(10 min. read)
What is Tiered Link Building?
Tiered link building is a strategic approach to creating backlinks in a hierarchical manner, often visualized as a pyramid. This method involves multiple layers (or tiers) of links that work together to enhance the authority and ranking of a target website. You have your target pages, to which you generate backlinks from external sites, and then another tier of sites linking to those sites — and so on.
The fundamental objective of tiered link building is to build and transfer authority to your website. By creating multiple layers of links, tiered link building helps make sure that the link juice from lower-tier links flows up to the higher-tier links and eventually to your website. This flow of link juice increases the overall authority passed on to your site.
A well-structured tiered link building campaign also creates a diversified link profile, which appears more natural to search engines. This diversity reduces the risk of penalties and enhances the overall credibility of your backlink profile. When planned carefully, tiered link building can effectively improve your rankings and generate a steady stream of organic traffic to your site.
How Does Tiered Link Building Work?
This strategy hinges on the principle of cascading effect, where each tier supports and enhances the one above it. To understand how tiered link building works, we’ll break the strategy down into its tiers.
Tier 1 Links: The Foundation
Tier 1 links are the most important in the hierarchy, as they point directly to your target website. Their main role is to build strong authority and trust with search engines, which is why these links should come from high-quality, authoritative sources to maximize their impact.
Contributing quality articles to popular blogs in your industry through guest blogging and getting mentions in reputable news articles or industry publications are examples of good tier 1 link sources. At this level, it is best for backlinks to have a natural anchor text.
A good example of a tier 1 page would be a guest post on a well-known industry blog that includes a link back to your site, or an editorial link from a major news outlet covering a story related to your business.
Tier 2 Links: The Supporting Pillars
Tier 2 links are created to strengthen and enhance the authority of the first tier links. They act as a support system, driving more link juice and traffic to the Tier 1 links, making them more powerful and effective — in turn benefiting your target website.
Second tier links can include contributions to less authoritative (but still relevant) blogs and other mid-tier websites. Contributions with links to tier 1 pages on online forums and social media platforms can be useful in driving traffic and engagement, and link building strategies can help you strengthen the position of both tier 1 links and your target page.
Using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, you can identify relevant websites with broken links that could potentially link to your tier 1 pages. Review the broken link’s context and the original content that it was linking to in order to better match the topic and provide equal or (preferably) greater value. As for outreach, it’s important to create a personalized message to the webmaster of the target website, highlighting the broken link and suggesting your content as a replacement. Remember to emphasize the value of your content and how it could improve their site’s users’ experience.
Tier 3 Links: The Amplifying Base
Tier 3 links provide additional support to the tier 2 links, making them stronger and more effective. These are generally lower-authority links, but they still play an important role in the overall link-building strategy.
Directory submissions linking to your tier 2 pages, social media profiles and posts on sites like Reddit and niche forums, comments on relevant sites — there are many legitimate ways to generate additional links at this level. Creating additional content on Web 2.0 platforms like Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, etc. to boost your tier 2 links might also be a worthy endeavor.
Remember: low-authority shouldn’t mean low-quality. Don’t aim to just pump out content at this level, or you’ll end up generating SEO penalties instead of benefits.
To better illustrate the whole concept of tiered link building, imagine you have a main website, “example.com”, which is your target site. The structure of your campaign might look something like this:
Tier 1: You write a high-quality guest post for "highauthorityblog.com", which includes a link to "example.com".
Tier 2: You create a blog on "mediumauthorityblog.com" that links to your guest post on "highauthorityblog.com". You also share the guest post on social media and participate in relevant forums, linking back to the guest post.
Tier 3: You submit the "mediumauthorityblog.com" post to social bookmarking sites (Reddit, Pinterest, etc.), comment on related blogs with links to it, and publish articles in directories that link to your "mediumauthorityblog.com" post.
By following this structured approach, the link juice from the third tier links flows to Tier 2, which in turn strengthens Tier 1 links, ultimately boosting the authority and ranking of "example.com."
How to Implement a Tiered Link Building Strategy?
As with most strategies, the actual effectiveness of tiered link building lies in its implementation and execution. It’s a strategy that requires careful planning and lots of research. When executed without a proper plan, it might lead to penalties from Google instead of SEO benefits.
We have broken down the process into steps and described them in detail. Use this step-by-step guide as a starting point for your own campaigns. Adjust it as necessary according to your needs and make sure the content you create adheres to Google’s guidelines on creating helpful content.
Step 1: Establish Your Foundation
Start by selecting high-quality, engaging content on your site, such as original research, detailed guides, blog posts, or infographics. This content should not only attract backlinks naturally but also offer substantial value to your audience, making it an ideal foundation for your Tier 1 links.
Now, for your Tier 1 links, target authoritative external websites relevant to your niche, such as well-respected blogs and industry publications. Securing high-quality backlinks from these sources is crucial for elevating your site’s authority and search engine ranking.
