Tiered Link Building Strategy in The Highly Competitive Niches

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

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

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 .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, 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 pass part of its ranking to your target.

3 Tier

After you have 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 effectiveness with the following 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 to only quality and relevant sites. 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-out site architecture, create or order 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