Comprehensive Guide to Link Building Statistics for 2024

Link building remains a cornerstone of successful SEO strategies. 

Despite Google’s evolving algorithm and guidance on backlinks, the practice continues to drive significant organic traffic, improve domain authority, and bolster brand trust. 

Below is a deep dive into the most critical link building statistics of 2024, organized into key categories. 

Each section contains 15 stats, offering valuable insights for SEO professionals and marketers alike.

1. General Link Building Stats

1. 68% of content marketing strategies prioritize link building as a primary goal (Source: Meetanshi).
2. 78% of marketers report seeing positive ROI from link building efforts (Source: Authority Hacker).
3. On average, pages that rank #1 on Google have 3.8x more backlinks than lower-ranking pages (Source: Backlinko).
4. 65% of web pages still lack backlinks (Source: 33rd Square).
5. Blogs receive 97% more links from external sites compared to non-blogging websites (Source: HubSpot).
6. 31% of SEOs spend less than $300 per link, while 14% spend over $600 (Source: Editorial Link).
7. 85% of SEOs believe link building significantly impacts brand authority (Source: uSERP).
8. 65% of digital marketers think links will be equally or more impactful in the next 5 years (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
9. 41% foresee rising backlink acquisition costs due to competition (Source: uSERP).
10. 64% of digital marketers prefer guest posting as their link building strategy (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
11. 55% of SEOs rely on tools like Ahrefs and Moz to assess link quality (Source: Authority Hacker).
12. 51% believe two to three internal links suffice for blog optimization (Source: Databox).
13. 46% of SEOs spend over $10,000 annually on link building (Source: Authority Hacker).
14. 42% of SEOs consider organic traffic the top KPI for link success (Source: uSERP).
15. Only 8.5% of cold outreach emails result in backlinks (Source: Outreach Monks).

2. Link Building ROI Stats

1. Websites with 30-35 backlinks generate over 10,500 monthly visits (Source: uSERP).
2. Longer content earns 77% more backlinks than shorter pieces (Source: Backlinko).
3. Infographics can boost backlinks by 178% (Source: Meetanshi).
4. Companies using videos on blogs receive 55% more backlinks (Source: Meetanshi).
5. 80% of marketers believe backlinks will remain relevant in 10 years (Source: Authority Hacker).
6. Digital PR campaigns generate significantly higher ROI compared to traditional link exchanges (Source: Outreach Monks).
7. Backlinks from high-authority domains improve rankings by 28% on average (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
8. The top three ranking pages often gain 5-14% more backlinks monthly (Source: Ahrefs).
9. Blog posts featuring “What is” content receive 26% more backlinks (Source: Backlinko).
10. Sites ranking #1 on Google secure 70% more follow links than their competitors (Source: Ahrefs).
11. Link building improves customer trust, with 90% of buyers considering backlink sources credible (Source: DemandGen).
12. Case studies earn 55% of B2B backlinks (Source: DemandGen).
13. Websites optimized for mobile receive 25% more backlinks (Source: Authority Hacker).
14. Content updated regularly sees a 38% increase in backlinks (Source: Authority Hacker).
15. Original research content garners 60% more backlinks than generic content (Source: uSERP).

3. Link Quality Statistics

1. 89% of marketers believe nofollow links positively affect rankings (Source: Authority Hacker).
2. 79% say plain text mentions also boost rankings (Source: Authority Hacker).
3. Contextual links are 10x more valuable than sidebar or footer links (Source: Authority Hacker).
4. High-quality links cost between $700-$2,000 (Source: uSERP).
5. Domains with high authority (DR>70) see a 15% quicker improvement in rankings (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
6. 48% of SEOs report on nofollow links to clients (Source: Authority Hacker).
7. Low-quality links from spammy domains reduce rankings by 25% (Source: Authority Hacker).
8. In-house SEO teams pay 75% more for premium links than agencies (Source: Authority Hacker).
9. Nearly 52% of SEOs prioritize DR/DA for link quality assessment (Source: Meetanshi).
10. Links from resource pages have 3x the impact of generic links (Source: Outreach Monks).
11. Anchor text diversity increases rankings by 22% (Source: Backlinko).
12. Sites with backlinks from .edu domains see 8% more organic traffic (Source: Backlinko).
13. Internal links improve user time on site by 16% (Source: Meetanshi).
14. 34% of SEOs favor Moz’s DA for quality measurement (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
15. Google now values nofollow links more, increasing their weight in rankings (Source: Google).

