How Many Backlinks Should You Build in a Month? (2024)

When it comes to backlinks, quality is more valuable than quantity. But you already knew that.

So, I wouldn’t touch that in this blog. Instead of yelling "build quality links", I'll dive into how you can set quantity goals as well (and a note on how you can meet them towards the end).

But before we get into those specifics. Let's address the elephant in the room.

Any Number is Better than Zero

Yes, there are industries/topics where creating good content alone is enough to rank.

But for the vast majority of competitive keywords, backlinks are table stakes. They're usually what keep you from stealing traffic away from your competitors.

And not to forget what the future of content is looking like. AI tools have made creating content a matter of typing in a few prompts. Not everyone will act in good faith with such technology out there.

Instead of using AI to co-create content, some sly publishers will take shortcuts. They will ramp up content production like never before.

The consequence? Competition will dramatically rise. Keywords that had a few dozen well-written blogs competing for the #1 spot will now have 1000s (or maybe even more).

When that happens, what will help set you apart are high-quality backlinks. They'll be your insurance against a wave of new competition that props up overnight.

The point? Start investing in your link building engine, ASAP. Don't let naysayers get in your way.

If Not Zero, Then What's the Number?

Well, like all things in SEO, the answer to that depends. But if you’re looking for a rule of thumb, 5-10 backlinks per month is decent velocity. There are questions you can ask yourself to arrive at a more specific number. Before we jump into them…

At SmartTask (a work management software I've scaled), we didn't start with a big off-page team. Only one person handled link-building. Our start was slow. After one month, we could only built one backlink (of course, we had high quality standards).

But after the first... the second, third, fourth, and nth backlink came with a lot less friction. A positive feedback loop set in, making it more and more easier to scale our link building engine.

The one-person link-building department grew into a team of 3. From 1 backlink a month, we went to around 30 (and 44 on our best month so far). Which helped us rank for several money keywords in a hyper-competitive niche.

All this happened because of a quantity goal we set (30 backlinks per month). Yes, we did have outcomes we predicted (X backlinks should take us to rank Y). But what we optimised for was our output (the number of backlinks we should build).

And so should you! So, for that, here are…

Four Questions You Should Ask Yourself

Q1. What’s your overall SEO strategy?

Link-building is not something you do in a vacuum. It has fit into your broader SEO (and content) strategy. If all you're writing for the next six months are blogs on high competition keywords, you ought to prepare for high link velocity as well.

But let's say you are banking heavily on linkable assets. On top of that, you already have good distribution on social media. Then, you'll likely receive links without actively going after them. In that case, you're allowed to step your foot off the gas.

Q2. What keywords are you building backlinks for?

A great way to figure out how many backlinks you need in a month is to pick focus keywords. Doing so helps you leverage tools like Semrush to evaluate how many backlinks you need. Here's how you can go about it:-

1. Enter your target keyword into the Semrush search bar and select the appropriate country and search engine.

2. In the Organic Search Results section, you will see a list of top-ranking pages for your keyword. Choose a few pages that are ranking on the first page of the SERPs and have a similar content type to yours.

3. Click on the Backlinks tab to see a list of all the backlinks that are pointing to each of the selected pages. Make a note of the total number of backlinks for each page.

4. Analyze the backlinks to see if they are high-quality and relevant to your niche. Use SEMrush's Authority Score and Trust Score metrics to help you determine the quality of the backlinks.

5. Calculate an average number of backlinks that each of your competitors has, then use this as a rough estimate of how many backlinks you may need to outrank them.

Though this estimation isn't perfect, it's far better than shooting in the dark.

Q3. What’s your link building budget?

The number of backlinks you can build in a month isn't independent of your budget. That's because in some industries, paying for links is commonplace.

Even in the project management space, that seems to be the case. An excellent case study by Brendan Hufford (a great marketer of our times) proves this.

He showcases how monday.com used extensive link building (not just creating content fast) to build their SEO moat. And of course, paying for links was a part of this play.

In case you want to read his complete analysis, here’s the link. But the point I want to drive home is that you can’t model your link velocity after giant corporations without knowing how they achieve what they do.

And what they’re doing is leveraging capital to create astounding results. If you are not in a position to do the same, adjust you link velocity accordingly.

Q4. Can you sustain what you're doing?

Like with all things in SEO, link building is a continuous endeavour.

So, it's important to pick goals that you can sustain for long (really long) periods of time. So, if you can build 30 links a month for 2 years, stick with that instead of creating 50 links in one month and no more than 5 for a quarter.

Meet Your Monthly Backlink Target With Smartlinks

After considering the four questions above, I’m sure you’d have arrived at a quantity goal for your link building efforts. Now, it’s time you ready yourself to achieve that number.

But instead of relying on traditional link-building tactics, abound with uncertainty, here’s an alternative you can try: Smartlinks.

With it, all you have to do is:-

• Enter keywords you need backlinks for,

• Get matched with opportunities,

• Send a one-click backlink request,

• And voila!

You earn backlinks without dizzying prospecting, tiring outreach, or never-ending negotiations. Just focus on creating link-worthy content and Smartlinks does the rest.