Backlink Tier - The Hierarchy of Backlinks That Scale Your SEO Campaign
Backlink tier refers to the hierarchy of links that you design to boost your SEO campaign. Each level adds an additional layer of protection from Google's penalties.
Tiered link building requires an enormous amount of time and effort to get it right. Google takes weeks to discover and evaluate new backlinks.
First-Tier Links
These links must be of a high quality and dofollow from trusted websites. These links are known as Tier 1 backlinks, and they form the basis of your link-building strategy. They endorse your web page, and give the site enough authority to be highly ranked on search results pages. For example, if your blog post is published on HubSpot, and it features an tier one link to SearchEngineLand's collection of Link Building Statistics, then SearchEngineLand's ranking on the internet would get an increase from the link equity passed down by HubSpot.
The second tier can be more diverse and could include low-quality backlinks, like spammy forum posts or low-value bookmark sites and directories. The main objective for Tier 2 is to produce high-quality content that links to your first-tier backlinks. This is because content that is of high quality will enhance the article it is placed within, and not stand out as an addition for SEO purposes.
In order to build a successful tiered link building campaign you'll have to invest in producing quality content and using tools such as RankerX or GSA. However, the time and money involved in manually executing an effort to build a tiered link can be worth it terms of the improved rankings that result from having a well-structured backlink pyramid.
Second-Tier Links
Tiered link building is designed for users to navigate external pages and eventually get to your website. To achieve this, it's important to choose second-tier backlink sources that are relevant to your website and industry. Blog posts from guest bloggers are more effective in this regard than account profiles because they provide valuable content that users will want to consume.
You should be cautious about using tier-2 links on forums or other low quality sites. Instead, you should use high-quality pages, such as industry news or guest articles. These links will appear more natural and will have a greater impact on your search engine rank. They're also more likely to be recognized as having been able to pass link equity by Google and can boost the value of their ranking in SERPs.
If you're planning to create tier 2 links with the intention of increasing your SEO rankings, you need to be aware that it is difficult to obtain these kinds of high-quality backlinks by hand. It could take months to solicit guest blog posts from first-tier publishers and even longer to wait for them to be published. In addition, it can take weeks to see the outcomes of your efforts when it comes to getting new traffic and online conversions.
Alternatively, many SEOs turn to automated tools to help them create links of second-tier. However, this approach could be in violation of Google's Webmaster guidelines and could result in an infringement.
Third-Tier Links
This level is home to a huge number of links, some of which are considered to be spammy. They are published on social media platforms and on user-generated content websites such as Quora. They help with the indexing of tier two links however, they don't transfer any link equity to the resource promoted. Generally, these are nofollow links. In this stage, marketers focus more on quantity than quality. They use tools to share an numerous links on forums, in the comment sections of blog articles and posts directories, as well as other similar places. This is where tiered link construction becomes a gray area and violates Google's webmaster guidelines.
Tiered link-building strategies require an enormous amount of time and effort to succeed. It can take weeks or even months to get Google to crawl a single backlink, and after that it could take weeks or even months to notice a significant SEO impact. Therefore, marketers should be patient and employ an efficient content strategy.
Additionally marketers should be cautious about using excessive automation tools for this type of linking. These tools could violate the rules of search engine optimization and lead to penalties. It is preferential to manually select and post links on relevant donor websites instead of using automated services such as GSA or RankerX. This will stop search engines from penalizing your promotion for low-quality links.
Fourth-Tier Links
Tiered link building continues to be a popular technique for increasing higher rankings for websites. Since Google has been making major efforts to eliminate "black-hat" SEO techniques, tiered link building methods have been slowed down.
They are considered to be gray-hat SEO techniques and may be penalized for their artificial use. Tiered links are backlinks created on various levels of a pyramid. The primary function of these backlinks is to boost the rank of a resource promoted in search engine results. The web page that is promoted will be more prominent than the competition and will get more organic traffic.
The quality of backlinks on this tier takes an immediate plunge and they are generally nofollow. This category may also contain low-quality directories, article networks and social media profiles. These links can be built in a natural way or through strategic automation tools. However they should be distinct in terms of niches, domains and relevance.
These backlinks, besides being low-quality and not followable, can also cause issues in the event here that they aren't sufficiently diverse. Google has a group of hound dogs that are highly trained and constantly search for patterns and strategies within backlink profiles. If these patterns are discovered they could trigger an infringement not only for the link-building group, but also for its clients.