Tiered Link Building Strategy in The Highly Competitive Niches

Last updated in March 2024

Before we start discussing the high-competitive niches, I’d like to ask you – how many low-competitive niches do you know?

Based on my experience, if the niche is low-competitive, it is just non-profitable. Do you remember the joke?

– Who was that?
– It was Joe The Uncatchable.
– Is it that difficult to catch him?
– Oh, not at all. Just nobody wants to.

However, if it is possible to make some money on this product, you’ll never stay alone in the niche.

Thousands of your competitors look for new goods to earn, and no one can hide from them.

So, let us assume every profitable niche is high-competitive. If you find the latest market niche with a few players, reject the hope it will stay uninhabited for long.

Is it so bad? I don’t think so. I can find many positive sides to active competition.

When you consider promotion under competitive pressure, you know that all possible strategies and solutions are already tested. Before you invent something principally new (if you are lucky enough), you can just copy the most effective methods.

You can learn what works and what does not without wasting time and budget for testing hypotheses. Of course, there are some minuses. All prospective channels are occupied with other players. The conversion is minimal, and the PPC budget or traffic acquisition price is skyrocketing.

So, you have little choice: you either search for new channels and opportunities or increase brand awareness and build a loyal community.

The task becomes more complicated if you work in grey or black niches – the pharmaceutical industry, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, food supplements, and diet products…

You do not need to be a criminal to face the sanctions on the Internet.

Facebook and Instagram can close my eyes on many suspicious activities – once I saw false banknotes advertising! – but they ban any effort to promote food supplements, pharma, or cryptocurrency.

Google follows the trend.

I have already mentioned in earlier blogs that Google has transformed into a global censor.

The work of SEO professionals looks like astrology: they try to calculate the regularities in the chaotic environment that continually changes.

The promotion of high-competitive niches is still possible.

Again, we turn to organic traffic and crowd-marketing solutions. It takes time – but it creates human capital, a value that can hardly be overvalued.

One of the strategies is the tiered link building.

Tiered Link Building Strategy: How to Build It

Tiered link building is a process of building the link profile based on various sites that are tied to the target site. Many SEO professionals consider tiered link building as the Black Hat practice. Really, tiered link building can quickly boost page rank, but Google does not praise the sudden growth.

A well-thought-tiered linking strategy that supports the link profile’s smooth growth can be incorporated into the white link-building strategy.

Tiered Link Building Scheme Picture

Tiered Link Building Scheme

1 Tier

The first level of the tiered network includes the donor sites that provide outbound links to your target site. This level should consist of relevant, contextual, non-aggressive links: sites on the domains .edu and .gov, blogs on blogspot.com, and wordpress.com, you’ve got the idea. You can place quality content, like guest articles, on high-ranking sites, and add links from wikis and social networks related to your niche in the first tier.

2 Tier

The second tier supports the sites of the first tier. It can also include social networks, articles, but also directories, forums, etcetera. It works as follows: you post a guest article on the high-ranking site and add the outbound link for the first tier. To increase your article’s engagement, you repost and advertise it on the forums and social networks. On the second level, you care about the quantity but still maintain some degree of relevance and context. The inbound links increase the weight of a high-ranking site, and it passes the part of its ranking to your target.

3 Tier

After you developed the second tier of links, you can go deeper and build the third tier. This level is mostly for quantity. Here you can use the aggressive links from blog comments, forum posts, reviews, guestbooks, image comments, and so on.

Effective Tiered Link Building

In SEO, we can measure the effectiveness with the metrics: the number of visitors, new and returning, average time on the page, the number of inbound links, etcetera. The smooth growth is optimal for all metrics. If we register it, it is possible to conclude the strategy is successful.

Let us discuss how we build success.

Here is what you can do on the upper level.