4. Link Building Cost Statistics

1. Companies often spend $1,000-$15,000 monthly on link building (Source: uSERP).
2. Low-quality links average around $300 (Source: Editorial Link).
3. High-quality backlinks cost between $700-$2,000 per link (Source: uSERP).
4. The average cost per paid link is $83 (Source: Authority Hacker).
5. Experienced SEOs pay 221% more per link compared to beginners (Source: Authority Hacker).
6. Companies allocate 28% of their SEO budgets to link building (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
7. SEOs predict a 41% increase in link costs due to rising competition (Source: uSERP).
8. Links from .gov or .edu domains can cost over $3,000 (Source: Meetanshi).
9. 46% of SEOs spend over $10,000 annually on link building (Source: Aira).
10. Link building using agencies costs 25% more on average than in-house efforts (Source: Editorial Link).
11. Companies find it difficult to calculate link building ROI accurately (Source: Editorial Link).
12. The median cost for a quality link in the U.S. is $500 (Source: Outreach Monks).
13. Businesses outsourcing to link building firms pay a premium of 30-40% more (Source: Aira).
14. SEO costs vary by industry, with competitive niches spending 50% more on backlinks (Source: Editorial Link).
15. Automated outreach reduces the cost per link by 25% but risks quality (Source: Sixth City Marketing).

5. Trends in Link Building

1. 52% of SEOs report link building takes longer than before (Source: Authority Hacker).
2. 65% believe backlinks will remain equally important over the next 5 years (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
3. Cold outreach effectiveness is down, with an 8.5% success rate (Source: Outreach Monks).
4. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is used by 46% of marketers for backlinks (Source: Outreach Monks).
5. Personalized outreach emails generate 33% more links than generic ones (Source: Mailtrap).
6. 70% of SEOs plan to incorporate video content for backlinks (Source: Outreach Monks).
7. Podcast backlinks are expected to grow by 40% as more content creators leverage audio (Source: ComScore).
8. Websites with voice-search optimized content earn 10% more backlinks (Source: Cisco).
9. Visual content like infographics increases link acquisition by 178% (Source: Meetanshi).
10. Resource pages are an underutilized but effective link strategy, used by 32% of SEOs (Source: Outreach Monks).
11. 61% of digital marketers integrate social media for link building (Source: Outreach Monks).
12. Reciprocal links remain popular, with 43% of top pages having mutual links (Source: Outreach Monks).
13. Original research reports attract 60% more backlinks (Source: uSERP).
14. Guest posting is still dominant, used by 64% of SEOs (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
15. AI-generated content is starting to be linked more often, growing 20% year-over-year (Source: Authority Hacker).

