How Long Does It Take To See Link Building Results?

It’s almost a standard query: SEO clients want to know how quickly their link-building efforts will yield results.

They want positive change as soon as possible, which makes sense because quality links take a lot of time, effort, and money to build.

However, realistically, any change in your site’s visibility can take anywhere from 3 to 12 months.

It’s also a good idea to think about a few key factors that influence the impact velocity of link building.

Let’s take a look at these factors, as well as a few examples of how quickly link building produces results in various niches.

6 Factors That Affect Link Building Effectiveness

I’ve noticed these factors in my experience building links for various companies, but results will vary depending on individual cases.

Let’s take a closer look at the factors that influence link-building effectiveness.

1. The Authority Of A Site

Domain Ranking (DR) is a metric that measures the number of backlinks a website has received from reputable sources. The higher the DR, the higher the trust score of the website.

Ahrefs, Semrush, MOZ, and Majestic are some of the tools you can use to check your site’s DR.

Sites with a good DR at the start will see the results sooner.

The lower the DR of a website, the longer it will take for the links built to produce positive results. However, it is also dependent on the niche.

For B2B brands, the DR should be at least 60, and for B2C businesses, it should be at least 30. You’ll have to wait longer for results if your domain ranking is lower.

In other words, a website with high online authority may have a better chance of ranking higher.

2. Traffic Trends, Both Positive And Negative

Simply put, a positive trend accelerates the effects of a link-building campaign, whereas a negative trend can slow down results in the short term.

Google keeps track of the trends and favors resources with a consistent growth pattern.

Because of factors that impacted the website’s relevance and trust score, it can be difficult to return to the initial point of growth if a website has a negative traffic trend.

3. The popularity of the Brand

When it comes to link building, one of the most important factors to consider is whether or not the website you’re getting a link from is an authoritative brand.

The percentage of branded traffic that a website receives is a good indicator of this.

You can use tools like Semrush to check this.

4. Different Types of Pages

In most cases, links built to content pages produce positive results faster than links built on commercial pages.

Commercial pages, on the whole, only target a few keywords, significantly reducing your chances of success.

Also, keep in mind that Google prioritizes content pages in its search results.

5. The Competitiveness of a Niche

Link building is popular in B2B, for example, so relying solely on this strategy to grow your website may not be enough. You must combine it with the creation of high-quality content and the growth of your brand.

If you come from a B2C background, however, link building can be a competitive advantage.

6. Link Building Budget (Monthly And Overall)

The average cost per link varies depending on the industry. For instance, Ahrefs estimates it to be around $350, while Siege estimates it to be around $500.

The cost per link, on the other hand, is determined by the authority of the site. For example, a link from a site with an Ahrefs domain rating of 50 and organic traffic of 2,000 per month is not the same as a link from a site with an Ahrefs DR of 80 and organic traffic of 100,000.

As a result, link-building firms frequently charge different rates depending on a site’s domain rating and organic traffic.

Based on this, a $3,000 monthly budget and a $30,000 overall budget might be a good place to start.

However, in some niches, you may need to invest at least $10,000 per month to see results.

And, rather than trying your luck and failing, it’s always a good idea to stay realistic about your situation and concentrate on targeting the right keywords.

What is the most important factor?

To some extent, they all play a significant role.

Building links on a brand website that sells a real product or service, on the other hand, is critical.

These websites have the greatest growth potential, and the value of building links to them will only increase over time.

5 Examples Of How Link Building Works In Different Niches

Okay, we’ve gone over the factors that can speed up or slow down the results of a link-building campaign.

But, to avoid making false claims, let’s take a look at a few link-building campaigns and see how quickly they were able to produce positive results.

The first example is a genuine challenge that many people might dismiss as hopeless.

This site had no organic traffic, authority, or branded traffic, and it was in a highly competitive niche – digital marketing.

So it’s not surprising that the website’s organic traffic did not change in the first eight months, even though the number of keywords it ranked for in SERPs increased slightly.

Then, after nearly a year of work, more tangible results emerged. With a budget of $100,000, the website was able to acquire over 250 links.

This is how the current trend on this site looks. Between January 2021 and January 2022, the number of referring domains gradually increased.

The graph below compares when this website’s organic traffic began to grow to when it began building links – almost ten months later.

According to Ahrefs, organic traffic to this brand’s website is currently at 3,000.

Google Search Console, on the other hand, shows it to be even higher.

It took a little more than a year for this website’s link-building efforts to yield results.

The following example is a B2C brand in the home improvement niche.

With a budget of less than $20,000, the company built 58 links to its website.

The efforts to build links began in December 2021.

In less than five months after the brand launched its link-building campaign, significant changes in organic traffic began to appear.

The graph below shows how traffic increased over time.

Here are a few more examples of how link-building results differ between B2B and B2C.

This is a brand new B2B website with no traffic at all. This website received 40 links for a total of $15,000 and was ranked by search terms, resulting in $1,600 in traffic.

Three months later, between November and December 2021, the first impact of link-building efforts became apparent.

It’s worth noting that this is a brand-new company.

But, if the brand was already well-known, would the link-building results be quicker?

Yes. This business has been around for a while, with a popular website that receives a lot of traffic and links. It’s also from a crowded SEO tool market.

With only 27 links to a page that already had some links, the site received a slight boost in this case. So far, there are 27 links compared to the 40 that the previous website had to create.

As a result, after five months, organic traffic to it had doubled.

This website had to build fewer links, but the results were much more immediate. The link-building campaign began in August 2021, and the first results were visible in October 2021.

Another example is a new B2C supplement brand that caters to the self-care market.

With a total budget of $12,000, it was able to build over 50 links to its website.

In terms of results, the link-building campaign began near the end of 2021, and after two to three months, the first changes in organic traffic appeared.

B2C brands’ link-building campaigns can sometimes be delivered faster, demonstrating that link-building in this niche is far less competitive than in B2B.

However, if you look at all of the examples, you’ll notice that the time when a company starts to see tangible results varies from case to case.