What we would do with $1,000
Tier 1 backlink budget: $1,000 across one pillar and six posts
An agency lead has $1,000 for a client's cluster and wants to know where it goes. This is one way to split it, with invented numbers and the reasoning visible.
The split in one line
About half to the pillar, a fifth to the posts, the rest held back
Put roughly $500 into three strong placements for the pillar, $200 into six cheap relevant ones for the supporting posts, and keep about $300 until you see what the first batch does. It is a starting rule, not a law.
- Every placement is a direct, tier 1 backlink to the page you name
- Reserve money for a second look after the first batch
- Money pages wait for the next budget
Worked example: the invented cluster
| Page | Placements | Price per link (example) | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pillar: complete guide to commercial roof care | 3 | $165 | $495 |
| Post: flat roof inspection checklist | 1 | $45 | $45 |
| Post: roof repair cost by material | 1 | $55 | $55 |
| Posts 3 to 6, one each | 4 | $25 | $100 |
| Held in reserve | - | - | $305 |
Why the pillar takes the largest share
The pillar is the page every other article links up to. Strength that reaches it can travel down through your internal links, so a stronger donor there does more work per dollar than the same money spent six times.
Pick rows by relevance first. A $165 placement on a site about building trades beats a $300 one on a general news site, because the audience and the topic both match.
Check each candidate in Ahrefs or Semrush if you want a second opinion on traffic. Our own filters show Domain Rating, organic traffic, referring domains, niche, language and price on the same row.
If the budget is $100 instead
The same logic scales down. Put $60 on one respectable pillar placement, split $30 over three posts at about $10 each, and keep $10 for a correction.
You will not move a competitive topic with that. You can learn whether the cluster responds at all, and for a small client that is the right question.
Log every order the same way as in the client report, so the second round starts from data. Ahrefs and Semrush help you check competitors before you place any bet.
Spend it in two rounds
- 1
Round one: pillar and two posts
Order the three pillar placements and two of the cheap supporting ones. Log the order date and the live date from ordered links.
- 2
Wait, and measure on a fixed window
Four to six weeks is a sensible window for most clusters. Compare impressions for the whole cluster in Search Console against the weeks before, and note any Google update that landed inside the window.
- 3
Round two: decide with data
If the pillar's impressions improved more than a cluster you left alone, spend the reserve on the next strongest posts. If not, stop and reconsider the content, not the links.
Red flags in your own plan
- Every placement uses the same anchor phrase
- More than half of the money goes to one supporting post
- The donor sites have nothing to do with the client's topic
- No money held back for a second look
- The plan has no cap, only a wish list
- Nobody wrote down which URL each link points to
A budget split decides where you place bets, not whether they pay off. Content quality, competition and Google updates such as the March 2024 core update all move the result. Report the plan as an experiment, and the client will treat it like one.