Backlinks cost anywhere from free (if you earn them organically) to five figures for a single placement on a tier-one publication. Guest post placements on niche blogs typically run $100–$500, including a written article and dofollow link. Mid-tier sites with DA 40–60 and real traffic charge $500–$2,000. High-authority domains like regional news outlets or industry publications can demand $2,000–$10,000 per link, sometimes more if they have strict editorial standards or massive reach. Pricing factors include domain authority, organic traffic, topical relevance, editorial oversight, and whether the site is a known link seller. A dofollow link from a Canadian tech blog with 10,000 monthly visits costs more than a generic directory listing because Google weighs relevance and trust. You also pay for content creation—most agencies charge $150–$400 per article on top of placement fees, though some vendors bundle writing into the link price. Watch out for cheap link packages under $50 per link. These are almost always PBNs, scraped content farms, or spammy directories that carry penalty risk. Google's spam algorithms flag unnatural link patterns, and a manual action can tank your rankings for months. At Ottawa SEO, we avoid bulk link buys and focus on editorially placed links in relevant niches, even if that means fewer links at higher cost. One contextual link from a legitimate industry site outperforms twenty junk links. Monthly retainers for ongoing link building run $1,500–$5,000 for small businesses and $5,000–$20,000+ for competitive niches or enterprise campaigns. That budget covers outreach, content, and placements. Some agencies charge per link delivered, others per hour of outreach work. Always ask for sample placements and verify the domains aren't flagged in Ahrefs or Semrush before committing. If someone guarantees ten DA 50+ links for $500 total, they're selling you garbage.