Engage in outreach to site owners and influencers in your industry. Personalize your communication to clearly articulate the value of your content, aiming to build relationships that lead to high-quality backlinks.
Step 2: Analyze Your Backlink Profile
Analyze your current tier 1 links (those pointing directly to your site). Use tools like Ahrefs or Majestic to assess the authority of these links, and Google Analytics to measure their referral traffic. Focus on the links that offer the most value:
- Referral Traffic: Use Google Analytics to identify which links are driving significant traffic to your pages.
- High Domain Authority: Prioritize links from sites with high DA, as these provide a stronger SEO boost.
- Relevance: Links from sites related to your industry are more beneficial for rankings.
- Dofollow: Focus on links with dofollow status because they pass link equity (link juice) and contribute directly to improving your rankings.
By identifying these high-value tier 1 links, you can target them for tier 2 link-building to amplify their impact.
Key questions to ask:
- Which tier 1 links are driving the most referral traffic?
- Are there high-authority links that could benefit from a tier 2 boost?
- Which pages could rank higher with additional authority?
Step 3: Evaluate Tier 2 Sites
Tier 2 links, which point to your tier 1 backlinks, don't need to be as high-quality but should still avoid spammy sources. Look for sites with moderate authority, clean backlink profiles, and relevant content.
What to look for in Tier 2 sites:
- moderate domain authority (DA);
- relevant content to your industry;
- clean backlink profiles without spammy practices.
Step 4: Select Your Link-Building Methods
Now that you’ve identified your target tier 1 and tier 2 links, it’s time to focus on building those links. Here are a few ways to do it:
- PBNs (Private Blog Networks): If used cautiously, PBNs can help generate backlinks to your tier 2 links. Ensure these sites look natural and are diverse enough not to raise any red flags.
- Article Directories: Although their impact has lessened over the years, high-quality directories can still pass some authority to your tier 1 links through tier 2. Stick to reputable directories with strict content guidelines.
- Forum Links: Participating in niche-related forums and adding relevant, value-driven comments can generate natural Tier 2 links to support your Tier 1 content. Make sure the forums are active and credible to avoid low-quality signals.
- Profile Links: Creating profiles on relevant websites and including your tier 1 URLs can work as low-authority, tier 2 links.
Step 4: Monitor and Manage Your Links
Link monitoring is essential for making sure that your efforts aren’t going to waste. Once you have your tier 2 links in place, regularly check their status using tools like Ahrefs or Google Search Console. Keep an eye on any lost or broken links at tier 1, as these will affect the entire tiered structure.
If you see any red flags (e.g., penalties or sudden drops in rankings), remove the links and review your strategy.
Step 5: Scale Gradually
The tiered link-building strategy is not something to rush. Start small by focusing on your most valuable tier 1 links and slowly building a tiered structure beneath them. As you start seeing results, you can expand your efforts to more pages and additional backlinks, scaling your strategy without sacrificing quality.
Final tip: Patience is key. Tiered link building is a slow but steady method for improving SEO, and the results will be most noticeable after months, not weeks.
Risks in Tiered Link Building
While tiered link building can be an effective strategy for boosting rankings, it carries certain risks, especially if not implemented carefully. The biggest concern is attracting penalties from Google if the links in your lower tiers are considered spammy or unnatural. Poor-quality tier 2 or tier 3 links can devalue your tier 1 backlinks and potentially lead to ranking drops or even manual actions. Another risk is over-reliance on tactics like PBNs or low-quality directories, which can trigger Google’s algorithms to flag your site for manipulative link-building practices.
To minimize these risks, it's essential to ensure that even tier 2 and 3 links come from clean, relevant, and moderately authoritative sites, avoiding black-hat tactics that could harm your long-term SEO performance. Regular monitoring of your backlinks is also critical to mitigate risks early.
It’s crucial to adhere to Google’s link building guidelines to avoid penalties that can severely impact your site’s performance and to ensure websites do not manipulate search engine rankings unfairly. These guidelines emphasize the importance of earning links naturally and discourage practices designed to deceive search engines.
Violating the guidelines can result in penalties to your rankings, causing sudden drops in visibility and traffic. Common triggers include participating in link schemes, acquiring a large number of unnatural links quickly, and having an unnatural link profile overall.
Conclusion: How Effective Can Tiered Link Building Really Be?
In this guide, we explored the concept and implementation of tiered link building — a powerful SEO strategy designed to maximize the impact of backlinks on your website’s authority and search engine rankings. At least it can be when planned and executed with care.
Tiered link building essentially offers a strategic and effective way to enhance your website’s authority and improve its search engine rankings by carefully structuring your backlinks in a hierarchical manner, maximizing the link juice flowing to your site and resulting in higher rankings, increased organic traffic, and greater brand awareness. It also promotes sustainable SEO practices that adhere to Google’s guidelines, reducing the risk of penalties.
If you’re prepared to commit to high-quality content and a diligent approach to outreach, follow the principles outlined above to build a truly impactful backlink profile that drives growth and success for your website.