  • Put the link-building process under your control. You can manage the process by yourself or hire a reliable contractor – in any case, do not forget to check the reports and compare the metrics.
  • Tie your target site with the quality and relevant sites only. In Tier 1, the weight of donor sites influences the positions of the acceptor.
  • Use contextual backlinking – support your backlink with a good piece of relevant content. It will live longer and have a more positive impact.
  • Avoid search engine penalties at your tier network. The penalties from Google Zoo – Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird – can annihilate most of your efforts.

Tier-1. White Hat Only

Let us start from the target site and tier one, the sites directly tied with your target site by the backlinks. I believe most of my readers know this but declare it once again: only white technologies on the upper level! Invest your time and efforts in the well-thought site architecture, create or order the unique content, and place anchors and links in the right places – do your best for this level. Only one mistake can kill the campaign, so act carefully and do not be in a rush.

Tier-2. Still Unique Content

The networks of second-level sites should be more extensive, so the entry-level is lower. Of course, it is better to avoid the sites under Google penalties and post your backlinks on relevant resources.

I also recommend using unique content for Tier 2. Search engines increase copyright violation control: you’d better prevent the problem than later remove it.

The good news is you can use low-quality content.

Tier -3. Fruitful Soil

On the lower level, you should create a broad field that will nurture the sites on Tier 2. Moving forward with my agricultural metaphor, you should add some nutrients for better productivity. Some of them smell bad like organic manure – in terms of backlinks, I mean forums with weak moderation and free blogs. You can use it or switch to a more effective mineral fertilizer; I mean natural crown links. It costs a little more, but you need less of it.

Anyway, it works; it is practical and safe.

Tips for Getting More Backlinks

  • Create shareable content – viral videos, funny jokes, reviews, and expert articles can bring a substantial volume of new backlinks legally and for free! Do not undervalue this tool.
  • Go to the influencers – even nano bloggers with an audience of fewer than 10k subscribers can add value to the backlink profile. Influencers with an audience of 100k and more can make your site a star, but it will cost a budget.
  • Contribute as a guest author – posting the articles on third-party resources is one of the white link-building methods. Besides, you can attract organic traffic to the target site.
  • Commit to social networks. People on social networks love to open interesting sites if they find a good lead and attractive pictures.
  • Use communities and forums. The quality of backlinks from forums and communities is lower than for outreach links from influencers or viral content. However, they add value to the link profile and work well in combination with different types of links.

Crowd Links as a Part of Tiered Link-Building

Crowd marketing is another technique of link building; the links to the target resource appear in the forum posts, reviews, Q&A sites, and other resources. To distinguish crowd links and spam links, remember that crowd links are placed on the relevant resources together with a piece of useful content.

That is why my business’s name is Natural Links: we put lots of effort into making them natural. Let us review two main crowd-marketing benefits.

Healthy Profile Diversification

When you build the link profile for your target resource, Google and other search engines can put sanctions on it because of the inbound links’ homogeneous nature. The natural crowd links dilute and diversify the backlink profile and make it healthy.

Safe Growth of The Backlink Profile

Natural links in the topics tailored to the target resource attract additional traffic and support steady and safe profile growth. Sharp peaks can be suspicious for search engines, and crowd links help smooth the growth tempo.

Crown marketing can be effectively used in combination with tier link building, especially in high-competitive niches. Natural links improve the Tier strategy and make the structure look more natural for search engines. This statement is not just words: I can prove it with the cases.

Use Cases with Tiered Link-Building and Crowd Marketing

CASE 1. Dating agency Overview

The dating portal started working with Natural Links in September 2019. The brand developed the following strategy of tier linking: the multiple non-commercial sites supply traffic for one target resource, and the commercial site generates the income.

Solution

Tier 3 (low-level) links – strengthen third-party websites linked to the client’s non-commercial sites.

Tier 2 (middle level) links – backlink profile growth and positions of the non-commercial sites managed by the client.

Tier 1 (high-level) links – increase and diversify the backlinks profile of the commercial site.

Outcome

  • Organic traffic multiplied by x2.5 within one year.
  • No significant impact of the May 2020 Google update on the client’s business.
  • Traffic indicators keep showing stable gradual growth.

