niche directories as an important factor in their local link-building strategy.
57% of content marketers believe expert roundups to be an effective way to generate backlinks.
Resource Pages can be an effective way to attract backlinks.
Link reclamation has a 45% success rate on average.
43% of marketers believe that collaborative marketing efforts result in more effective link-building.
Collaboration with Industry Associations can help establish your brand as a trusted authority and earn backlinks from their websites and affiliated sources.
Internal Linking can help distribute link equity throughout your website and indirectly contribute to more backlinks as your content becomes more discoverable.
34% of SEOs spend the most time on external links, 24% on internal links, and 42% spend equal time on both.
The same amount of effort goes into creating internal and external links, according to 42% of SEOs.
51% of SEOs believe bloggers should include two to three internal links in a blog post, while 36% say 3 to 5 internal links should be included.
52% of marketers believe that having brand mentions in the anchor text of a backlink impacts organic search rankings significantly.
Pages ranking in the top 10 search results have a diverse anchor text profile, with only 13% of anchors being exact-match keywords.
43.7% of the sites in a study of over 112,440 top-ranking pages had reciprocal links.
2.2% of online content published generates backlinks from multiple sites.
94% of online content contains zero external links.
A study on web content reveals no correlation between backlinks and social shares.
The lack of association between backlinks and social shares suggests minimal overlap between backlink-generating material and highly shareable information.
Headlines that conclude with a question mark score 23.3% additional social media shares.
Longer headlines generate more shares, with those having 14-17 words receiving an additional 76.7% of social shares.
48% of marketers believe link building will continue to have the same effect on search results in the future, while 1% feel it will have less of an impact.
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