How common is buying links? What the surveys show
Between a third and three quarters of SEOs say they pay for links, depending on who is asked and how, and more than nine in ten believe their competitors do. Nobody can measure it directly, because almost no paid link carries a label.
In short
- In uSERP's September 2026 survey of 116 senior SEOs, 35.3% said they had paid for or approved sponsored backlinks in the past year, and 6% preferred not to answer.
- An Authority Hacker survey of 755 link builders, cited by Ahrefs in 2024, found that 74.3% pay for links.
- In Editorial.link's March 2026 survey of 518 SEOs, 91.9% said they believe their competitors buy links.
- On the supply side, only 12.6% of 450 sites that Ahrefs contacted in its 2024 study were willing to sell a link insertion.
- ESBO's September 2026 analysis found that only 15% of budget publishers label sponsored content, which is why paid links cannot be counted from the outside.
Buying links is common. Depending on which survey you read, between about a third and three quarters of SEO professionals say they pay for links, and more than nine in ten believe their competitors do. Those numbers are opinions and admissions, not measurements. Nobody outside Google can count paid links, because almost none of them are labelled.
This lesson sets out what each survey asked, why the answers differ so much and what the supply side adds to the picture.
What the surveys say
| Survey | Who answered | What it found |
|---|---|---|
| uSERP, September 2026 | 116 senior SEOs | 35.3% had paid for or approved sponsored backlinks in the past year. 58.6% said no. 6% preferred not to answer |
| Authority Hacker, cited by Ahrefs in 2024 | 755 link builders | 74.3% pay for links, at an average of $83 a link |
| Editorial.link, March 2026 | 518 SEOs | 91.9% believe their competitors buy links |
| Editorial.link, March 2026 | 518 SEOs | 63.1% would place links on marketplace sites if the quality was good enough |
| uSERP, September 2026 | 116 senior SEOs | 49.1% believe that 25% to 50% of their competitors buy links |
The Authority Hacker figure dates from about 2023 to 2024 and the original survey page is no longer online. We read it in Ahrefs’ July 2024 article on buying links, so treat it as an older baseline.
Why the numbers differ so much
A gap between 35.3% and 74.3% looks like a contradiction. It is mostly a difference in who was asked and what they were asked.
The sample. Authority Hacker surveyed people who build links for a living, many of them working on affiliate and niche sites. uSERP surveyed a senior group: 56.9% had ten or more years of experience and 47.4% were directors or heads of SEO. Senior people at established brands have more to lose from a penalty and more approval steps to pass.
The question. “Do you pay for links” covers almost anything, including a fee to a blogger or an agency retainer. “Have you paid for or approved sponsored backlinks in the past year” is narrower and has a time limit.
The admission. Buying a followed link breaks Google’s link spam policy. Some respondents will not admit it even in an anonymous survey. In uSERP’s survey 6% chose not to answer, and nearly half of the same group estimated that a quarter to a half of their competitors buy.
Self-selection. All of these surveys were answered by people who chose to take part, recruited through the audiences of companies that sell link building. None is a random sample of the industry.
The belief figure deserves the same caution. That 91.9% think competitors buy links tells you what SEOs assume. It does not tell you what competitors do.
The supply side: how many sites sell
A second way to gauge the market is to count sellers.
Ahrefs contacted 450 sites across nine niches for its 2024 study and asked to buy a link in an existing article. Only 12.6% were willing to sell. In the same study it pitched 180 sites with “write for us” pages. Of those, 25.5% replied, and roughly half of the replies asked for a fee. Most ordinary websites, in other words, do not sell links when asked.
The sites that do sell are gathered in catalogues. BuzzStream’s June 2026 study started from about 500,000 sites in one large marketplace and found complete data for 257,267 of them. ESBO’s September 2026 analysis collected prices from 16,625 publishers in 53 languages. Our guide to link marketplaces explains how those catalogues work.
Size is not the same as substance. BuzzStream found that 39.6% of those 257,267 sellers had no organic traffic at all. A large part of the supply consists of sites that exist to sell placements. The market is big, and a small part of it is worth buying from.
Why nobody can count paid links directly
Google gives publishers a way to mark a paid link, the sponsored attribute. An Ahrefs study is reported to have found it on about 0.01% of referring domains. Our lesson on link attributes explains what the attribute does.
Labels on the page are also rare at the cheap end. ESBO’s September 2026 analysis found that 57% of premium publishers label sponsored content, against 15% of budget publishers.
So a backlink tool cannot tell a bought link from an earned one. Google has more signals to work with than any tool, and it is reported to have said in December 2022 that its SpamBrain system detects both sites that buy links and sites used to pass them on. SEOs are not convinced: in Editorial.link’s 2026 survey, 56% said they believe Google cannot reliably identify paid links.
It varies by market
The surveys give one number for the whole industry. The practice is not spread evenly.
In Editorial.link’s 2026 survey, 61% of respondents named gambling as the sector that needs the highest link budgets. ESBO’s September 2026 analysis found that 41.5% of publishers accept gambling content, 35.4% accept CBD and 15.9% accept adult content. A sector where fewer publishers will take your content, and where editors rarely link by choice, leans harder on paid placements. Our iGaming hub describes a market where buying is the norm.
At the other end, a local business or a software company with something worth writing about can go a long way on earned and partner links alone.
What the numbers mean for you
Three conclusions follow from the data.
You are probably competing against paid links. If a third of senior SEOs admit to it, the real share in a commercial search result is likely to be higher. Compare your link profile with your competitors’ on that assumption.
Common does not mean allowed. Google’s policy is the same however many sites break it. The grey area is covered in white hat, grey hat and black hat.
Common does not mean effective. In the same uSERP survey, 17.9% named paid links as a dying tactic, and 53.4% said digital PR had produced their strongest results in the past year.
Whether to buy is a business decision about risk and money. It should be made by someone with the authority to accept that risk. Link buying policy and governance covers how to set that up.
Where to go next
If you decide to buy, read how to buy backlinks safely before you spend anything. The link marketplaces comparison sets the main platforms side by side. Terms such as sponsored attribute and referring domain are defined in the glossary.
Common questions
What percentage of SEOs buy backlinks?
It depends on the survey. uSERP's September 2026 survey of 116 senior SEOs found 35.3% had paid for or approved sponsored backlinks in the past year. An Authority Hacker survey of 755 link builders, cited by Ahrefs in 2024, put the share who pay for links at 74.3%.
Do most websites sell links?
No. When Ahrefs contacted 450 sites for its 2024 study, 12.6% were willing to sell a link insertion. The sites that do sell are heavily concentrated in marketplaces and seller lists.
Do big brands buy links?
No survey we found splits the answer by company size. What the data shows is that 35.3% of the senior SEOs in uSERP's 2026 survey, nearly half of them directors or heads of SEO, said they had paid for or approved sponsored links in the past year.
If everyone buys links, is it safe?
No. How common a practice is says nothing about how Google treats it. Buying a followed link breaks Google's link spam policy whether one site does it or most of them do.
Can paid links be counted from backlink data?
Not reliably. Most paid links carry no sponsored attribute and no label, so in a backlink tool they look the same as earned links.
