You've built 100 backlinks. Build another 100—will your rankings double? No.

There’s a rule about backlink building that most people don’t know: the value of the first 20 backlinks can equal the total of the next 80. This is called diminishing marginal returns. Understanding this rule helps you spend your time where the payoff is highest.

📅 Oct 5, 2026 · ⏱️ ~6 min read · 📂 Backlink · Efficiency · Strategy

I’ll first show you a curve.

This is the relationship “backlink count vs DR change” derived from real data of 5 sites:

Backlink Count   DR Change   Marginal Value per Backlink
0 → 10          +6         0.6 DR/backlink
10 → 20         +4         0.4 DR/backlink
20 → 40         +5         0.25 DR/backlink
40 → 80         +5         0.125 DR/backlink
80 → 160        +4         0.05 DR/backlink

See that?

The first 10 backlinks each contribute 0.6 DR. Backlinks 40‑80 each contribute only 0.125 DR. Backlinks 80‑160 each contribute only 0.05 DR.

The marginal returns are dropping sharply.

You spend the same amount of time getting the 1st backlink as the 100th— the former is worth 12 times the latter.

Why It Diminishes

Reason 1: Google’s trust has a “threshold”
Google’s trust in a new site starts near zero. The first 10‑20 high‑quality backlinks help you cross the “basic trust” threshold. Once you cross it, each additional backlink adds less and less trust.
It’s like moving to a new city—your first 10 friends are crucial for building a social circle. Once you have 100 friends, the 101st friend hardly changes your network.

Reason 2: How DR is calculated
DR is a logarithmic scale, not linear. Going from DR 0 to 10 is much easier than from 30 to 40. This means the same number of backlinks yields a larger DR boost at low DR levels.

Reason 3: Competitors’ baseline changes
When you move from DR 5 to 15 you outrank many low‑DR competitors. But moving from DR 25 to 35 your rivals are also DR 25+, and their backlinks are growing too. Your relative advantage grows more slowly.

When Backlink Building Has the Highest ROI

This table reveals a counter‑intuitive fact: many sites with DR 30+ spend too much time on backlinks. They should allocate more time to content optimization—because at this stage the marginal returns of content are higher.

My Real‑World Experience

My site’s time allocation and results at different stages:

Stage 1: DR 0‑12 (first 3 months)
- Time split: 80 % backlinks, 20 % content
- New backlinks per month: 15‑20
- Result: DR increased by 12 points. Each backlink produced a noticeable ranking change.

Stage 2: DR 12‑22 (months 4‑8)
- Time split: 50 % backlinks, 50 % content
- New backlinks per month: 8‑10
- Result: DR increased by 10 points. Backlink impact slows, but content optimization starts boosting rankings.

Stage 3: DR 22‑28 (months 9‑12)
- Time split: 20 % backlinks, 80 % content
- New backlinks per month: 3‑5
- Result: DR increased by 6 points. Backlink marginal effect drops sharply, but content and CTR optimization bring significant traffic growth.

If I kept Stage 1 level backlink investment in Stage 3, I’d waste a lot of time on low‑margin tasks.

When to “Stop”

“Stop” doesn’t mean stop all backlinks. It means downgrading backlink building from a primary activity to a supplemental one.

These signals indicate you should cut back on backlinks:

Signal 1: DR growth slows – If you add 10 backlinks per month but DR only rises 1 point, you’ve passed the high‑marginal‑return stage.

Signal 2: Rankings plateau – If you get 10 new backlinks but core keyword rankings don’t move, backlinks are no longer the bottleneck.

Signal 3: Content quality has clear improvement potential – If you have 10 article titles to optimize, 5 articles with data to update, 20 internal links to improve—these optimizations may yield higher ROI than acquiring 10 new backlinks.

Signal 4: Competitors outrank you on content – If competitors rank higher but have lower DR, they win on content, not backlink count. You should chase them on content, not backlinks.

After Reducing Backlink Investment, What to Do

When you shrink backlink time from 80 % to 20 %, what should you do with the freed 60 %?

1. Content Optimization (30 %)
- Update data and information in old articles
- Optimize titles and meta descriptions (boost CTR)
- Improve internal linking structure
- Adjust content for new queries appearing in GSC

2. New Content Creation (20 %)
- Write a deep article every 2 weeks
- Target long‑tail keywords
- Create content that naturally attracts backlinks (data reports, tools, resource pages)

3. Technical SEO (10 %)
- Page speed optimization
- Mobile experience
- Structured data
- Sitemap and robots.txt maintenance

A Practical Time‑Allocation Template

Websites with DR 0‑15:

Websites with DR 15‑30:

Websites with DR 30+:

Final Thoughts

Backlink building has diminishing marginal returns. The value of the first 20 backlinks can equal the total of the next 80.

This doesn’t mean backlinks aren’t important. It means you should dynamically adjust the proportion of backlink effort based on your DR stage.

DR 0‑15 → focus on backlinks; DR 15‑30 → backlinks + content in parallel; DR 30+ → focus on content.

Don’t use a DR‑0 strategy to tackle DR‑30 challenges.

Your strategy should evolve alongside your site.

BackLinkSubmit Team — We help you efficiently complete the foundational backlink work so you can quickly reach the stage where you can spend time on content. Learn more →