6. Effectiveness of Link Building Tactics

1. Digital PR generates 50% more links than traditional methods like link exchanges (Source: Outreach Monks).
2. Broken link building has a 22% success rate when links are pitched with relevant content (Source: Backlinko).
3. Guest posts account for over 64% of new link acquisitions (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
4. The Skyscraper Technique boosts backlinks by 75% on average for high-performing pages (Source: Authority Hacker).
5. Backlinking through infographics results in a 37% success rate (Source: Backlinko).
6. HARO-generated backlinks tend to have higher domain authority (DA>50) in 46% of cases (Source: Outreach Monks).
7. Podcasts and niche interviews provide 28% of SEO professionals with quality links (Source: ComScore).
8. Outreach campaigns using personalized pitches improve success rates by 33% (Source: Mailtrap).
9. Internal linking strategies improve search visibility by 21% (Source: Databox).
10. Websites leveraging case studies as content generate 55% more backlinks (Source: DemandGen).
11. Link exchanges contribute to 43% of backlinks for some SEO campaigns (Source: Outreach Monks).
12. Websites that frequently update old posts gain 38% more links from external sources (Source: Authority Hacker).
13. Cold email outreach for links sees a higher success rate mid-week (Source: SalesHandy).
14. Resource pages continue to be one of the highest-converting link-building tactics, used by 32% of SEOs (Source: Outreach Monks).
15. Sites using unique data or research reports attract 60% more backlinks than standard blogs (Source: uSERP).

7. SEO Metrics and Their Role in Link Building

1. 69% of marketers rely on Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) to measure link-building success (Source: Editorial Link).
2. 51% of new SEOs favor DR and DA, compared to 29% of experienced professionals (Source: Meetanshi).
3. Organic traffic is the top metric for 42% of SEOs to gauge link effectiveness (Source: uSERP).
4. High-ranking pages on Google often see 3.8x more backlinks than those ranked lower (Source: Backlinko).
5. Sites with DR above 70 show 15% faster rankings improvement (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
6. Moz’s DA is preferred by 34% of SEOs for evaluating link quality (Source: Aira).
7. Metrics like bounce rate decrease by 12% with better internal linking (Source: Databox).
8. Backlink anchor text diversity improves rankings by 22% (Source: Backlinko).
9. Sites with over 35 backlinks generate 10,500 visits per month on average (Source: uSERP).
10. Pages that rank first in Google have on average 3,000 referring domains (Source: Ahrefs).
11. Internal linking improves on-site engagement metrics by 16% (Source: Meetanshi).
12. Domain Authority is considered crucial by 65% of marketers (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
13. Sites with over 5,000 monthly visitors are 50% more likely to secure backlinks organically (Source: Ahrefs).
14. Sites with HTTPS protocol receive 22% more backlinks than non-secure sites (Source: Ahrefs).
15. 80% of top-ranking pages on Google have at least one internal link structure optimization (Source: Backlinko).

8. Impact of Link Building on Search Rankings

1. Backlinks are the second most important factor in Google’s ranking algorithm, after content quality (Source: Backlinko).
2. Pages with at least one backlink rank 10 positions higher than those with none (Source: Ahrefs).
3. A strong backlink profile can increase organic traffic by 252% (Source: HubSpot).
4. 75% of SEOs agree that the number of referring domains correlates with search rankings (Source: Authority Hacker).
5. Over 90% of content gets zero organic traffic because of poor backlinking (Source: Ahrefs).
6. Linking to authoritative sources within content boosts rankings by 15% (Source: Backlinko).
7. A mere 1% increase in backlink count can result in a 6% uplift in rankings (Source: Ahrefs).
8. Domain relevance in backlinks improves page rankings by 32% (Source: Authority Hacker).
9. Top-ranking content has, on average, over 1,500 backlinks from unique domains (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
10. The top 5 search results account for 67% of all clicks and have higher backlink profiles (Source: Backlinko).
11. Pages with backlinks from government and educational domains experience 15% faster ranking growth (Source: Ahrefs).
12. Relevance of anchor text accounts for 30% of a backlink’s ranking power (Source: uSERP).
13. Websites with mobile-first indexing rank 18% better when backed by quality links (Source: Authority Hacker).
14. Top pages with optimized backlinking strategies retain rankings even during Google core updates (Source: Backlinko).
15. Sites ranked in position #1 gain 70% of their new backlinks organically each month (Source: Ahrefs).

