Link building costs have risen 20-35% since 2022

PressWhizz's 2025 report surveys link-building practitioners on year-on-year cost movement and finds that effective acquisition costs have risen between twenty and thirty-five per cent since 2022. The increase is driven by a tightening editorial standard at established publishers, a flood of AI-generated guest post submissions that has lifted rejection rates and pushed up the effective cost per accepted placement, and a broader compression of marketplace inventory as some agencies left the space. For anyone planning a 2026 budget, the practical implication is that prior-year benchmarks understate current cost by roughly a quarter; budgets pegged to last year's rates will under-deliver on volume.