Choose a link building agency by inspecting links it has already built, asking exactly how each placement happens and whether money changes hands, comparing its price per link with the market, and reading who owns the links when you stop paying. Ahrefs puts guest-post services at $250 to $400 per link, so anything far cheaper is resold inventory.
The usual situation: three proposals are in your inbox. One promises 30 "DA 50+" links a month for $800, one quotes $3,500 a month and will not say where the links will come from, and one wants a six-month contract before it shows you anything. Here is how to tell them apart.
What is a link building agency?
A link building agency is a company you pay to get other websites to link to yours. The name covers four quite different business models, and the model matters more than the pitch:
- Outreach agencies contact relevant sites on your behalf, pitch guest posts or insertions, and earn placements one email at a time.
- Placement resellers hold a list of sites that publish posts for a fee. You are buying from a catalogue, and the agency's margin sits on top of the site's price.
- Digital PR agencies create data pieces and stories, then pitch journalists. Expensive, slow, and the only route to news-site links at scale.
- Managed programmes combine the above into a monthly retainer with a target number of links.
Most agencies describe themselves as the first kind. An Ahrefs review of link building services, published on March 15, 2023, puts it bluntly: "Every link building service website, marketplace page, etc., says 'manual outreach' and 'no PBNs.' But, for the most part, that isn't the case." The checks below exist to find out which kind you are actually dealing with.
What does a link building agency cost?
Prices track the placement type, not the agency's logo. The figures below are from the same Ahrefs review, so treat them as 2023 market rates that have drifted up a little since:
| Service | Typical price (Ahrefs, 2023) |
|---|---|
| Guest post placement | $250 to $400 per link |
| Niche edit (link added to an existing article) | $150 to $300 per link from reputable providers |
| Editorial links via source requests (HARO-style) | $240 to $700 per link at agencies, $200 to $350 with freelancers |
| Digital PR retainer | $4,000 to $15,000 a month minimum |
| Managed link building | $2,500 to $10,000 a month |
| "500 links for $10" style offers | Spam, not links |
For a sense of what a single paid link costs outside agencies, Ahrefs' guide to buying backlinks cites Authority Hacker's survey of 755 link builders, which found paid links cost $83 on average, with its own outreach to 450 sites finding niche edits averaging $361.44. Average cost of a backlink and how to set a link building budget go deeper on the numbers.
7 checks before you sign with a link building agency
- Ask for ten live links built for a client in the last 90 days. Open each one. Is the linking site about something related to the client? Does the page have organic traffic, or only outbound links? Is the link in the body, with a natural anchor, and without
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow"? Ten real examples tell you more than any case study. - Ask how each placement happens and whether the site is paid. This is the question most agencies sidestep. Google's spam policies list "exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links" as link spam unless the link carries
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow". If the site is paid and the link is followed, you are buying a policy violation with an agency's name on the invoice. - Ask whether they own or operate any of the linking sites. An agency that places links on its own network is running a private blog network. The links disappear when you stop paying, and the network can be deindexed as a group.
- Sanity-check the price against the table above. Thirty followed links a month for $800 works out to about $27 a link, which no real site charges for a guest post. The cheaper the link, the more certain it is that nobody with an audience published it.
- Check that the reporting can prove them wrong. You want a live list of every link with the URL, the anchor, the date and the
relattribute, plus a monthly check that each link is still live. A report that shows only "DA" and a count hides the parts that matter. - Read the contract for link ownership and term. What happens to the links if you cancel? Is there a minimum term? Who holds the relationship with the publishing site? Links that live on sites the agency controls are rented, not owned.
- Ask for a reference in a similar niche and call them. Ask the reference what the agency did when a link got removed, and how long results took. Those two answers reveal more than the sales deck.
Red flags that mean walk away
- Guaranteed rankings, or a guaranteed number of links with a guaranteed "DA."
- Prices per link that are a fraction of the market rates above.
- "We have a network of 500 sites" or any refusal to say where links will come from.
- No examples until after you sign.
- Reports that count links but never show the URLs.
- Pressure to commit to six or twelve months before a single placement exists.
Most of these overlap with the wider checks in how to tell if an SEO agency is legit and the questions to ask before hiring an SEO.
Alternatives to hiring a link building agency
We make Backlinkster, so weigh this section with that in mind. An agency makes sense when you have budget, no time, and a site that already has content worth linking to. If one of those is missing, the alternatives are cheaper and often cleaner:
- A freelance link builder paid per accepted placement, with the same seven checks applied.
- In-house outreach using backlink outreach that gets replies as the template. Slow, but every relationship is yours.
- Source requests through the HARO alternatives, which cost time rather than money.
- 1-for-1 article swaps with other site owners. On Backlinkster, whoever starts a swap publishes the partner's article first, the link must sit in an article on the member's own domain, and each swap is verified by API. The free plan covers 5 swaps a month, Pro is $19 a month.
When Backlinkster is not the right fit: if you need dozens of links a month from news sites, a digital PR agency is the only realistic route. If you have no blog to host partner articles in, or your brand cannot link out to other businesses, swaps do not work for you. And if you want someone else to do all of the work, that is what an agency is for.
Frequently asked questions
What does a link building agency do? It gets other websites to link to yours, through outreach, guest posts, link insertions, digital PR or paid placements, and reports the links it secured. The method varies enormously between agencies, which is why you should ask how each placement happens before comparing prices.
How much should I pay a link building agency? Expect $250 to $400 per guest-post link and $2,500 to $10,000 a month for a managed programme, based on Ahrefs' 2023 review of link building services. Pay far less and you are almost certainly buying resold or network links. Pay more and make sure the extra buys editorial placements, not a bigger logo.
Is it safe to hire a link building agency?
It is as safe as the links it builds. Followed links bought from sites that charge for posts are link spam under Google's policies, whoever arranged them. An agency that earns placements through outreach, or marks paid ones rel="sponsored", carries little risk. One that runs its own network carries the most.
How long before agency links show results? Expect weeks for a placement to be published and indexed, and months for ranking movement, the same as any link. Agencies that promise results inside a month are describing something other than editorial links. How long backlinks take to work sets realistic expectations.
Do link building agencies guarantee rankings? Honest ones do not, because rankings depend on content, competition and dozens of signals the agency does not control. A guarantee is a sales tactic, and the fine print usually makes it unenforceable. Judge an agency on the links you can inspect, not on promises about positions.
Related: How to tell if an SEO agency is legit · Questions to ask before hiring an SEO · How much does an SEO agency cost per month? · Average cost of a backlink · Is it worth paying for backlinks?