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Link building price index

Link building prices in October 2026.

A guest post or PR placement has a median listed price of $629, a niche edit $219. These are the listed prices of all 1,997 offers in the SEOlutions catalog on 14 October 2026, by format, Domain Rating, traffic and niche.

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Updated monthly. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Listed prices, not final quotes.

Price explorer

What a backlink costs, by segment.

Medians and the middle 50% of listed prices. The last column compares the median with the 29 September 2026 snapshot.

Listed prices by format · 14 October 2026
SegmentOffersMedianMiddle 50%vs 29 September 2026
Guest posts and PR placements1,515$629$273–$845No change
Niche edits482$219$162–$339No change
Local news sponsored articles465$829$780–$845No change
Press release placements10$289$227–$394No change
Publishers with 1,000+ AI citations442$799$599–$1,487No change

Formats overlap: local news and press release offers are guest posts too, and AI-cited publishers sell several formats. The bar shows the middle 50% of listed prices; the white mark is the median.

For a closer look at guest posts alone, with price bands and examples by publisher type, read our guest post cost guide.

Budget check

What does your budget buy?

Set a budget per link to see how much of the catalog it covers and how strong the publishers in that range are.

Guest posts and PR placements

45%

675 of 1,515 offers are listed at $500 or less.

Median DR of those offers: 56. 455 have DR 50 or higher.

See these offers, highest DR first

Niche edits

91%

439 of 482 offers are listed at $500 or less.

Median DR of those offers: 57. 302 have DR 50 or higher.

See these offers, highest DR first

Based on listed prices on 14 October 2026. The live portal shows today’s catalog, so the count there can differ slightly.

What moves the price

Six things that decide what you pay.

Use these to read a price, not to rank offers. A cheap link on the wrong site is still expensive.

  • Domain Rating

    $209 → $2,500

    The guest post median rises with every DR band, from DR 0–29 to DR 85–100. DR estimates link authority, not readers or relevance, so use it to sort offers, not to choose them.

  • Publisher type

    $829

    Local news sponsored articles have a median of $829. Newspapers and magazines charge for the brand and the editorial process, not only for the link, which is why news placements sit above the overall median.

  • Format

    $219 vs $629

    A niche edit adds a link to an article that already exists and is already indexed; a guest post is a new article. You pay less for the edit and give up control over the surrounding text.

  • AI citations

    $799

    Publishers that ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews cite more than 1,000 times have a median of $799. Being cited often usually comes with authority and traffic, which the price already reflects.

  • Niche and topic

    Often 2×

    Regulated topics cost more. Many publishers refuse crypto or gambling content; those that accept it often apply a multiplier, most often 2× the listed price, which we show next to each offer.

  • Link attribute and labels

    Shown per offer

    Every offer lists its link type and whether the publisher adds a sponsored label. Check both before you compare prices, because two offers at the same price can deliver different links.

Is it worth paying for backlinks?

Pay for the placement, not for the link.

A backlink is worth paying for when the placement would be worth having on its own: real readers, a relevant article and a publisher whose name helps your brand. Placements like that strengthen your link profile, can send referral visitors and add to your brand’s presence in search.

That is also how AI search works. ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews cite publishers, not links, so coverage on a site they already use as a source can matter more than its Domain Rating. Our AI citation study shows which publishers they cite most.

Before you choose a placement

  1. Check that the publisher has readers: organic traffic and its trend, not only Domain Rating.
  2. Read three recent articles. Would your piece fit there without the link?
  3. Compare the listed link type and any sponsored label with what you need.
  4. Compare the price with the median for its DR band and niche above.
  5. Agree the article before it is published and check the live link afterwards.

Method

How the index is built.

Population
Every priced offer in the SEOlutions PR Portal catalog on the snapshot date: 1,515 guest post and PR placement offers and 482 niche edits on 1,513 publisher domains.
Prices
Listed prices in US dollars, as they appear in the catalog. Final prices are confirmed in each quote and can include a topic multiplier, for example for crypto content.
Statistics
For each segment: offer count, minimum, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, mean and maximum. We report medians because a few very expensive publications pull the mean up.
Metrics
Domain Rating, traffic estimates and link types are the values listed with each offer. AI citations come from our DataForSEO measurement of each publisher domain.
Schedule
A new dated snapshot every month. Older snapshots stay online, so you can compare months and cite a fixed version.
Limitations
This is one marketplace’s catalog, not the whole market. Segments overlap, a publisher can list several offers, and listed prices are not transaction prices.

Download the data

Use the data in your own work.

Offer-level prices and segment summaries for every snapshot.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Please cite it as:

SEOlutions PR Portal, Link building price index, 14 October 2026. https://pr.seolutions.biz/link-building-prices/

Columns: offer type, publisher, niche, Domain Rating, Domain Authority, traffic estimate, link type, sponsored label, listed price, turnaround and AI citations. All snapshots are listed in index.json.

Questions before you choose

Link building prices: common questions

How much does a backlink cost?

In the SEOlutions catalog on 14 October 2026, a guest post or PR placement has a median listed price of $629, and half of all offers cost between $273 and $845. A niche edit, a link added to an existing article, has a median of $219. Domain Rating moves the price most: the guest post median rises from $209 at DR 0–29 to $2,500 at DR 85–100.

Why do some backlinks cost thousands of dollars?

The price follows the publisher, not the link. Established news and magazine brands with high Domain Rating, large audiences and strict editorial standards charge for the article, the audience and the brand. In this index, DR 85–100 guest posts have a median of $2,500, and the most expensive offers reach $20,000.

Why are niche edits cheaper than guest posts?

A niche edit adds your link to an article that already exists, so the publisher does not write, edit or publish anything new. That is why the niche edit median ($219) is well below the guest post median ($629). The trade-off is less control over the surrounding text: the existing article has to fit your page.

Is it worth paying for backlinks?

Yes, when the placement is worth having on its own: a relevant publication with real readers and an article that fits your page. Judge each offer by its audience, relevance and editorial standards, not by Domain Rating alone, compare its price with the median for its DR band and niche, and track the target page after publication.

Are these the final prices?

No. These are listed prices in the SEOlutions catalog on the snapshot date. The final price is confirmed in your quote, after we check availability, the article and any topic multiplier, which some publishers apply to crypto or gambling content.

How often is the price index updated?

Monthly. Each snapshot is kept with its date, so you can compare months and cite a fixed version. The catalog itself changes more often, so the live portal can differ from the latest snapshot.

Can I use this data in my own article or report?

Yes. The data is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Name “SEOlutions PR Portal, Link building price index” with the snapshot date and link to this page.

Compare every offer before you buy.

See DR, traffic, AI citations, link type, turnaround and price for each publisher. Requesting a quote is free.

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