Link Building Statistics 2024: Key Insights and Trends for Effective SEO

Do you know why some websites rank higher than others on Google? It’s not just because their content is of high quality. Link building is also one of the reasons that boosts your search engine rankings. It’s a process where you build a strong network of quality backlinks. These links are digital recommendations that show search engines that your website can be trusted and has some valuable information. 

Google has constantly shown us how important it is to have high-quality backlinks. Links from reputable and authoritative websites carry more weight than those from low-quality or spammy sites. Websites that use high-authority backlinks have more chances to rank higher on search engines. 

As you may know, SEO has a very important impact on driving organic traffic and increasing website visibility. Link building is one of the most strategic elements of search engine optimization to boost website authority and credibility. When your blog has links from high-authority websites that get heavy traffic regularly, it makes your blog more reliable and relatable. 

We are not telling you this; it’s just out of some guesswork. There are stats behind it. We are going to share the latest link-building statistics for 2024. We will also cover key trends and other aspects to help you understand the impact of different link types. 

Let’s quickly look at some major stats of link-building strategies.

Top Link Building Statistics

1. Although you might think building a large number of backlinks can increase your website’s ranking, this is not true. 93.8% of link builders prioritize link quality and acquire links from reputable and relevant websites. Google considers the quality and relevance of a link when determining a website’s ranking.
2. 79.7% of SEO experts think that link building is an essential part of their optimization strategy. This is because it influences search engine rankings and drives organic traffic to the website.
3. A study found that backlinks are the third most important ranking factor, behind only content and on-page optimization. This means if you want your website to rank higher in search results, you need to focus on building high-quality backlinks.
4. While links are still important, they are becoming more difficult to acquire. A recent survey revealed that 52.3% of SEO professionals find link building to be the most challenging part of SEO.
5. Only 2.2% of content manages to get backlinks from more than one website. This shows the competitive nature of link building. You need to create exceptional content that naturally attracts backlinks from relevant sources.
6. Over 90% of online content doesn’t receive any backlinks at all.
7. The number of backlinks to a webpage is directly related to the amount of organic traffic it receives (source: Ahrefs).

Link Building and Impact on Search Rankings

1. On average, it takes 3.1 months for the impact of backlinks on search rankings to become noticeable.
2. 89.2% of link builders observe the effect of backlinks on search rankings within 1 to 6 months.
3. 65.4% of SEO professionals believe domain authority is more influential than the number of backlinks on a target page of search rankings.
4. The top-rated page on Google typically has 3.8 times more backlinks than other pages.
5. Backlinks are among the top two criteria considered by Google’s page ranking algorithm (Source: Linkdoctor).
6. Domains with over 200 referring domains experience an increase in organic traffic.
7. A study by Ahrefs found a strong correlation (0.68) between the number of backlinks and Google rankings.

Link-building Opportunities and Challenges

1. 53% of marketers believe link-building will continue to have a positive impact on search rankings. 41% say its influence will slightly increase in the near future.
2. 52% of marketers believe brand mentions positively impact organic search rankings.
3. 92% of marketers predict that links will remain an important ranking criterion in Google algorithms for the next five years.
4. A study found no correlation between backlinks and social shares.
5. Marketers primarily use domain authority, domain ratings, and page authority to assess link quality.
6. If limited to one metric, most marketers would choose domain authority to evaluate link quality.
7. Page rankings are the most commonly used KPI (38%) to measure the effectiveness of link-building efforts.

Link Building Tactics

1. 64% of link builders use guest posting as a link-building tactic.
2. 46.3% of link builders use HARO to connect with journalists and provide expert insights for their articles.
3. 51.6% of link builders reported using link exchange. However, the websites should be relevant to your niche and have good domain authority.
4. Only 17.7% of link builders reported using digital PR as one of the tactics. Digital PR includes generating positive online mentions and coverage through press releases, influencer outreach, and other strategies. Interestingly, link builders who have been using digital PR for several years report a 433% increase in its popularity.
5. Creating link-worthy content is considered the most effective link-building tactic by link builders.
6. Long-form content tends to generate 77.2% more links compared to shorter pieces.
7. 31% of marketers actively conduct outreach campaigns to promote new content and acquire backlinks. Outreach emails usually convert into backlinks within 8 days.
8. A portion (19.9%) of link builders purchase and redirect domains to acquire links.
9. 69% of marketers believe that purchasing links can positively influence search rankings.
10. “Why” and “What” posts, along with infographics, have more chances to receive backlinks compared to videos and “How-to” posts (source: backlinko).
11. Many SEOs (51%) recommend including two to three internal links in a blog post, and others (36%) suggest three to five (Databox).
12. 68.9% of companies keep link building in-house.

Social Media and Link Building

1. Content with high social shares generates 2-5 times more organic traffic and backlinks.
2. 61.7% of link builder use social media channels for some part of their outreach efforts.
3. Link builders who use social media for outreach gain an average of 22% more links per month compared to those who don’t.
4. Link builders use Facebook (23.5%) and LinkedIn (17.3%) for outreach and finding contact information.

Link Building Pricing and Cost Stats

1. 25% of marketers allocate $10,000 to $25,000 annually to link building, and 19% invest between $2,500 and $5,000.
2. 61% of marketers allocate between 0% and 10% of their total budget to link building.
3. Acquiring a quality link costs the brand $1000 or more.
4. 46% of marketers expect an increase in the cost of link building in the future.
5. It’s 49% cheaper to hire a professional link builder with relevant experience on a cost-per-link basis.
6. SEOs, on average, allocate 28% of their SEO budget to link building.
7. A large majority of SEOs (78.1%) are satisfied with the return on investment from their link-building efforts.

