How to Get Backlinks: Methods, Cost and Risk Compared

If you are wondering how to get backlinks, the honest answer is that there are three routes and each one asks for something different: earning a link with content people want to cite, creating one through outreach or a partnership, or paying for a placement.

This guide turns those routes into a decision. It starts with the target page, compares six methods on cost, effort and risk, and ends with a 90-day order of work. If you still need the definition of a backlink, our plain-language explainer on backlinks covers it; here we assume you know the term and need to choose what to do next.

How to Get Backlinks: Earning, Creating and Buying

Sorting methods by who starts the link, and what they get in return, makes the choice much easier.

• Earning: Someone links to you because your page helps their readers.
• Creating: You prompt the link through effort or a relationship: giving a reporter an expert comment, suggesting your page as a replacement for a dead link, writing a guest article.
• Buying: You pay a publisher for a placement. That is legitimate advertising, provided the link is clearly marked as paid.

Earning is the slowest and most durable. Buying is the fastest to set up and demands the most care. Creating sits in between, and for most sites it is the route that holds the programme together. For the ethical boundaries around each route, see the explanation of white hat versus black hat link building.

Set the Target Page and Expectations Before Choosing a Method

Most disappointing link campaigns fail on the target, not the tactic. "We need more backlinks" is not a goal. Until you can say which page, for which query and against which competitor, no method can be chosen sensibly.

Pick the page first

A page that is ready to attract links meets three tests: it satisfies a real search intent, it loads and renders cleanly, and it gives visitors a next step. Guides, data pages and tools tend to attract links on their own. Service and product pages usually need support from partnerships, sponsored articles or paid placements.

Write the expectation down

Answer these before you start:

1. Which query does this page compete for, and how many different domains link to the pages ranking above it?
2. How many hours a month, or what budget, can I commit?
3. How will I judge progress: referral visits, ranking movement, branded searches?

A link's effect on rankings is not a fixed exchange rate. Search systems treat links as one signal among many, and the outcome depends on the rest of your site. So set the expectation as "close this specific gap in referring sources", not "N links for N positions".

Match methods to site type

The same method does not give the same yield on every site. A rough pairing looks like this:

• Local business: local press, associations and sponsored event pages first; guest posts matter less.
• Ecommerce: earn links to guides and category pages; keep paid placements for product pages few and labelled.
• B2B and software: original data, comparisons and expert comments, plus trade-publication guest articles.
• Publisher or blog: original data and reference pages, then press requests and broken-link suggestions.
• New site: a handful of strong sources and brand mentions before any scale.

Earning Links with Content Worth Citing

Earning a link means meeting someone's need to cite. A writer who wants to support a claim, explain a term or give readers further reading goes looking for a page to point to. Your job is to be that page.

Content types that tend to attract links:

• Reference pages: terminology, steps and decision criteria for a topic in one place.
• Original data: findings from your own survey or anonymised internal records, with the method stated.
• Tools and templates: calculators, checklists and downloadable tables that people use directly.
• Definition and comparison pages: short, clear and kept up to date.

The difference that matters is between publishing and promoting. A new resource rarely gets found alone. It needs a short, personal note to the writers who cover the topic, newsletter owners and relevant communities. To judge which of the links you gain are worth having, use the criteria in our guide to spotting a quality backlink.

Digital PR and Journalist Relationships

Digital PR is the practice of putting newsworthy material in front of editors and reporters. The link is a by-product, not the goal: the story or quote runs, and the editor decides whether a link goes with it.

There are two doors. Proactive PR means preparing a local study, a seasonal data note or an expert view on a debated topic and sending it to the right reporters. Reactive PR means answering reporters who are looking for experts. The reactive route looks cheaper but needs steady monitoring and quick replies.

Risk is low and the cost is time. The outcome is uncertain: your reply may not run, and if it does the link may not be included. Unlinked mentions still have value because they can later be turned into links.

A simple rule helps before you pitch anyone: can you explain in one sentence why a reader who has never heard of your site would care? If not, what you have is a promotional text, not a story.

Competitor Gaps and Broken Link Opportunities

This method grounds your targeting in data. Looking at which domains link to competitors shows what kinds of sources link in your niche. The aim is not to copy a rival's profile but to build a consistent map of places where your content would genuinely fit.

There are three concrete opportunity types:

1. Shared sources: pages linking to several competitors but not to you. The question is whether the author has a reason to add your page too.
2. Broken links: links pointing at pages that no longer exist. If your current resource can truly replace the missing one, a short, helpful note to the author is reasonable.
3. Unlinked mentions: pages that name you without linking; a polite request is often enough.

Cost is moderate: a tool subscription and analysis time, but nothing paid for the link itself. Success depends on how personal the message is and whether your page is a better complement than what it replaces. Bulk, templated messages hurt both response rates and reputation.

Guest Posts and Sponsored Articles as a Link Source

A guest post is an article you write to a publication's editorial standard. A sponsored article is a placement arranged with a publisher, usually paid. The difference lies in how the link comes about: in editorial work you add value; in a sponsored placement you buy space.

With guest posts, success depends on giving the publication's readers something real. Anchor text should be natural, links few, and the article should stand on its own. Over-optimised pieces that link out with commercial keywords in every paragraph attract an editor's attention and can attract search systems' attention too.

If you pay for a sponsored article, the link should be qualified the way Google's documentation describes, which we cover next.

Cost here is both production effort and a publishing fee. Risk is manageable when labelling and quality rules are respected, and rises when they are not.

Buying Backlinks: Cost Components and Link Attributes

When you buy, you are not buying a link as such. You are buying a placement: a spot on a particular site, on a particular page, with a particular article. Price usually moves with:

• the publishing site's authority, topic fit, traffic and editorial standard
• who writes the content and how much work it involves
• how long the link stays up and where it sits on the page
• the publisher's approval and editing process

Because figures differ so much between publishers we do not quote prices here; the drivers are laid out in our piece on what determines backlink pricing.

