Does Tiered Link Building Still Work in 2024?

Getting backlinks from big names like Forbes or HubSpot takes a lot of work. We’re talking about a lot of time and effort.

Getting backlinks from big names like Forbes or HubSpot takes a lot of work. We’re talking about a lot of time and effort.

🔗 Related article: How Many Backlinks Do I Need to Rank

The alternative?

Tiered link-building.

But does this strategy still hold up in 2024?

Let's explore how tiered link-building can boost your content's search engine rankings and its pros and cons.

TL;DR

Tiered link-building is like creating a pyramid of backlinks leading to your site.

• Tier 1: High-quality links from top-tier sites like HubSpot or Forbes that link directly to your main site;
• Tier 2: Links pointing to your Tier 1 links, helping to boost their power without linking directly to your site;
• Tier 3: These come from social media posts, blog comments, or forums. They might be nofollow links but they drive traffic and visibility to your Tier 2 links.

Some SEOs even add a fourth tier with links from index submission sites or URL shorteners, though these are often less effective.

The Good Stuff:

The biggest benefit of link building through the tiered method is the extra link juice it sends to your site. This approach can make even lower-quality backlinks work in your favor, boosting your overall site authority.

The Risks:

Tiered link-building can look spammy to search engines, risking penalties. Plus, it’s still costly and time-consuming to set up and maintain, often with short-lived benefits. Tracking the impact of these links can also be tricky.

What Is Tiered Link-Building?

So tiered link-building is a smart SEO strategy where you build a pyramid of backlinks to boost your website’s authority and rankings.

Instead of linking directly to your main site, you create multiple layers of links that support each other.

Here’s how it works:

Tier 1: Start with high-quality links from top sites like Search Engine Land. Just like we did with our guest post on outsourcing link building. These link directly to your main site.

Tier 2: Then, build links to these Tier 1 links. This boosts their power without linking directly to your site.

Tier 3: Finally, add another layer of links pointing to your Tier 2 links. These can come from social media, blog comments, or forums. They drive traffic and make your Tier 2 links more effective.

The idea is to create a flow of “link juice” that trickles down to your main site, boosting its SEO. Think of it as a rising tide lifting all boats. When your Tier 2 links improve, they help your Tier 1 links, and in turn, your main site benefits.

As Steven J. Wilson, an SEO Specialist and Consultant, puts it:

The saying “the rising tide raises all ships” is a way to think of it. If you build tier 2 links to a site and it gets higher rankings and generates more organic links and real organic traffic, then some of those benefits will pass on to your page.

Tiered link-building leverages the competitive edge in link-building.

For example, according to our recent survey of 113 SEO experts, 92% of them believe their competitors buy links, making it a tough playing field.

But with tiered link-building, you’re not just keeping up; you’re creating a structured strategy that maximizes the impact of each link.

So, while this strategy is complex and requires effort, the potential rewards make it a compelling strategy for those looking to boost their SEO in a competitive market.

Link Tiers

The idea behind tiered link-building is straightforward: as you go down the tiers, the quality of the backlinks decreases, but their quantity increases.

Tier 1 links

Tier 1 links are your top-shelf quality backlinks. They come from well-known and authoritative sites in your industry, like HubSpot (DA93), Forbes (DA94), or G2 (DA90). At Editorial.Link, we build such links every day. So be our guests!

These high-quality links can significantly enhance your SEO performance because Google sees them as a stamp of approval. If trusted sites link to your content, it’s a strong signal that your information is reliable.

To get these prime links, you often use strategies like link insertions, HARO (now part of Connectively), and guest posts.

For example, we managed to secure a guest post on Search Engine Land, a highly respected digital publication focused on SEO with a domain authority of 91, linking back to Editorial.Link.

Tier 2 Links

Tier 2 links support your Tier 1 links. They don’t link directly to your main site but to your Tier 1 links instead.

Their job is to enhance the authority of your Tier 1 links, making them more effective in passing link equity to your main site.

For instance, our guest post on Search Engine Land about the best link-building companies has been linked to 45 times by 43 different domains.

While a high-quality guest post can attract organic backlinks, you might still need to build some Tier 2 links manually to give your campaign an extra push.

The good news is these links are generally cheaper and easier to obtain than Tier 1 links since they come from less authoritative sites.

These sites usually have lower editorial standards, so creating the content costs less.

Just like with Tier 1 links, you can use guest posts and link inserts to get Tier 2 links. Look at personal blogs, directories, quality PBNs, article directories, other websites, publishing platforms like Medium.com, press releases, and other web 2.0 content as sources.

Pro Tip: Seek opportunities to build Tier 2 links organically

When writing a guest post with a Tier 1 link to your site, try to include Tier 2 backlinks to other Tier 1 posts you’ve written.

Or, you can exchange links with a partner’s page in return for a similar link from them.

Aim for 5-10 Tier 2 backlinks for each Tier 1 link.

Tier 3 Links

Tier 3 links come from profiles, forums (like Quora or Reddit), blog comments, social media posts, and directories. They’re meant to support your Tier 2 links.

