Link price calculator
Work out a fair price for a sponsored article, link insertion or brand mention from the traffic the page gets and the work involved, or check whether a quote you received is worth it.
- Priced on real visitors, not DA or DR
- Every number visible and editable
- Runs in your browser
A new article: use the typical monthly views of similar articles.
Suggested price
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- Page views—Over the time live
- Visitors sent—At the click rate
- Audience value—Visitors × value per visit
- Price—Audience plus work
Fine-tune the price
Assumptions
Change any number; the price updates as you type.
Check a quote
Enter a price you were offered or quoted.
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The cost per expected visitor appears here.
How the price is built
Each step with the numbers used.
What if
Price for other traffic and click rates. Your current numbers are highlighted.
Estimates only. Paid links must carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and sponsored content should be labelled for readers. This calculator does not price followed paid links.
What a link on a website is worth
A paid link is advertising. Its value is the people who see and click it, plus the work of placing it well.
Visitors are the product
A link on a page nobody reads sends nobody. Price follows the views of the page and how many readers click.
Authority scores are not traffic
DA, DR and similar scores come from SEO tools, not Google, and can be inflated. Check real traffic before paying for a score.
Paid links must be marked
Google asks for rel="sponsored" or nofollow on paid links. Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit counts as link spam.
Work has a price too
Writing, editing and promoting a sponsored article takes hours. A link insertion takes minutes, so it should cost less.
Link pricing terms
What each term means, and what to keep in mind.
| Term | Meaning | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
Sponsored article |
A new article written for, or by, a paying brand that links to it. | Most work, and the views start from zero. |
Link insertion |
A paid link added to an article that already has traffic. | Little work; priced mostly on the page's views. |
Brand mention |
The brand named in an article, usually without a link. | Value comes from people searching the name. |
rel="sponsored" |
Marks a link as paid or sponsored for search engines. | Google asks for it, or nofollow, on every paid link. |
Click rate |
Share of the page's readers who click the link. | Often well under 1 to 2% for a link in body text. |
Value per visit |
What one visitor from the link is worth to the buyer. | Compare with the cost per click in Google Ads. |
Cost per visitor |
Price divided by the visitors the link is expected to send. | The fairest way to compare two offers. |
DA / DR |
Authority scores from SEO tool companies, not from Google. | Useful for relevance checks; easy to inflate. |
How to use this calculator
From page traffic to a price you can explain, in four steps.
Enter the page's traffic
Monthly views of the page the link will be on, the placement type and your currency.
Set the click rate and value
How many readers click, and what each visitor is worth. Use your own data where you have it.
Add the work
Hours of writing or editing and an hourly rate, plus how long the link stays live.
Price it or check a quote
Read the suggested price, or enter a quote to see its cost per expected visitor.
What this tool does, and what it doesn't
A plain list, so you know exactly what to expect.
This tool does
- Price sponsored articles, insertions and mentions
- Show every step of the calculation
- Check a quote by cost per visitor
- Compare other traffic and click rates
- Work in ten currencies
- Remember your numbers in this browser
This tool does not
- Look up a site's traffic for you
- Use DA, DR or other authority scores
- Price followed paid links
- Value a whole website or business
- Buy or sell links
- Send your numbers to our server
Where your data goes
Nowhere outside your browser. The numbers are calculated on this page and saved in your browser's local storage so a reload keeps them. Reset clears them. Nothing is sent to our server or any third party. Like any website, our server keeps normal access logs of page visits, as described in our privacy policy.
When the price doesn't feel right
The six situations people run into most, and what each one means.
Price looks far too high or low
Click rate and value per visit drive most of it. Check them against your own analytics and ad costs.
High DA or DR, little traffic
Scores can be inflated by link networks. Without readers, a link sends almost no visitors.
Asked to remove rel="sponsored"
Selling or buying followed paid links breaks Google's spam policies. Keep the attribute.
A new sponsored article
It starts with no views. Enter a realistic monthly estimate from similar articles on the site.
Offer from a link marketplace
Check the site is real, relevant and indexed, and that the page is not one of many sold links.
Different currency or country
Visitors from different countries are worth different amounts. Set the value per visit for your market.
Questions about link prices
How does this calculator price a link?
It adds two things you can see and change. The audience value is the visitors the link is expected to send: monthly views of the page, times the months it stays live, times the click rate, times what one visitor is worth to the buyer. The content work is the hours of writing or editing times an hourly rate. A minimum price covers small pages.
Is it allowed to buy or sell links?
Paid links are a normal part of the web as long as they are marked. Google asks for rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" on any link that is paid for, and treats buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam. Sponsored articles should also be labelled as sponsored for readers, as advertising rules in many countries require.
Should a followed (dofollow) link cost more?
No. Selling a link without rel="sponsored" or nofollow so that it passes ranking credit breaks Google's spam policies and can hurt both sites. This calculator prices the visitors and the work, which are the same whether or not search engines follow the link.
Why does it use traffic and not Domain Authority or Domain Rating?
Domain Authority, Domain Rating and similar scores are estimates made by SEO tool companies, not Google metrics, and they can be inflated. The people who actually see and click a link are what a buyer receives, so the calculator starts from page views. You can still use a score to judge relevance and quality.
Where do I find the numbers to enter?
Page views come from Google Analytics or another analytics tool, or from Google Search Console clicks for organic visits. The click rate of a link in an article is often well under 1 to 2% of readers, so measure it on your own links if you can. For the value of a visit, the cost per click of the same keywords in Google Ads Keyword Planner is a fair reference.
How do I judge a price someone quoted me?
Enter the quote in the "Check a quote" box. The tool divides it by the visitors the link is expected to bring and compares that cost per visitor with what a visitor is worth to you. Also check that the page is relevant, indexed, gets real traffic and that the link will carry rel="sponsored".
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. All calculations run in your browser and nothing you type is sent to our server. Your inputs are saved in your own browser so a reload keeps them, and Reset clears them. Like any website, our server keeps normal access logs of page visits, as described in our privacy policy.