77+ Link Building Statistics For 2024

Link building statistics grab a crucial spot when it comes down to successful SEO.

Given its ability to boost or degrade your website’s rankings, keeping a firm grip on the subject is critical.

To properly negotiate this ever-changing terrain, it is critical to be well-versed in both suggested practices and avoidable errors. The good news is that all your 2024 backlinks stats find their answers in this comprehensive blog post.

Let’s dig deep!

Link Building Statistics: Top Picks

Effective link building strategy statistics lead to an increase in your online authority. Here is a sneak peek into the editor’s top picks:

• 56.2% of marketers believe that rankings are highly impacted by the quantity and quality of links.
• On average, the top-ranking page on Google has 3.8 times more backlinks than positions 2-10.
• Headlines that conclude with a question mark score get 23.3% additional social media shares.
• Building high-quality links is the most important SEO strategy, according to 13% of SEO specialists from large businesses.
• To gauge the success of their link-building activities, 42.6% of link builders employ metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA).
• 65.2% of SEO professionals anticipate that links will continue to hold a similar or even stronger influence on search engine rankings in the next five years.

Impact of Backlinks on Rankings

1. In the near future, 53% of marketers believe link building will have the same influence as it has today, while 41% believe it will have less.
2. In five years, 94% of marketers anticipate that links will still be a ranking feature in Google engines.
3. In 2021, creating linkable assets was the most popular link-building strategy.
4. Only 8.5% of link building outreach emails receive responses.
5. According to 46.6% of link builders, it takes an average of 1-3 months to detect the influence of links on search rankings.
6. About 67.5% of businesses believe link building affects how they rank in SERPs.
7. When it comes to targeting certain keywords, Google’s ranking system prioritizes content pieces and backlinks, with RankBrain as the next big component.
8. Page rankings are the main key performance indicator (KPI) that 53% of marketers use to gauge the success of their link-building campaigns.
9. According to SEO experts, external linking is the third most important component for search optimization.
10. According to 49% of marketers, it normally takes one to three months to see major improvements in rankings and organic traffic as a result of their link-building activities.
11. In contrast, 30% of marketers believe that it takes three to six months to see the effects of their link placements.
12. A clear connection exists between the number of backlinks a webpage possesses and the traffic it attracts.
13. The top-ranking result on Google has 3.8 times as many backlinks as positions 2-10.
14. In a study of over 112,440 top-ranking pages, 43.7% of the sites had reciprocal links.
15. The quality and quality of links impact said 56.2% of the companies.
16. Merely 2.2% of online content published generates backlinks from multiple sites.

Popular Link Building Tactics

17. Only 17.7% of link builders use digital PR to earn connections, making it the least frequent link-building approach.
18. Only around 6.02% of website owners create digital PR links.
19. A follow-up email strategy generates 40% more links.
20. A larger number of domains connecting to a page can increase its chances of ranking higher in Google’s search results.
21. Guest posting is one of the most popular link-building approaches, with 64.9% of link builders doing it.
22. 46.3% of link builders said they used Help a Reporter Out (HARO) frequently.
23. Blog posts with more than three videos receive 55% more backlinks than posts without videos.
24. Posts centered around “Why” and “What,” along with infographics, outperformed videos and “How-to” posts by a substantial 25.8% margin.
25. While 36% like four to five internal links in a blog post, 51% of SEO specialists prefer two to three.
26. More than half of the pages with the highest rankings employ reciprocal connections.
27. Only 55.24% of websites have zero backlinks, while 29.79% have fewer than three.
28. Long-form content outperforms shorter articles, netting an impressive 77.2% more backlinks.
29. Through competitor analysis and link targeting tactics, companies majorly generate 29% of their connections.
30. Articles exceeding 3,000 words receive 3.5 times as many backlinks as articles of a standard length.
31. Agency and in-house SEOs are more than three times as likely to handle digital PR.

Social Media And Link Building

32. 61.7% of link builders get their hands on social media to connect.
33. Headlines that conclude with a question mark score about 23.3% additional social media shares.
34. Link builders leveraging social media’s power see a 22% increase in monthly links.
35. 31% of marketers only invest less than 10 percent of their total budget on link building.
36. 94% of online content still needs improvement since it contains zero external links.
37. Google is modifying the “nofollow” function for backlinks, which may give your backlink profile more weight than before.
38. About 23.5% of link builders use Facebook as a secret weapon for outreach and contacts.
39. Longer headlines generate more shares. Those with 14-17 words receive an additional 76.7% of social shares.
40. LinkedIn is the go-to choice for 17.3% of link builders seeking connections and contacts.
41. 36% of businesses hire freelancers or outside experts to handle their link-building tasks.
42. Shared content generates 2-5 times the amount of natural traffic and backlinks.
43. Every month, new websites increase the number of Dofollow backlinks to the page with the greatest search engine rating by 5% to 14.5%.