Paying for links

1. 74.3% of link builders purchase links.
2. The tendency to pay for links increases with experience. More experienced link builders will engage more in this practice.
3. The average cost of a paid link is reported to be $83.
4. In-house SEOs pay 75% more for links compared to niche site owners. This means companies with larger budgets are more willing to invest in paid links.
5. Experienced SEO professionals pay a premium for links, with an average cost of 221% more per link.
6. Although paying for links can give you a quick boost to your backlink profile, the impact on search engine rankings may be limited. Paying for links only gives an extra 2 links per month on average, compared to those who don’t pay for links.
7. 69% of marketers believe buying links has a positive effect on rankings.
8. Paying for links can increase link-building budgets. On average, link-building budgets grow by 42.85% when paid links are incorporated into the content.
9. Paying for links can be seen as a violation of search engine guidelines. If detected, using paid links can cause penalties, including lower search rankings or website de-indexing.

Types of Links

1. Dofollow Links:
   • There’s a positive correlation between the number of followed links to a page and its search traffic.
   • Most top-ranking pages get “Dofollow” backlinks from new websites at a pace of +5%-14.5% per month.
2. Nofollow Links:
   • Nofollow links are less common than dofollow links. Ahrefs data shows that only 10.6% of all backlinks to the top 110,000 sites are nofollow.
   • Although nofollow links are generally not considered valuable for search engine rankings, many link builders still believe they have some impact. Surprisingly, Authority Hacker’s survey found that 89.1% of link builders believe nofollow links impact search rankings.
3. Reciprocal Links:
   • Reciprocal links are a common practice. Ahrefs data reveals that 73.6% of domains have reciprocal links.
   • Reciprocal links were once considered valuable, but search engines have evolved. Ahrefs found that only 43.7% of the top-ranking pages have some reciprocal links, suggesting that they may not be as influential as they once were.
4. Internal Links:
   • URLs with a larger number of anchor text variations from internal links are highly correlated with more Google search traffic.
5. External Links:
   • Ahrefs found that 66.5% of links to sites in the last nine years are dead.
6. Anchor Text:
   • Pages with at least one exact match anchor had at least five times more traffic than pages without.
   • Exact match anchor text backlinks are no more effective at increasing content rankings than no-exact match anchor text.

Link Building Tools

1. Many link builders (42.6%) rely on metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) to assess link-building effectiveness.
2. Websites with higher domain rankings rank higher on Google’s first page.
3. Ahrefs is the most commonly used link building tool, with 55.5% of link builders using it.
4. Semrush is another popular tool used by 14.3% of SEO professionals.
5. Moz offers many SEO tools, including Moz Pro, which is used by many link builders.
6. 69% of marketers use Ahrefs Domain Rating, and 11.5% prefer Semrush Authority Score.
7. One SEO study showed that Moz DA score is more strongly correlated with higher Google rankings than other metrics.
8. 68.3% of link builders rely on third-party metrics like Ahrefs Domain Rating and Moz DA to evaluate the quality of websites for backlinks.

Link Quality Statistics

1. 42.6% of link builders consider low relevance to be a major red flag when assessing link quality.
2. If a website is linked to many spammy or low-quality sites, it may be considered part of a “bad neighborhood” and could negatively impact rankings.
3. Websites with poor SEO metrics, such as low domain authority or high bounce rates, are less desirable for backlinks.
4. The presence of a “Write for Us” page might seem to be an opportunity, but only 5.2% of link builders consider it a major red flag.
5. Backlinks placed within the main content or header of a website are considered more valuable than those in the footer or sidebar.
6. Older links may have more authority than newer ones, but this is not always the case. The quality and relevance of the linking website are more important factors.

Link Building Trends

1. Digital PR is gaining traction among experienced SEOs. Only 17.7% of SEOs currently use digital PR, but its popularity grows by 433% as SEO experience increases.
2. 51.6% of SEOs still include reciprocal links, but search engines are increasingly penalizing unnatural link exchanges.
3. 84.6% of SEO experts prioritize the relevancy of the linking domain to their business.
4. 52% of marketers believe in building links with brand names as the anchor text.
5. 65.2% of SEOs believe that links will have the same or higher impact on rankings in the next five years.
6. 80% of SEOs predict that links will still be a ranking factor in ten years.
7. 29.79% of websites have fewer than three backlinks, while 55.24% have none.
8. Businesses mostly rely on experts or agencies for link-building. In 2024, 60% of businesses are outsourcing these tasks.
9. 17.3% of SEOs use LinkedIn for link-building outreach, which makes it a great platform for reaching website owners and publishers.

Final thoughts

Link building is an essential part of a successful SEO strategy. Although best practices and tactics constantly evolve, the goal of acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks remains unchanged. The above statistics will help you understand the importance of link-building. You can use these stats to improve your website’s off-page SEO strategies. However, these statistics can change over time, so you need to keep an eye on the latest data. This will help you stay updated and make the changes to your strategies accordingly.

Link building has been one of the major ranking factors that Google prioritizes. So, to make your website a success and rank higher on search pages, it’s very important to acquire links from websites with high domain authority. However, the website you are linking to should be relevant according to your content. This strategy will drive organic traffic and improve your website’s search engine ranking. Also, constant monitoring and adaptation to required changes are needed to keep your website’s backlink profile stronger than that of your competitors. We recommend earning the links more than building them. To do that, you need to create high-quality content that attracts other websites and build partnerships with them.