After our last newsletter on "What is a really good link?", we received lot of questions - mostly on pricing.
It's important to understand how much you should spend on each type of link so that you don't scammed.
When we buy links for our website and for our clients, we distinguish between 4 types of links:
Foundational links (10 cents to 1 dollar per link).
If you're a new website owner (or your domain rating is below 20), you should build 1,000+ foundational links (here) in order to build a link foundation for your domain.
These links are social profiles and (local) business directories.
Summary:
Cheapest links you will ever buy (best value)
Including name, address and phone number will help your Google My Business profile to rank higher
If you're in a very competitive space, foundational links are just the start
If you are very, very particular about design and branding, you should know that the design of these websites is an "acquired taste"
Low quality links ($100 per link)
You can buy links for $50-$100 from low quality websites that were built to sell links.
These sites often have the word news, reviews, mom, blogs, zone, hub, digest, info, talk in the domain name.
They write about Lifestyle / Sport / Beauty / Food / Cars / Technology / Finance... - basically anything under the sun (just to sell more links).
Google knows about it and likely Google doesn't give your link any power.
Summary:
Helps you to look more authoritative (=boost your domain rating)
In our experience it doesn't help you (much) to improve
Waste of budget: Better to buy 1 good quality link than 3 low-quality ones.
Good quality links ($200-$400 per link)
Good quality links start at $200-$400 per link.
These links are from websites that
are in your industry
have authority (high Domain Rating)
have clicks for commercial searches
are (somewhat) picky about who they link to
(ideally) have organic traffic to the page where your link will be on
In our experience, these are good links that can move the needle within a few days. We suggest building 3-5 per month until you have your desired ranking.
Summary:
Helps you to rank higher
You can establish authority by including their logo on your website (if relevant)
If lucky, you get clicks/leads from these links
This is an upfront investment. You need to make sure that if you buy 10-20 of these links ($3,000-$6,000), you build them to pages on your website that have a chance to rank.
High quality links (with traffic) ($1,000 up to $10,000 (or more))
We distinguish between (at least) two types of very high quality links:
High quality links from household name companies or very strong local (news) websites (e.g. bbc.com, semrush.com, harvard.edu). These links help you to build up your domain authority and rankings fast.
We are also buying "lead-generation links". When you google your commercial keyword ("best hairdresser in NY"), you will find a top 10 list on position 1. These links can generate leads.
Summary:
Helps you to rank higher
Build trust with your audience if you include the logo
Bring you leads. We have bought links for $3,000/year that have driven $200,000/year in revenue for a client.
There's never a guarantee that a link "works" (helps you to rank/brings leads). Spending 4-5 figures on a link and not seeing results is not great.
Want a personalized link-building plan?No problem, we're happy to help. We'd be happy to discuss the possibilities with our full-service link building service in a free, no-obligation consultation!