Backlink Building Savings Top 10 Strategies: Get More For Less11 min read

Are you looking to boost your SEO without breaking the bank? Start by cutting costs on backlinks—it’s worth it! In this post, we’ll first dive into just how pricey backlinks can be, then explore top strategies and real-world case studies that have successfully slashed costs and boosted results.

TL;DR

1. Backlinks can be costly—averaging $195 per link, with high-quality ones costing $800–$2,000.
2. Cost-saving strategies include:
   • Broken Link Building: Replace broken links on other websites with your content.
   • Competitor Link Reclamation: Replace dead competitor links with your own live content.
   • Unlinked Brand Mentions: Turn unlinked mentions of your brand into backlinks.
   • Guest Blogging: Provide high-quality guest posts to earn backlinks.
   • HARO (Help a Reporter Out): Respond to journalist queries for backlinks from high-authority sites.
   • Link Exchanges: Exchange links with websites in your niche, but monitor them for quality.
   • Q&A Sites: Provide expert answers on platforms like Quora and Reddit, including links to your content.
   • Conducting Original Research: Publish original data and research to attract natural backlinks.
   • Create Infographics: Use visually appealing infographics to generate backlinks.
   • Collaborate with Influencers: Team up with influencers for backlink opportunities.
3. BacklinkManager.io saves money by monitoring backlink status, managing partnerships, evaluating link quality, and generating detailed reports to pinpoint where the ROI is down.
4. Seer’s approach focuses on high-quality niche backlinks, using tools like Ahrefs to improve SEO performance and save costs.

Stop Wasting Money on Bad Backlinks! Link Quality Check + Monitoring + Reporting

Try BacklinkManager for free

Understanding Backlink Costs

Before we dive into how to save money on backlinking, let’s first understand -why it’s worth the effort?.

Short answer- Backlinks can be costly and high-quality backlinks more so.

Long answer- On average, a single backlink costs about $195. For top-quality links secured through outreach, you might be looking at $800 to $1,200 per link, and sometimes even up to $2,000! Many businesses spend around $1,000 a month on backlinks, while larger campaigns can push expenses to $10,000 or more. Moreover, the costs are just increasing. A survey of 500,000 backlinks placed in the past 3 years reported a whopping increase of 241% in prices since 2021.

With prices being already high and going up so fast, finding ways to save on backlinks is more important than ever.

Proven Strategies to Cut Backlink Costs

1. Broken Link Building

Ever hit a 404 page or similar error when clicking on an outbound link on a website? Those are broken backlinks, and here’s where you can swoop in. Reach out to the website owner and offer to replace the missing content with a relevant piece from your site. They’ll get a working link to boost their SEO (broken backlinks frustrate the user making sites want to fix broken links), and you’ll get a valuable backlink!

You can also use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to help locate broken backlinks quickly.

2. Competitor Link Reclamation

Use tools like SE Ranking or Ahrefs to monitor competitors’ backlinks. If you discover that their linked content is no longer active, contact the linking sites and propose substituting the dead link with a link to your live content. This strategy is top-notch as you gain from your competitors!

3. Unlinked Brand Mentions

Often, your brand might be mentioned on other websites without a link back to your site. In these cases, you can reach out to the site owner and request that they add a hyperlink to your brand mention. This not only provides a valuable backlink to your site but also enhances your brand’s visibility and authority.

4. Guest Blogging

Rather than buying links, reach out to authoritative blogs and offer to write guest posts. If you provide high-quality, unique content, you’re destined to earn backlinks organically without significant investment. Moreover, a well-crafted guest post not only secures a backlink but also boosts your authority and visibility on the web. It offers extra visibility beyond the backlink itself.

5. HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

HARO is a platform that connects journalists with sources who can provide expert insights for their articles. You can earn backlinks from high-authority publications by responding to journalists’ queries.

How to Use HARO

1. Sign Up: Create an account on HARO and select relevant categories.
2. Monitor Queries: You will receive three emails daily with queries from journalists.
3. Craft Your Response: Respond promptly with a thoughtful and informative reply. Include your name, title, and website URL.
4. Follow Up: If your quote is used, promote the article on your social media and website to enhance visibility.

Tips for Success

• Be Timely: Respond quickly to increase your chances of being featured.
• Personalize Your Pitch: Align your response with the specific query to stand out.
• Build Relationships: Follow up with journalists for future opportunities to become an always-approachable business.

6. Link Exchanges

Link exchanges involve two websites mutually agreeing to link to each other, which can enhance SEO by increasing the number of backlinks. To execute this effectively, start by identifying potential partners—websites within your niche that have similar or higher domain authority. Once identified, reach out to them with a well-crafted proposal, highlighting the mutual benefits of a link exchange.