Link Building Costs Statistic

44. More than 46% of businesses believe link building will grow more expensive.
45. Link building only makes up about 10% of marketers’ SEO budgets, according to 31% of them.
46. Paid backlinks cost (niche specific), on average, $361 and are a “black hat SEO” tactic.
47. According to clients utilizing digital marketing services, 25% of their SEO budget is for link building.
48. For link building, 25% of marketers spend more than $10,000 annually, whereas 13% spend between $1,000 and $2,500.
49. Link building accounted for an average of 28% of SEO budgets.
50. A low-quality backlink costs $500, while a high-quality one runs over $1,000, according to studies.
51. Almost 34.14% of businesses spend $1000 per month on link building for SEO.
52. The cost of manual link building can involve $600 – $1000.
53. Around 74.3% of contributors pay for link exchange.
54. Experienced link builders are 49% less expensive to hire on a cost-per-link basis.

Link Building Strategies Statistics

55. Almost a third of marketers continue their outreach campaigns for up to four weeks following the release of new content in order to secure backlinks.
56. Sixty percent of businesses use an SEO professional to oversee their link-building plan.
57. The creation of links is the main objective of 68% of content marketing campaigns.
58. 73.6% of domains with good authority use a reciprocal link strategy.
59. Brands using infographics can get 178% of additional inbound backlinks.
60. According to 56.2% of link builders, link quality is more important than link quantity.
61. Creating and publishing blogs increases the number of backlinks to a website by 97%.
62. Half of all Google search queries contain four or more words. You may miss out on a few conversion opportunities if you do not use long-tail keywords.
63. The same amount of effort goes into creating internal and external links, according to 42% of SEOs.
64. 60% of respondents agree to outsource their linking building activities.
65. Agencies have the biggest percentage of experienced link builders, with 59.4% having more than five years of expertise.
66. Personalizing the subject line and text of your outreach emails will boost response rates by 33%.

Link Building Tools

67. Only 51.39% of seasoned link builders use domain metrics like DR or DA, compared to 28.99% of rookie link builders.
68. According to studies, websites with better Domain Ratings (as determined by Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush) frequently appear higher on Google’s first page.
69. Link builders frequently use Ahrefs for their SEO job, with 64.9% of them doing so.
70. The global SEO software market will reach around $1.6 billion by 2027.

Link Building Trends

71. About 61.7% of SEO experts have reported a significant increase in the costs associated with link-building activities.
72. Around 33.6% of SEO professionals hold the belief that links will cease to have less impact on search engine rankings in five years’ time.
73. 46.6%% of SEO professionals have observed that the process of link building now demands 1-3 months more time than in previous practices.
74. 65.2% of SEO professionals anticipate that links will continue to hold a similar or even stronger influence on search engine rankings in the next five years.
75. 52% of marketers believe brand mentions are a good strategy to impact organic search rankings.

Link Building Opportunities and Challenges Statistics

76. Over the next five years, links will continue to be a significant ranking component in Google algorithms, according to 94% of marketers.
77. According to a poll, 59% of participants think backlinks will have a bigger influence in the next few years, while 35.5% think it will stay the same.
78. Link building will continue to have the same effect on search results in the future, according to 48% of marketers, while 1% feel it will have less of an impact.
79. The lack of association between backlinks and social shares suggests that there is minimal overlap between backlink-generating material and highly shareable information.
80. Brand mentions have an impact on organic search rankings, according to 52% of marketers.
81. Link building with content marketing is more difficult than ever.
82. If marketers could only choose one metric to study link quality, 67% would prioritize domain rating, and 42% would prioritize domain authority.
83. On average, it takes eight days for an outreach email to convert into a backlink.

Build Links for Better Rankings

These link-building statistics are a clear sign that backlinks need to be on your radar in 2024.

The creation of high-quality links is the foundation of most tactics. Although it is not the only aspect that will influence rankings, it is without a doubt one of the most important.

Now that you have an idea about link building, here are a few SEO resources we recommend you read to rank higher on search research.

• A Handy Guide On What Is Search Intent for SEO (Updated)
• 50+ Best Free SEO Tools to Boost Traffic in 2024
• Google Search Operators for SEO & Tips to Use Them – 2024
• The Definitive Guide to Local SEO

Source: GlobeNewswire, uSERP, uSERP, Backlinko, Digital Olympus, Authority Hacker, Authority Hacker, Search Logistics, Aira, Backlinko, Search Engine Round Table, Aira, Databox, Ahrefs, Ahrefs, Authority Hacker, WPBeginner, Databox, Compile, Semrush, Aira, Google, Ahrefs, Ahrefs, SEO tribunal, Siege Media, Hubspot, ThriveMyWay, Search Engine Journal, Demand Sage, Hubspot, SEO tribunal, Databox