Link Building Packages: Do the Arithmetic Before You Buy One

A link building package is a fixed monthly price for a fixed number of links, sorted into tiers by a third-party authority score. It is the most common way this work is sold and the worst way to buy it, for one reason: the package transfers the choice of publisher from you to the supplier, and the supplier’s incentive is margin. This is what link building packages are really selling.

Here is what is inside a typical package, what it costs to fulfil, and what to buy instead.

What link building packages usually contain

Tier	Monthly price	What is promised	What it usually is
Starter	$500 – $900	5–10 links, DR 20+	Sites that exist to publish guest posts
Growth	$1,200 – $2,500	10–20 links, DR 40+	Mixed. Some real sites, many not.
Premium	$3,000 – $6,000	20–30 links, DR 50+	Volume, with a few genuine placements
Enterprise	$6,000+	“Custom”	Usually the same inventory, more of it

First, work backwards from the numbers. A $900 package promising ten links leaves $90 per link for the publisher fee, the writing, the outreach and the margin. At that figure, the publisher fee runs $20 to $40, which buys placement only on sites whose entire business is selling links.

Overall, the arithmetic is the whole story. No supplier can place on real publications at $90 all-in, and none claims to when asked directly.

What the tiers are actually sorted by

Almost always a third-party authority score. A site’s own link profile drives that score, which means a site that bought a lot of links scores well.

The package tier therefore measures how much link buying the publisher has done, not how many readers they have. So it is a circular metric, and the whole packaging model rests on it.

The four problems with link building packages

You do not choose the sites. The supplier does, and they choose the cheapest that clear the metric the package was sold on.

Next, fixed volume forces bad placements. If a supplier owes you fifteen links this month and has found nine good ones, they will not deliver nine. So they will find six more somewhere.

Then everyone gets the same inventory. Suppliers fulfil packages from a shared pool. So you and your competitors frequently end up on the same sites.

The report is the product. When the deliverable is a count, the incentive is to produce a count, and everything else becomes secondary.

When link building packages are reasonable

There are honest versions. What separates them:

• The sites are named before the month starts, and you can veto any of them.
• Volume is a range, not a promise. “Six to ten, depending on what we can land” is an honest supplier.
• Pricing is per placement, banded by publisher, not by authority tier.
• They tell you when a month was weak. Real outreach has bad months. A supplier who never does is not doing outreach.
• Reuse is tracked and disclosed. They can tell you how much of their publisher pool has been used once only.

A “package” with those five features is really a retainer with a rough expected output, which is the right shape for this work.

What to buy instead

Buy placements individually, with the site named first. Slower to administer, and you end up on sites you would have approved.

Set a budget, not a link count. “$2,000 a month on the best placements available” produces better outcomes than “fifteen links a month”.

Accept variable volume. Some months produce four good placements, some produce nine. That variation is what real outreach looks like.

Judge by the publisher, not the tier. Does the site have readers, does it publish anything that is not a guest post, would your buyer plausibly read it.

Questions to ask about any package

1. Will you name every site before the month begins?
2. Can I reject a site without losing it from the count?
3. What happens in a month when you cannot find enough good placements?
4. How many of your publisher pool has been used once only?
5. What proportion of the price is the publisher fee?
6. Who else in my sector do you work with?

Question three is the sharpest. A supplier who says the count is always met is telling you the count is met from inventory, not from outreach.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a link building package cost?

Ignore the package price and look at the per-placement figure. Below roughly $150 all-in, the publisher fee cannot support a site with real readers.

Are cheap link building packages worth it?

They deliver a count. Whether the links are on sites anyone visits is a separate question, and at starter-tier prices the answer is usually no.

How many links should I buy per month?

Measure what the sites currently ranking for your terms are gaining, and work from that. Any answer that arrives before that measurement is a sales figure.

Is a retainer better than a package?

Usually, if the retainer buys time and judgement rather than a count. The distinction is whether the supplier is rewarded for finding good placements or for hitting a number.

What if my client insists on a link count?

That is a conversation worth having rather than a requirement to satisfy with inventory. Showing what the count costs in placement quality usually settles it.

Link building packages: the short version

Divide the package price by the number of links. If the result is under about $150, the publisher fee is too small for a site with readers, whatever the tier says. Buy a budget and a standard instead of a count.

If you want placements priced individually, with every site named before anything is ordered, send a brief.

Link building packages hide their arithmetic in the average. Divide the price by the number of placements you would actually approve and most link building packages look very different.

For the numbers behind this, see what backlinks cost. Google’s guidance on spam policies is the standard this work is ultimately judged against.

Buy the placements, not the package.

The best link building packages publish their publisher list before you pay.

Judge link building packages on approved placements, not headline volume.