Link building is still one of the most effective strategies to increase SEO rankings.
In fact, the top result on Google has about 3.8 times more backlinks than the pages ranked #2 to #10.
Most websites struggle to get more traffic from Google because 94% of all blog posts have zero backlinks.
So, the takeaway here is that search engines like Google still give top priority to web pages with more number of backlinks.
On average, companies allocate 32-36% of their total SEO budget to link building. About 57% of people see results from link building within 1 to 3 months.
In this post, we’ll uncover some of the interesting link building statistics every website owner should know in 2026.
Table of Contents
Key Link Building Statistics: Editor Picks 2026
- Email remains the primary communication tool for link building, used by 45.1% of professionals. Most link builders prefer email because it’s direct, professional, and easy to track.
- It costs $692 to acquire a backlink from a high-quality website through guest blogging.
- Over 50% of link builders believe that building quality backlinks is the hardest part of SEO.
- The average minimum monthly budget for link building in competitive niches is $8,406.
- The top three content types that get the most backlinks are “Why posts,” “What posts,” and infographics.
- About 68% of link builders prefer linking to their blog posts rather than to homepages or sales pages.
Struggling to find the right tools that simplify link building? Explore the best link building tools trusted by SEO experts.
Link Building Strategies and Tactics
Digital PR has the best success rate in link building, with an effectiveness of nearly 48%. Guest blogging (16%) and creating linkable assets (12%) are the next two most popular link building tactics.
Digital PR and Backlink Exchanges
Digital PR is the most effective strategy for link building, as it’s nearly 50% more effective compared to other tactics.
Around 25% of SEO experts still do link exchanges, and nearly half of the top-ranking pages have reciprocal links.
Here are some of the top tactics used for link building.
| Link Building Tactic | Effectiveness |
| Digital PR | 48.6% |
| Guest posting | 16% |
| Linkable assets | 12% |
| Backlink exchange | 9.3% |
| Niche edits | 4.6% |
| HARO link building | 4.1% |
| Other | 5.4% |
Source: Editorial Link, Meetanshi
Impact of Guest Posts In Link Building
About 11.7% of marketers said guest posting offers one of the strongest results in link building.
Source: Adam Connell
The average cost of a guest post is $365, and the cost of high-quality guest posts ranges from $692 to $957.
Usually, high-quality guest posts are more expensive. Here’s an illustration showing the guest post pricing based on quality.
Source: BuzzStream
Looking for trusted sites to publish your guest posts? Here’s a handpicked list of high-quality guest posting sites.
Link Building Email Outreach Stats
Only 8.5% of link-building outreach emails get a response, which means over 90% of website owners ignore outreach emails.
Following up on outreach emails can boost replies by 65.58%.
A single follow-up message can make a huge difference. The first email outreach attempt gets an average response rate of 8.5%. But when you send one more follow-up email, the response rate increases to 14.1%. That’s a 65.8% boost in replies just by following up once.
Personalizing subject lines can improve email response rates by up to 30.5%.
According to Backlinko’s outreach study, when the subject line is personalized, the response rate is 21.8%. Without personalization, the response rate is only 16.7%.
Source: Backlinko
What’s the primary source people use for link building?
Email is the primary source of communication for link building, with 45.1% of link builders using it.
Source: Editorial Link
How long does it take to get email outreach replies?
On average, over half of the replies from link builders arrive within 6 hours, and 9 out of 10 get a response within 2 days.
The overall average response time is about 12.85 hours.
Here’s a table showing the average response times for outreach replies from link builders.
| Response Time | Percentage |
| 0–30 mins | 25.9% |
| 30 mins–6 hrs | 31.1% |
| 6 hrs–2 days | 32.2% |
| 2–7 days | 8.6% |
| More than 7 days | 2.3% |
Source: Buzzstream
Wednesday has the highest average response rate for outreach emails (7.64%), while Saturday performs the worst with just 5.65%.
Here’s a table showing the average response rates of emails sent throughout the week.
| Day | Average Response Rate |
| Monday | 7.50% |
| Tuesday | 7.54% |
| Wednesday | 7.64% |
| Thursday | 7.60% |
| Friday | 7.54% |
| Saturday | 5.65% |
| Sunday | 5.95% |
Link building has a 21.90% reply rate for outreach emails. For “guest posts”, the reply rate is much better with 24.70%.