9. Challenges in Link Building

1. 52.7% of SEOs state that link building is more time-consuming than five years ago (Source: Authority Hacker).
2. 41% report rising costs as the top challenge in link building (Source: uSERP).
3. Finding relevant, high-quality websites to link from is difficult for 49% of marketers (Source: Outreach Monks).
4. Cold outreach remains a struggle, with only 8.5% of emails converting into backlinks (Source: Outreach Monks).
5. Google’s evolving guidelines complicate 62% of SEO campaigns (Source: Authority Hacker).
6. Nearly 27% of SEOs report low acceptance rates for guest post pitches (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
7. 35% of marketers struggle with demonstrating the ROI of link building to stakeholders (Source: Editorial Link).
8. 20% report difficulties in balancing content quality and link-building needs (Source: Meetanshi).
9. Link building in competitive niches requires 50% more effort (Source: Editorial Link).
10. SEOs cite a 12% success rate for broken link replacement outreach (Source: Backlinko).
11. Spammy domains pose a threat, with 28% of link builders encountering poor link neighborhoods (Source: Authority Hacker).
12. 61% of digital marketers find it hard to maintain natural link growth rates (Source: Outreach Monks).
13. Obtaining backlinks for non-visual content is challenging for 36% of SEO professionals (Source: uSERP).
14. Over 15% of SEOs struggle to manage client expectations for fast link-building results (Source: Editorial Link).
15. Building links for multilingual sites is harder, with only 10% success in global link-building outreach (Source: Sixth City Marketing).

10. Tool Usage in Link Building

1. Ahrefs is the most popular tool, used by 55.5% of link builders (Source: Authority Hacker).
2. SEMrush is utilized by 43% of SEOs for link analysis and tracking (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
3. 42% of marketers rely on Google Search Console for link monitoring (Source: uSERP).
4. Majestic’s Trust Flow is preferred by 12.4% of professionals for domain quality evaluation (Source: Editorial Link).
5. 28% of link builders use BuzzStream for managing outreach campaigns (Source: Outreach Monks).
6. Moz’s Open Site Explorer is employed by 20% for domain authority analysis (Source: Authority Hacker).
7. Pitchbox is a popular choice for 16% of SEOs focusing on large-scale outreach (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
8. Screaming Frog is used by 14% for link auditing and competitor analysis (Source: Authority Hacker).
9. MailShake boosts outreach success rates by 25% when integrated with campaigns (Source: Outreach Monks).
10. LinkResearchTools helps 18% of link builders identify toxic links (Source: Meetanshi).
11. 33% of link builders automate outreach emails using platforms like Saleshandy (Source: Editorial Link).
12. SEMrush’s Link Building Tool reports a 30% faster link acquisition process (Source: uSERP).
13. Using multiple tools improves link-building efficiency by 20% (Source: Sixth City Marketing).
14. ContentKing, an SEO monitoring tool, assists 10% of SEOs in tracking link stability (Source: Authority Hacker).
15. Linkody is used by 8% for backlink tracking and alert management (Source: Outreach Monks).

Conclusion

These statistics illustrate that link building remains a critical aspect of SEO in 2024. By focusing on high-quality, contextually relevant links, businesses can improve their domain authority, drive organic traffic, and see substantial ROI. Employing diverse strategies like digital PR, guest posting, and leveraging tools such as Ahrefs and Moz can optimize efforts and ensure sustained growth.

FAQs on Link Building

1. Why is link building important for SEO?

Link building boosts domain authority, improves search rankings, and drives organic traffic.

2. What are the most effective link building strategies in 2024?

Guest posting, digital PR, and original research content are among the most effective strategies.

3. How do you measure the success of link building?

Metrics like organic traffic, domain authority, and keyword rankings are commonly used.

4. Is paying for links a good strategy?

While controversial, 74% of SEOs use paid links, but relevance and quality remain critical.

5. What role do nofollow links play in SEO?

Nofollow links now carry more weight, enhancing their value in improving rankings.