The detail that matters most is labelling. Google's spam policies (Opens in a new tab) list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and the same page says paid links are fine when qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Google's page on qualifying outbound links (Opens in a new tab) recommends sponsored for advertisements and paid placements, while noting nofollow remains acceptable for them.

A short checklist before you buy:

1. Does the site have real readers and a clear topic fit?
2. Will the link be marked as paid with a rel value?
3. Does the article match the site's other editorial content?
4. Are you spreading a modest number of placements over time rather than buying many at once?
5. Are you recording who placed what, when and for which page?

For the wider picture, see the overview of Google's link spam policies and safe link building. In short, buying is not forbidden, but unlabelled, bulk buying is risky.

Comparing Methods by Cost, Effort and Risk

The table puts six methods on one scale. Values are relative rankings, not money or time figures, and they shift with your situation.

Three lessons follow. Low-money methods cost time, so "free" really means paying in hours. Methods that scale easily need the most oversight. And no single method is enough: a healthy profile comes from a balance. If paid placements are part of your balance, compare options with the criteria in how to choose the right backlink package.

Risky Methods and Patterns to Avoid

Risk usually comes from how a method is applied rather than its name. These patterns are warning signs alone or together:

• Bulk, unlabelled buying: many links in a short time without marking them as paid.
• Link farms and networks: sites built only to supply links, with no real readers.
• Excessive link exchanges: "link to me and I will link to you" applied systematically, which Google names in its spam policies.
• Automated comment and profile links: mass links dropped into forums, comments and directories.
• Repeated identical anchor text: hundreds of links using the same commercial phrase.

What these share is that the link serves rankings, not a reader. Search systems are designed to separate the two, so outcomes are unpredictable: links may be ignored, or a site may face a manual review. No promise of a safe outcome can honestly be made here.

A practical test: would this link still be there if search engines did not exist? If yes, it is probably healthy. If no, think again.

Turning Link Building into a Sustainable Calendar

Link building works as a habit, not a campaign. A 90-day order of work could look like this:

1. Weeks 1 to 2: choose target pages, study competitor sources and identify your strongest resource.
2. Weeks 3 to 6: strengthen the target page, fix technical and content gaps, and prepare the outreach list for your resource.
3. Weeks 7 to 10: start low-risk methods: press request replies, broken-link and unlinked-mention outreach, a few targeted guest posts.
4. Weeks 11 to 13: review results. If you have budget, try a limited number of properly labelled paid placements.

Keep a monthly rhythm with a fixed list of counts: new pieces, outreach messages, replies, published links. Log each earned link and the method that produced it, so that after three months you can work out the true cost per method.

At each month's end ask three things. Which method brought the most sources for the fewest hours? Which sources actually fit the topic of the target page? Which outreach pattern got no replies, and why? The answers set next month's plan from records, not instinct. That makes the method table a working tool you update monthly, not a document you fill in once.

Consistency beats speed. Steady progress through the year looks more natural than a sudden spike and is easier for a team to sustain.

Sample Template: Backlink Method Decision Table

Building a decision table from a blank page is hard, so a filled-in draft follows. The hours and page names in the cells are example values, not measurements; change the columns to suit your own site.

Imagine, as an example scenario, a small online learning site that has just published a data-driven guide and wants links to it. Its monthly time is limited and its budget is small, and the rows below were written around those limits.

The four columns are chosen on purpose. Method and target page show the relationship, monthly effort keeps the plan realistic, and the decision column sets priority.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you get backlinks to a website?

You get backlinks by earning, creating or buying them. Content and relationship based earning is the most durable route. Guest posts, digital PR and competitor analysis are ways to create links, while buying a placement is an option as long as the link is marked as paid. Most programmes combine several of these.

Can you get backlinks for free?

Yes, but you pay with time and effort instead of money. Building a resource worth citing, answering press requests, suggesting replacements for broken links and turning unlinked mentions into links are all free routes. No timeline can be promised, because results depend on content quality and how well you promote it.

What is the difference between sponsored and nofollow links?

Both are hints to Google that a link may be commercial or not endorsed. The sponsored value specifically marks advertisements and paid placements, while nofollow is a general qualifier for cases the other values do not cover. For paid links, Google's documentation recommends sponsored and still accepts nofollow.

How many backlinks does a website need?

There is no fixed number that fits every site. What you need depends on how many different domains link to competing pages, how contested the query is and how strong your content is. Aim for a profile that is consistent in topic relevance and source variety rather than chasing a raw count.

When should a new website start building backlinks?

Start once the basics are in place: pages load, can be indexed and serve a clear purpose. Beginning early but modestly makes sense, with a few strong sources and low-risk methods first, then more as budget allows. Pointing links at an empty site wastes effort.

Which link building methods are risky?

Bulk unlabelled buying, link farms, excessive link exchanges, automated comment links and mass repetition of one anchor text carry risk. What they share is that the link serves rankings rather than readers. Google names several of these behaviours in its link spam policies.

Conclusion and Next Step

Getting backlinks is less about picking one tactic than about balancing the target page, the effort you can spare and the risk you are willing to carry. The table and calendar above exist so that you choose where to begin from records rather than hunches: settle the target first, lead with low-risk methods, keep paid placements limited and labelled, and track progress in a sheet.

For the paid row of your plan, the ordering process is laid out in the backlink packages section. You pick a product and finish the cart and payment steps, the seller approves, delivery is reported, and a dispute route exists if something goes wrong. Completing the decision table before that step keeps spending tied to the plan.