Adding links to social profiles in signatures can increase responses by nearly 9.8% to those without social profile links. Adding social profile links to X, LinkedIn, and Instagram gives the best response rates.
Source: Backlinko
Link Building Budgets, Costs, and ROI
Link building is getting more costly every year. Most marketers pay $400–$600 for a single high-quality backlink, with the average cost around $508. The iGaming and online betting industry (61%) spends the most on link building, followed by Finance, Law, and Health sectors.
Average Link Building Budgets
The iGaming and online betting industries (61%) have the highest budgets on link building because they face huge competition and limited opportunities to build backlinks.
Other top sectors include Finance (18.4%), Law (16.4%), Health & Wellness (7.1%), and SaaS (5.8%).
Source: Editorial Link
Ever wondered how people use Google every day? Discover the latest Google Search stats that show the real-world user trends.
Cost per Link and Pricing Trends
Nearly 54% of marketers spend over $300 to acquire a single high-quality backlink. The most common cost range for acquiring one high-quality link is $400–$600. The average cost of a quality backlink is $508.95, but links from authority websites can cost $1,500 or more each.
Here’s a table showing the average cost range to acquire one backlink.
| Average Cost Range | Percentage |
| $100–$150 | 3% |
| $150–$200 | 8.8% |
| $200–$250 | 7.1% |
| $250–$300 | 7.1% |
| $300–$350 | 12.4% |
| $350–$400 | 8.8% |
| $400–$600 | 23% |
| $600–$800 | 8.8% |
| $800–$1000 | 6.2% |
| $1000+ | 15% |
Here’s a table showing key facts about link building costs, budgets, and results.
| Category | Stat |
| Average cost for one good backlink | $508.95 |
| People who think backlink costs will go up soon | 80.9% |
| Average minimum monthly budget for competitive niches | $8,406 |
| Timeframe to see link-building results | 57.1% see results within 1–3 months |
| Industry with the highest link-building budgets | Gambling (61%) |
| SEO budget used for link building | Agencies: 32.1% | In-house: 36.03% |
| Who does the link building work | 56% outsource | 44% do it in-house |
Source: Editorial Link
Want to know how SEO shapes online success today? Explore the latest SEO stats that reveal what really helps with better rankings.
Link Building Tools
Around 64% of marketers say their SEO budgets (including link building tools) increased this year.
Ahrefs is the most widely used tool for link building, with more than 82% of SEOs using it.
Here’s a breakdown of the top tools used by SEOs for link building.
| Tool | Percentage of SEOs using it for Link Building |
| Ahrefs | 82% |
| Google Sheets | 60% |
| Semrush | 56% |
| HARO | 42% |
| Screaming Frog | 36% |
| Moz | 31% |
| Majestic | 30% |
| BuzzStream | 26% |
| BuzzSumo | 24% |
| ResponseSource | 19% |
In terms of your use of link indexes, 64% of SEOs trust their link data most, followed by Google Search Console at 14%.
Domain Rating (DR) by Ahrefs is the #1 metric used by 67% of link builders to measure the quality of a backlink.
Here are the cost ranges for some of the most popular link building tools.
| Tool | Price Range (Monthly) |
| Semrush | $139.95 – $499.95/month |
| Ahrefs | $100 – $200/month |
| BuzzStream | $24 – $299/month |
| SE Ranking | $65 – $119/month |
| Moz | $99 0 $599/month |
Link Building Challenges
Over 52% of SEO experts say link building is the hardest part of SEO.
So, why is link building so hard? Some reasons include;
- The cost of acquiring one quality link
- Limited time and resources
- Google algorithm updates
- Backlink profile management
- High rejection rates
In-House vs Agency Link Building
Agencies spend about 32% of their SEO budget on link building, while in-house teams allocate around 36%.
44.02% of in-house teams handle all link-building tasks in-house, whereas 55.98% of agencies outsource them.
Source: Editorial Link
Curious how marketers use Semrush for SEO and traffic growth? Check out key Semrush stats that show its real impact.
