Cost guide

How much does link building cost in 2026?

Monthly link building, run as an authority programme, costs $625–$3,750 per month at the direct rate. An outreach sprint (fixed scope, fixed price, with an end date) is priced as one campaign below. Neither is priced per link. Links are earned from coverage, so the contract covers our content and pitches. Every figure becomes a written proposal.

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The range

What it costs,
at the direct rate.

Priced as a monthly digital PR programme or a single outreach sprint, never as a set number of links. The contract lists the content we create and the pitches we send. A link target is how invoices fill up with low-value directory links.

RetainerMonthly authority programme$625–$3,750per month
One-offOutreach sprint$950–$3,750one campaign, one-time

Indicative: every figure is refined into an itemised proposal.INR figures shown excl. GST.

Where the engagement includes it, a Prism workspace holds requests, approvals, tasks and reviews.

What moves the price

Why the price
varies from job to job.

How hard it is to get press in your market

In regulated finance, healthcare or enterprise software, a mention means convincing journalists who get pitched constantly. In local home services, it means finding the few outlets that exist. How many pitches it takes to win one placement is the biggest factor. We estimate it from the outlets that already cover your subject.

Biggest factor

Whether you already have data worth citing

The asset is the content that gives anyone a reason to link to you. A company with sales data, survey results or an expert with a point of view has half the asset built. A company with none needs original research. A paid survey panel or data study is a real cost, which we quote separately.

Asset factor

What kind of content the story needs

Expert comment on a live story takes hours. A data study with analysis and charts takes days. An interactive tool or a designed report is a project. The programme builds one asset each cycle. The kind of asset the story needs sets where the month sits in the range.

Production factor

Markets and languages

Outreach in English to one market is the base. Each extra market has its own outlets, journalists and news cycle. Outreach in another language needs a native-speaking pitcher. We scope multi-market programmes as separate lines.

Scope factor

The state of your current links

A profile full of bought directory links, expired domains or spammy link text may need a disavow file first. That is the list of links you ask Google to ignore, so new coverage can count. Checking for this is part of the baseline, and preparing the file is quoted separately.

Hidden factor

Whether there is anything worth linking to

Coverage points at a page. If your product, pricing and category pages are thin, the earned link lands on the homepage and does less. We check your target pages in the baseline. Where pages need rewriting first, that work is priced under content, not hidden here.

Often forgotten

The options

Which option
suits your business.

Each option below is one way to buy Link building. Read what it is and who it suits, then ask for the one that fits. Your proposal itemises it.

Retainer

Monthly authority programme

$625–$3,750per month

What it is

Ongoing digital PR. Each cycle we build content worth citing and pitch it to named journalists who already cover your subject. We comment on stories while they are live and report every placement with the story that earned it.

Who it fits

Businesses in a market where links from trusted sites decide rankings, with pages already worth linking to. It doesn't fit a site with unfixed technical problems or thin sales pages, which should fix those first. Nor does it fit a buyer who wants a link count in the contract, which we won't write.

Included

One piece of campaign content each round: a data study, original analysis or expert comment
Researched pitches to named journalists who already cover your subject
Expert comments and quotes pitched while a news story is still running
A plan for link text and target pages, so new links point at pages that bring sales
Monthly report on each link: the type of site, the page it points to and the story behind it

Not included, quoted separately

Paid survey panels for original research
Interactive or designed assets
Outreach in languages other than English

Turnaround: Monthly, 3-month minimum; first asset in outreach within 30 days
Moves the number: How hard your market is: getting press coverage in regulated finance is very different from local home services.

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One-off

Outreach sprint

$950–$3,750one campaign, one-time

What it is

One campaign from start to finish. It covers a baseline of the links you have and one asset built. Then one round of researched outreach, tracked pitch by pitch. It ends with a placement report showing what each link took to earn.

Who it fits

Buyers who want to see how earned coverage works before paying monthly, and businesses with one strong story or dataset. It won't build results the way a programme does, because relationships with journalists grow over several cycles, not weeks.

Included

A review of your current links: which help, which are dead and which are risky enough to ask Google to ignore
One piece of content created for the campaign
One round of researched outreach, tracked pitch by pitch
A report on each link won and the story that earned it

Not included, quoted separately

A second piece of content or round of outreach
Comment on breaking news between campaigns
Preparing the disavow file (the list of links you ask Google to ignore)

Turnaround: 6 to 8 weeks
Moves the number: Whether the content needs new research or can use data you already have.

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Cheaper or dearer

What makes your quote
lower or higher.

The proposal itemises content and outreach rounds, not links. So each item below shows up as a line you can add or remove.

Brings the quote down

Data you already have that we can turn into content without a survey panel
A subject that trade and regional outlets already cover regularly
An expert in your business willing to be quoted on a live story
Sales pages that are already worth linking to
One market, in English

Pushes the quote up

A category where every journalist is pitched constantly
Original research from scratch, including paid survey panels
Interactive or designed content rather than written content
Several markets or languages, each with its own outreach round
A link profile that needs a disavow file before anything else

What you get

What your fee
pays for.

The fee buys content, pitches and coverage, and a monthly report on all three. We don't promise a link count, because a quota is how invoices fill up with directory links. We promise the work.

Content worth citing, every cycle

A data study, an original analysis or expert comment, built to be cited. You own it, and it's published on your site.

Pitches you can read

We track every pitch: who we contacted, at which outlet, with which angle, and what came back. You see the outreach itself, not a summary.

Placements with their story

We report each earned link with the outlet type, the page it points to and the story that earned it. So you can judge its quality yourself.

A plan for link text and target pages

We aim coverage at the pages that bring in revenue. We plan the link text so earned links support the right subjects.

Expert comment on breaking stories

When a story breaks in your subject, we pitch an expert quote while it is live. This is often where the strongest placements come from.

A check of your current links

Before outreach starts, we check which of your links carry weight and which are dead. We also flag any risky enough to ask Google to ignore.

AgenciesThe ranges above are direct prices. Agency partners buy from the partner price list, about 20% lower on packages.

See the partner price list →

Questions

Frequently
asked.

Because a per-link price fills invoices with directories, expired domains and paid placements that Google ignores or penalises. The contract covers what we can control: the content we build and the pitches we send. We report each placement with the story that earned it. So you can judge each link's quality rather than count them.

We don't promise a number. A supplier who does is buying links or counting placements that don't matter. The fee buys content each cycle, researched outreach to named journalists and expert comment on live stories. In regulated industries, a handful of strong placements is the better result.

Both. Each cycle includes the content built for the story, such as a data study, an analysis or expert comment. It also includes the outreach that pitches it. We quote some things separately, because not every campaign needs them. These are paid survey panels for original research, interactive or designed content, and outreach in languages other than English.

No. It's a way to see the method once before paying monthly, not a discount on it. The sprint buys the baseline, one asset, one outreach round and a placement report. It can't buy what builds up over time. That means journalists who know you, a library of content to point at, and comment on stories between campaigns.

The baseline in both options tells you whether you need one. It shows which links carry weight, which are dead and which are risky. Preparing the file, the list of links you ask Google to ignore, is quoted separately. The effort depends on how many bad links there are.

Yes, if your technical health and sales pages are already in good shape. Earned coverage points at a page, and a thin or slow page wastes it. The baseline checks your target pages first. Where pages need work, we say so in the proposal. We won't pitch coverage that lands on a homepage and does little.

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Last updated 25 October 2026

What it costs, at the direct rate.

Why the price varies from job to job.