Remember that after the exchange, it’s important to monitor the links regularly to ensure they remain active and relevant, maintaining their positive impact on SEO. You can use CRM tools like BacklinkManager.io to monitor these exchanged links. BacklinkManager.io simplifies this process by alerting you if your do-follow links turn into 404 errors, become non-responsive, or switch to no-follow. Additionally, it provides real-time metrics like Domain Rating (DR), Domain Authority (DA), and Page Authority (PA), helping you keep track of your backlinks’ effectiveness.  It also has a partnership CRM to help you see each other’s targets, quality and quantity of links built for each other etc.

Caution❗: Do not exchange links excessively because spammy link-exchange practices can invite a Google penalty! Ensure that the sites are related to your niche for better SEO impact and prioritize quality over quantity. BacklinkManager.io also helps detect link farms (these sites can be detrimental to your SEO), so use it and avoid linking to harmful sites engaged in spammy practices.

7. Q&A Sites

Participating in Q&A platforms like Quora and Reddit is a great way to showcase your expertise while driving traffic to your site through backlinks. To engage effectively, start by searching for relevant questions in your field. When you find one, provide a thoughtful, comprehensive answer that adds value to the discussion. Where appropriate, include a link back to your content as a helpful resource. For best results, be active and regularly contribute to build your reputation as an expert. Always follow community guidelines, make sure your posts are helpful, and not overly promotional, and engage with users by responding to comments to foster deeper interactions and credibility.

8. Conducting Original Research

You likely use statistics and data from other sources, which helps those websites earn organic backlinks. Similarly, you can achieve organic backlinks by conducting your valuable research. By choosing a relevant, high-in-demand but under-researched topic and gathering data through surveys, interviews, or existing sources, you can produce valuable findings. Publish those findings in a clear, well-designed report. Your research will establish you as an authority, and media outlets or bloggers may reference your work, generating backlinks. This method not only builds your authority but also attracts backlinks naturally, without the need to buy them. It’s one of the most effective and authentic ways to grow your backlink profile.

9. Creating Infographics

Infographics are effective for visually sharing information and earning backlinks. Start by choosing an engaging topic, then design your infographic using tools like Canva, Piktochart, or any other tool you’d prefer. Promote it on social media and contact bloggers to encourage sharing. If your infographic is valuable and explains a concept pretty well, its capacity to generate a backlink is pretty well too!

Pro Tip💡: Make it easy to share with an embed code, optimize it with relevant keywords, and engage with your audience by inviting feedback and discussions. Here’s how you can make an embed code:

1. Upload your infographic to your website or hosting service.
2. Generate the embed code, which typically looks like this:
   html

   Copy code

   <iframe src="URL-of-your-infographic" width="600" height="400" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


   or

   html

   Copy code

   <img src="URL-of-your-infographic" alt="Description" width="600" height="400" />

3. Add the code to your webpage or provide it to others for sharing.
4. Promote it by including the code in your infographic’s description or download options.

This makes it easy for others to share your infographic and helps generate backlinks.

10. Collaboration with Influencers

Teaming up with influencers is a fantastic way to amplify your reach and snag valuable backlinks! Start by finding influencers in your niche who have a strong following. Reach out with exciting collaboration ideas, like guest posts or joint content. If the influencer finds the content valuable, you might get a backlink in their next blog post or social media post (even if they don’t provide a backlink, at least your content is getting out in the world!) Make sure both sides benefit and bring something valuable to the table. This strategy boosts your visibility and secures quality backlinks.

Save Money on Backlink Building with BacklinkManager.io

BacklinkManager.io isn’t just for tracking—it’s a smart tool that helps ensure your resources aren’t wasted on poor-quality links, while boosting your SEO.

Here’s how:

• Real-Time Backlink Monitoring: Saving money goes beyond building links—it’s about knowing their status constantly. BacklinkManager.io alerts you in real-time when links turn no-follow, break, or become unresponsive. Lost or no-follow links don’t pass link juice, so failing to track them is like throwing money away. Monitoring link quality ensures every dollar you spend is worth it.
• Partnership Management for Link Exchanges: Manage link exchanges easily with advanced features that let you set targets, track links, and request new ones. Knowing exactly what’s owed ensures efficient exchanges, saving time and preventing overspending.
• Backlink Evaluator: Quality is key—spending on bad links can hurt your SEO. The backlink evaluator checks if a page or domain is worth linking to, identifying spammy link farms and ensuring indexation, allowance to be crawled, and overall SEO value. It protects your efforts from wasted spending on harmful links.
• Customizable Reporting: BacklinkManager.io generates detailed reports on backlink status, including average Domain Rating (DR) and other metrics like indexation and quality. These reports help you gauge time efficiency and track the overall progress of your backlinking efforts. You can easily identify issues and spot areas for improvement. Reports can be filtered by client, partner, time, or label, and shared as interactive links or static PDFs/images—making it easy to prove the value of your work.

With BacklinkManager.io, you’ll optimize your backlink strategy, avoid costly mistakes, and ensure your SEO efforts are both effective and cost-efficient.

Using Seer to Optimize Backlink Strategies

Analyzing Seer’s Approach to Cost Savings