Case 1: Tiered link building and crowd marketing for Dating niche

CASE 2. CBD Shop Overview

The client addressed Natural Links in December 2019. At that moment, the client registered 15,598 organic visitors per month and 864 backlinks.

Solution

Tier 3 (low level) links – find the third-party websites, create the Tier network to improve the profile for Tier 2 sites
Tier 2 (middle level) links – create the network of the tied sites to improve the link weight of each one.
Tier 1 (high-level) links – a combination of outreach links and natural links.
Also: additional work on the site content, the creation of new useful pieces of content.

Outcome

  • Smooth link profile growth from 100 per month to 800-1000 per month
  • Up to 29k backlinks in profile at a moment
  • A well-balanced link profile consisted of outreach links and tier links.

Case 2: Tiered link building and crowd marketing for CBD niche

 

What technique is better, outreach marketing or crowd links?

They better exist in synergy than in a battle.

They work as left and right hand – outreach adds the anchors to the link profile and increases the brand awareness, and crowd marketing dilutes the outreach links in the link profile and makes it safer.

The methods are complementary, and they both help you build the natural link profile for your brand.

Let us dive deep and investigate how we can use outreach and crowd marketing together.

Outreach Marketing Basics

What is outreach marketing?

I consider it a powerful link-building technique.

Sometimes I contact online influencers, bloggers, journalists, celebrities, and other public persons to write about my business and link the post to the website.

Sometimes, when they are my friends, they do this voluntarily. Sometimes our clients want to thank us for the excellent service.

However, mostly you have to reach out and pay for promotion.

Outreach links help build the link profile, increase brand awareness, move the product up in the reviews and catalogs, etc.

Outreach links in guest posts strengthen your profile and attract traffic.

As with every technique, outreach marketing has its pros and contras. Let us review the most obvious.

Pros of Outreach Links

Outreach links are usually worth the investment.

Having backlinks from a reputable blogger adds more quality and relevance to your website to help achieve higher SERP rankings.

Outreach links can be an essential part of the valuable link profile.

It is also an impactful way of tapping into a bigger audience base than the influencer or blogger already has.

Popular resources generate organic traffic via outreach links and attract potential leads to the site.

Cons of Outreach Link

Finding relevant and impactful influencers in your niche can be an overwhelming process, especially if you are new to this business.

Once you find and reach them, convincing them to spread the word about your brand or business can cost money.

Prominent bloggers often charge a high compensation amount for the process, and small businesses may not afford the same every time.

Also, the popular platforms have internal limitations; for example, no more than one no-follow link per article, or limited time the item stays on the site.

The site owners can place your article in the special section for press releases or contributor pages. Despite the high cost, live people rarely visit these pages.

Besides, somebody has to write the text for the announcement.

If you have no internal resources for writing, the article will cost you extra.

My recommendation: always proofread and approve the article by the external author before publishing it!

Outreach vs. Crowd Marketing: What’s the Difference

For me, the major difference between crowd marketing and outreach marketing is the name of a talking head.

In outreach, you know it, as well as the audience. In crowd marketing, the author stays unknown.

Speaking seriously, the place matters.

Outreach marketing works with personal blogs, websites, and social media accounts mostly trusted and reliable.

The reputation of the web resource and popularity is a unique sales proposition in outreach marketing. And outreach works well.

However, we have and must dilute outreach links with the crowd links.

Crowd links are placed on the reviewers, Q&A sites, online communities, and forums.

The powerful side of these resources is live and informal communication.

People value the live experience and trust it even more than a paid article in a popular Instagram account or a sponsored article in a blog.

So, instead of focusing on one technique, it is better to combine outreach and crowd marketing.

Crowd links can enrich the profile with anchors and references, and make it more natural for search engine algorithms.

