Building backlinks is an integral part of any SEO strategy. Backlinks help search engines understand the popularity and authority of a website. However, there is no universally ideal number of backlinks to build per day. The optimal pace for building links depends on your site’s current link profile, industry competitiveness, content types, outreach strategy, and more.
Determine Your Website’s Needs
When deciding how many backlinks to build daily, first audit your existing backlinks. Assess factors like:
- Current number of backlinks
- Quality of existing links
- Presence of toxic backlinks
- Domain authority and page authority
From this audit, you can identify gaps that backlinks could help fill or issues additional links may compound.
For a younger site with minimal existing links, focusing on building 10-20+ new backlinks a day can rapidly accelerate organic growth. Well-established sites may prioritize 5-15 links daily to carefully expand reach.
Key Metrics to Review
- Domain Rating
- Page Authority
- Organic keywords ranking for
- Search traffic levels
Monitoring how these metrics shift with new links gained can clarify if your link building pace suits your sites’ needs.
Set a Realistic Pace
While peaking at 50+ new daily links may temporarily spike traffic, that pace is unrealistic long-term for most websites. Not only is gaining that volume of links constantly extremely difficult, but search engines may eventually penalize sites aggressively building low-quality links.
Instead, aim for consistency in link acquisition week over week:
- 15-25 new links a day
- 100-250 new links a week
- 500+ new links a month
At this steady cadence, the benefits of each high-quality link have time to fully propagate through metrics like organic search visibility, traffic, and conversions. Rushing link gains could prompt search engines to discount some of your website’s new backlinks.
Focus on Creative, Ethical Link Reach
Generating 25+ new backlinks daily long-term requires dedication to original, ethical link building tactics, like:
- Skyscraper content marketing – Creating superior long-form content assets better than competitors to earn backlinks
- Guestographics – Developing and pitching great infographics to relevant publishers
- HARO outreach -Responding to journalist queries with insightful source commentary
- Brand mentions – Earning backlinks by showcasing partners, customers, and collaborators
- Roundup consolidation – Combining and promoting the best advice across roundup articles mentioning your brand
- Niche directory and listings – Curating and managing accurate business listings and profiles
- Client testimonials and reviews – Getting happy customers to review services on trusted industry sites
Prioritizing variety keeps your link profile looking natural as it grows each month. Leaning too heavily on just one or two tactics may appear manipulative if overdone.
Measure New Link Impacts
Alongside watching your volume of new daily links, track:
- Traffic from earning links – See which posts, pages, and linked content drives the most visitors
- Conversions from link traffic – Check if website visitors from links convert better than average
- Organic ranking improvements – Monitor which keywords earning links has boosted rankings for
This helps identify your site’s most valuable link building wins and opportunities. Refine your outreach targeting and messaging to replicate your proven success.
Useful Link Impact Metrics
- Rankings influenced
- Organic traffic gained
- Site referral visitors
- Link click-through rates
- Goal conversions from links
Build Links Your Audience Values
Earning backlinks should ultimately serve your audience and their needs, rather than solely search engine algorithms.
The information and resources you link out matter. Consider links quality by if they:
- Help simplify a complex process for readers
- Provide concrete takeaways or next step guidance
- Share unique data or research on readers’ interests
- Entertain readers and make content more engaging
Links connecting your content to valuable assets demonstrate you care about serving your audience. Search engines will recognize this in better rankings as well.
Key Takeaways
- There is no set target for “ideal” links to build per day suitable for every site. Prioritize consistent, manageable link building goals week to week and month to month instead of extremes.
- Build links strategically based on what added authoritative links can help improve for your current website and content.
- Focus on diversifying link building tactics over time for natural growth, varying your link profile.
- Measure the success of your link building by the value it ultimately provides to your audience through metrics like traffic and conversions.
Conclusion
Defining an exact number of links to build each day universally can be counterproductive. The rate your website can healthily gain new links varies based on your industry, competition, content types, and technical factors. Set realistic, sustainable goals for links to build weekly and monthly instead of extreme daily targets.
Concentrate on diversifying link building tactics over time to fuel steady growth. Most importantly, ensure your links serve your audience rather than solely chase higher rankings. Building truly helpful, authoritative resources readers value leads search engines to eventually recognize and reward your site quality.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many backlinks should my new website build daily?
A: For newer sites, focus first on creating amazing content that deserves links. Then build 5-15+ links a day from relevant websites through guest posts, skyscraper content, etc.
Q: Is 100 backlinks a day a good target?
A: No, averaging 100 links daily is unrealistic long-term for most sites. The quality will suffer at that extreme volume. Build consistency with 15-25 new links daily instead.
Q: How many backlinks per post?
A: On average, posts that perform well eventually build 5+ backlinks over time. Very compelling “skyscraper” content can earn 100+ links. Create content designed to attract links.
Q: Is 50 backlinks a day too much?
A: Yes, 50 links per day likely strains website resources and risks many low quality links. The sweet spot for most sites is 10-25 new links daily, pacing organic growth.
Q: How quickly can poor quality links hurt my site?
A: As soon as they are indexed, low-quality links can potentially impact rankings. Use Google Search Console to identify and disavow extremely spammy links.
Q: Should I focus on link quantity or quality?
A: Quality. 2 great links from reputable industry sites are better than 50 low-quality directory links. Vet sites before requesting links.
Q: How do I remove toxic backlinks?
A: Use Google Search Console to identify harmful links, then reach out to site owners directly requesting removal. Failing that, disavow links.
Q: How often should I audit my backlinks?
A: Review backlinks using SERPstat, Ahrefs, SEMRush or Similarweb monthly. Identify bad links to remove and assess link growth.
Q: What is the best backlink analysis tool?
A: Ahrefs and SEMRush have the most extensive backlink data. Also use Moz and Serpstat. Compare results identifying toxic links.
Q: Can I automate link prospecting and outreach?
A: Yes, software like Pitchbox and Buzzstream facilitates finding link opportunities and automates some email outreach tasks.
Q: What backlink tactics work best?
A: Guest posting on popular sites within your niche often earns valuable links long-term. Also focus on creative assets like visuals, tools and resources for links.
Q: Where should I focus link building efforts?
A: Identify and prioritize earning links from websites relevant to your niche with decent Domain Authority and traffic.
Q: How much does link building cost?
A: Prices vary widely. Guest post charges average $200-$400 depending on domain metrics and content involved. Manual outreach is mostly time costs.
Q: How do I get powerful .edu and .gov links?
A: Identify relevant academic departments or government agencies and pitch them highly newsworthy, authoritative content written specifically to merit their links.
Q: Which is better, manual or automated outreach?
A: Manual outreach tailored specifically to each site tends to secure the highest quality links and placements. Automation works best assisting this process.
Q: Is buying backlinks worth it?
A: No, buying links or exchanging links strictly for SEO is against Google guidelines. Focus on earning links editorially based on merit and value.
Q: How do I know a link opportunity is safe to build?
A: Vet all link prospects thoroughly – assess site reputation, traffic stats, content quality, and any paid link policies before requesting links.
Q: How many links does a top site have?
A: Top sites have anywhere from a few hundred to a million+ backlinks, with the strongest usually maintaining a 10:1 ratio of referral domains to backlinks.
Q: Will linking out hurt my rankings?
A: No, relevant outbound links to authority sites helps search engines determine site quality and understand context. Moderation is key – link out where truly beneficial.