Common Challenges in Link Building
Email outreach is one of the key strategies used for link building. However, most outreach emails often get ignored, as only 8.5% of emails get a response.
Source: Backlinko
Want to know how many websites are in the world? Here’s a handpicked list of the latest website stats and insights.
Link Building Trends to Watch Out for
About 73.2% of people believe backlinks affect how likely a page is to appear in AI search results.
Long-form blog posts often attract more backlinks, with an average of 77.2% of backlinks compared to shorter blog posts.
94% of all web pages on the Internet have zero backlinks, and only 2.2% of websites get links from multiple sources.
The top 3 types of content formats that often attract more backlinks include: “Why Posts”, “What Posts,” and infographics. These three types of posts attract an average of 25.8% more referring links than other content formats.
Sources: Editorial Link, Backlinko
The Future of Link Building
About 53% of SEOs use keyword rankings to measure link building success, and 72% say links from niche-related sites help the most. As AI search grows, 68% think link building will matter even more, and 89% of link builders create content mainly to get backlinks.
Rising Interest in Link Building
“Keyword ranking” is the primary KPI used by 53% of SEOs to measure the impact of their link building efforts.
Here’s a table showing the breakdown of the primary KPIs used by most link builders.
| KPI Metric | Percentage of SEOs considering it |
| Keyword rankings | 53% |
| Search visibility | 36% |
| Volume of linking domains | 35% |
| Volume of links | 31% |
| Overall traffic to the website | 30% |
| Direct traffic generated to a domain via links built | 19% |
| Conversions | 13% |
Most SEOs (94%) believe Google will keep using backlinks as a key ranking factor for at least the next five years, indicating that links will remain important in SEO.
Most SEOs (69%) believe that buying links can positively impact search rankings.
Source: Aira
The Role of Links in Modern SEO
Pages with 100+ backlinks get 3.2 times more organic traffic than pages with fewer links. This is because strong backlink profiles boost search visibility and attract more search engine visitors.
Source: Search Atlas
Most SEOs (72%) said links from websites related to their niche have the strongest positive impact on organic search rankings.
Here’s the breakdown of the top attributes of a link positively influencing organic rankings.
| Link Attribute | Percentage of SEOs Who Value It |
| Links from sites specifically related to your niche | 72% |
| Links from domains not linked before | 52% |
| Links from high-authority domains (DA/DR) | 42% |
| Links from the domains competitors have | 29% |
| Links from sites your audience visits | 25% |
| Links that send traffic | 21% |
| Links that send traffic that converts | 13% |
Source: Aira
Around 89% of marketers create content mainly to build backlinks. This is because quality content naturally attracts links from other sites.
Source: Adam Connell
Strategic internal linking can boost rankings by 20–40% without adding new external backlinks.
Source: Bluetree Digital
The #1 ranking page on Google gets 5%–14.5% more new dofollow backlinks every month. This is because top-ranking pages gain more visibility, attract more visitors, and naturally earn links from other sites looking to reference trusted sources.
Source: Ahrefs
Impact of AI and Generative Search on Link Building
68% of people think link building will become even more important in the next two years because of AI.
When AI summaries appear in search results, website clicks drop by about 50% because users often find answers directly in the AI box. Only 8% of users clicked result links when an AI box appeared, compared to 15% without an AI box.
About 73% of link builders believe backlinks will play a significant role in how websites appear in AI-powered search results.
Only 11% of link builders say they have a consistent and reliable process for getting their content mentioned in AI-generated search results.
Sources: BuzzStream, Editorial Link, Link Build
FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about link building stats.
Most marketers see results within 1 to 3 months.
On average, businesses spend 32-36% of their SEO budget on link building.
Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to send link building outreach emails, as they have a response rate of 7.64% and 7.60% respectively.
Saturday is the worst day to send emails, with an average response rate of only 5.65%.
Backlinks from the same niche and high-authority sites often have the most impact on organic rankings.
Final thoughts
If you want the best results from link building, focus on quality and relevance over quantity.
Businesses are spending nearly 30% of their SEO budget only on link building, and Google still prioritizes websites with more backlinks.
Also, the cost of acquiring high-quality links across almost every industry is only going up due to heavy competition and high rejection rates.
What are your thoughts on the link-building stats mentioned above? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.
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