Crowd Marketing Essentials Web Resources for Crowd Marketing

There are several types of popular resources you can comment on:

  • Review sites. As obvious as Amazon Customer Reviews, TrustPilot, Trip Advisor, Glassdoor… You can also use Google Maps and customer reviews there: it works perfectly for local businesses.
  • Social platforms/communities. For example, you can use Facebook groups or even business pages of the relevant theme with an active community. In some regions, you can use Telegram channels and groups. For those who set hopes on LinkedIn groups: forget it. Most of them are dead and full of spam from some dirty SEO activists.
  • Thematic forums. The most effective web resource for crowd marketing. The users on such forums discuss topics related to your business, and the posts on these forums provide not only backlinks but also high-quality leads.
  • Q&A services. Online Questions-and-Answers services are an effective tool for audience capture. Not only does it attract visitors from the target or non-target groups and increase brand awareness, but it is also perfectly indexed and considered a trusted resource by search engines. Not to forget – the most popular services, like Quora, make your links no-follow. However, if your answer is professional, relevant, and well-written, it will stay on the top and remain visible, so it also works.
  • Comments on relevant websites. Some websites allow comments about the goods and services, inviting users to discussion.

Who Should Create Crowd Links for You?

Crowd marketing is a piece of work. Who should do those, can you manage it by yourself or hire a professional? Let us consider the available options.

1. Internal Resource

You can find a person who can work with crowd marketing in any company – it can be a copywriter, marketing manager, SEO manager, or whoever.

Making crowd marketing with internal resources keeps the process under your control and costs nothing except the time. Anyway, it is cheaper than hiring a freelancer.

However, don’t be so happy about the saved costs.

The task is time-consuming. Your employee should do the research, register dozens of accounts, and post many messages to build the reputation before posting the link.

Besides, forum moderators will delete some references on the moderated forum.

You should also be aware of Google sanctions: if your employee uses bots or mass posting software, they can penalize you.

At last, you can hardly scale the process.

Supposedly you do not have the unlimited number of people who can get off the primary responsibilities and start crowding.

2. Freelancers

You can find a freelancer – there are hundreds of professionals with a variety of options for the price and for the results.

You can get an excellent result or you can spend a fortune and get nothing except the problems.

Any option between these two is also possible. So, spend some time and research to find a reliable subcontractor.

The risk for hiring a freelancer is medium, as well as the control level.

Probably, one of the significant benefits is the scalability without the shutdown – you can hire more freelancers anytime.

But don’t forget to discuss the terms of cooperation before the start or you will be charged extra for any change you request.

3. Professional Service Providers

Professional service is the most costly but most reliable option.

These people invest in their reputation for years not to disappear from the market, and will not waste your money on an ineffective job.

They discuss and approve all details before the start and follow your remarks in the process.

Of course, they charge a price for the high-quality service, but you will get the best result if you can afford it.

Check List For the Vendor Reliability

  • Can someone you know in person recommend this vendor?
  • Can a vendor provide some case studies or success stories?
  • Does a vendor have social media pages, dedicated emails, etc.?
  • Is a vendor ready to contact you by phone, by Skype, or even personally?
  • Is a vendor ready to provide you with a full report with the indexed links?
  • Is there a functionality to track the order progress in real-time?
  • Is there any confidentiality policy in place? Is a vendor ready to stay in touch until the job is done?

If the answer is Yes for most of these points, a vendor looks trustworthy and you can start cooperation.

Crowd Links Order Checklist

This is a bonus for those heroes who read down this far. I know most of you will forget many details as soon as you close this page.

So, please have the visual checklist with the most essential points you should check to order the crowd market promotion.

I hope it helps.

Crowd links order checklist

So, crowd marketing is the most complicated technique of link building.

The registration on the mail services and web resources, and account building, consumes a lot of time.

A link can be removed or archived; it can get the no-follow attribute – which means search engines will ignore it, so it does not work.

In Natural Links we guarantee the lifetime replacement for deleted links, relevance to the topic, a high percentage of do-follow links, smooth growth, and high-quality texts written by our copywriters.

These parameters make crowd-marketing cool!

And this is our main competitive advantage.

Link copied to clipboard