How to get quality backlinks: 8 methods, what they cost and which fits your company

According to an Ahrefs analysis of roughly 14 billion pages, 96.55% of web content gets no traffic from Google at all, and one of the main reasons it identifies is that those pages have no backlinks (Ahrefs, December 2023). For a company, that means publishing good content is not enough: someone else has to back it with a link.

The practical question is how to get backlinks without wasting months or putting the site at risk. This guide lays out the 8 methods that work in 2026, what they cost according to industry surveys and which one fits each type of company. If you have already decided to invest in paid links, pair this with our guide on how to buy backlinks safely.

What quality backlinks are

A backlink is a link from another site to yours. A quality backlink is one Google is likely to take seriously and that also brings readers. Before chasing any link, check these criteria.

How to get backlinks: the 8 methods that work

1. Digital PR and press. Pitch real company news to the media: launches, appointments, business figures or an expert view on a current topic. It is the method most SEO professionals rate as their best.

2. Original data and studies. A ranking, survey or index built on company data is what gets cited most, because journalists need numbers. A good study keeps earning links for years.

3. Being a source for journalists. Answer requests from journalists looking for experts, in the style of the old HARO. It takes speed and available spokespeople.

4. Broken links. Find links on industry sites that point to pages that no longer exist and offer your content as a replacement. We walk through it in our broken link building guide.

5. Unlinked mentions. Find articles that name your brand without linking to it and politely ask for the link. Response rates are high, because the outlet already wrote about you.

6. Partnerships, associations and suppliers. Chambers of commerce, trade associations, universities you work with, suppliers and customers with case study pages.

7. Guest posts. Write a column for another site in your industry. They work if the site has readers; if it accepts anyone, the link is worth little.

8. Sponsored articles in media. Pay to publish in a real outlet. It is the fastest and most predictable method, and should be done with the link properly marked and in outlets with an audience.

Reporter Outreach's State of Link Building 2026 survey shows something interesting: almost every method is used at similar rates (between 41.6% and 45.6%), but opinions on which works best differ a lot. 34% pick digital PR as their best method, and nobody picks link exchanges (Reporter Outreach).

Digital PR34%

HARO and journalist sourcing21%

Guest posts18%

Link insertions14%

Content-led outreach9%

Link exchanges0%

Source: Reporter Outreach, State of Link Building 2026 (500 SEO professionals). Analysis: ESBUENISIMO LINKS

View the data as a table

Digital PR	34% · used by 45.6%
HARO and journalist sourcing	21% · used by 41.6%
Guest posts	18% · used by 42.4%
Link insertions	14% · used by 42.0%
Content-led outreach	9% · used by 42.2%
Link exchanges	0% · used by 43.8%

How much quality backlinks cost

Free methods cost hours of work; paid ones cost money. As an international benchmark, this is the most SEO professionals say they would pay for a single quality link, according to the same survey (first quarter of 2026).

In short, 76% would pay USD 300 or more for a link, and 58% increased their link building budget in 2026 versus 2025. In Latin American media, value depends heavily on each outlet's size and audience, so the right way to compare is to ask for a media list with metrics before getting a quote.

Which backlinks to avoid

Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links "primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings", and list as examples exchanging money for links, excessive link exchanges and automated programs to create links (Google Search Central).

Google's answer for paid links is to mark them with the rel="sponsored" attribute (Google, qualify your outbound links). We explain each attribute in dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and UGC. In practice, avoid link farms, packages of hundreds of links at a fixed price, blog comments and directories with no readers.

Which way to get backlinks fits your company

If you lead communications or marketing, start with digital PR and original data: you already have spokespeople and news, so just ask for the link in every article. If you run an ecommerce store, combine unlinked mentions, partnerships with the brands you sell and articles in industry media pointing to your main categories. If you are an SEO manager, use the free methods as a base and sponsored articles to speed up the pages that sell most.

How many backlinks do you need? There is no magic number. The honest way to estimate it is to check how many distinct domains link to the three sites ranking at the top for your main query, and set a realistic monthly pace to close the gap. What you measure is new referring domains, not total links: ten links from the same site count far less than one link each from ten different outlets.

There is an extra benefit that did not exist before. In the Reporter Outreach survey, 74% of professionals believe backlinks affect visibility in AI search. Assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity often cite the press, so a backlink in a real outlet works twice: in Google and in AI answers.

In every case the rule is the same: a few links from real media are worth more than many links from sites with no readers. To see how we work with Chilean and Latin American media, visit esbuenisimolinks.com/link-building-chile at ESBUENISIMO LINKS.