These third-tier links are usually nofollow, so they don’t pass link juice, but they still hold value.

Google uses link attributes as hints about whether to include a page in search results.

📌 All link attributes—sponsored, UGC, and nofollow—are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. We'll use these hints—along with other signals—as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems.

Tier 3 links can increase your site’s visibility and generate referral traffic, leading to organic backlinks.

For these links to be effective, you need a lot of them. Like thousands.🚨 Although not recommended, many people use automated link-building services like GSA or RankerX. After a quick setup, these tools literally churn out backlinks around the clock.

Tier 4 links

Some SEOs go the extra mile by adding a fourth tier, using bookmarking sites, index submission site links, or URL shorteners. Think of these as the crowd of acquaintances that give a little nudge to boost your friends (the higher-tier links) rather than directly helping you out.

They’re often easy to get and plentiful, but they don’t pack much punch individually.

Are they worth your time?

Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, Tier 4 links can add some value by reinforcing the tiers above them. It’s like building a sturdy base for your SEO pyramid.

However, their impact is often minimal.

These links are generally low-quality and might not pass much SEO juice. In some cases, they could even do more harm than good if they’re seen as spammy or manipulative by Google.

Benefits of Tiered Link Building

Now that we’ve covered the basics and some practical aspects of tiered link-building, let's have a quick look at the main advantages of this approach.

More bang for your buck

Tiered link-building lets you get more link juice for your main site without breaking the bank. It’s cheaper to create lower-tier links than top-tier ones, allowing you to maximize your resources.

Lower risk exposure

One big plus of tiered link-building is that it shields your main site from the potential downsides of lower-quality links. These links don’t point directly to your main site or your Tier 1 links. Even if Google notices something fishy, it’s less likely to trace back to you.

The best part? If a particular link set starts causing trouble, you can easily cut it off without damaging the whole network.

Room for experimentation

With the protective layers of Tier 2 and Tier 3 links, you can try out different link types and tactics without major risks. This buffer allows you to experiment and see what works best for your SEO without worrying too much about immediate negative impacts.

Diverse link-profile

A solid link profile isn’t uniform. It’s made up of various types of links from different sources, with a mix of dofollow and nofollow tags.

By the way, to identify whether a site builds links naturally or sells them, try our Link Type Classifier. This tool analyzes up to 1,000 URLs at a time, helping you discern which sites earn their links organically, like we do at Editorial.Link.

All in all, tiered link-building helps create this natural diversity, giving your link profile a more organic feel.

Downsides of Tiered Link Building

While tiered link-building has its perks, it’s not all sunshine and roses. Here are some drawbacks to keep in mind.

Penalties

Despite the layers of protection, tiered link-building can still backfire. It’s essentially a strategy designed to manipulate your site’s ranking, and search engines like Google frown upon this:

📌 Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Search Essentials. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.

Modern algorithms are good at spotting unnatural patterns. For example, if you rely heavily on guest posts for backlinks on similar sites or build links too quickly, it creates an obvious footprint.

Steven J. Wilson, SEO Specialist and Consultant, advises:

One common issue is that you build links too quickly. There should be a natural progression. If your site has been around and all of a sudden it generates dozens of links to a page and sites that link to that page, Google can recognize that pattern and devalue all those links, which will not benefit you at all.

How can you avoid it?

Develop a natural cadence. Don’t send links to your page and tiers in one go. Make sure your page, and the pages where you plan to put your tiered links are getting impressions and a couple of clicks. A page that’s not indexed would not likely get natural links so keep that in mind. Play a longer game when building tiered links.

Opportunity cost

Building links, whether high or low quality, requires time and money. Setting up and maintaining a complex link structure can be expensive. You might need advanced monitoring tools to keep track of everything.

Since most links in your pyramid don’t point directly to your site, you might wonder if the investment is worth it. You could potentially spend these resources on securing more direct editorial links or link insertions that already carry link juice.

Short-term effect

That’s why it’s generally agreed that tier link-building can only generate short-term results.

In some situations, this might be exactly what you need. For example, it can help you get the initial momentum when entering a new market.

However, if you’re after a sustainable process that will benefit your site in the long run, this is not the way to go.

That’s because the SE algorithms will catch up sooner or later and it’s hard to maintain such a complex structure forever.

Hard to track the impact

Assuming that link-building is not the only thing you’re doing to improve the SERP performance of your content, it’s hard to attribute the positive changes to acquired backlinks.

And that’s just one tier. What if you have 2, 3, or more tiers?

It’s especially the case that it takes quite a bit of time for any results to show. While it takes 2-6 weeks for the effects of regular link-building campaigns to start showing, it’s going to be considerably more if the link juice has to make its way up the tiers.

Frequently Asked Questions About Tiered Link Building

What is tiered link building?

Tiered link building is when you build links to your backlinks. The idea is to boost the authority of those primary links (the ones pointing to your site) so your site gets a bigger SEO boost. It’s like stacking layers of support.

How does tiered link building work?

Here’s the breakdown:

• Tier 1 links go directly to your website.
• Tier 2 links point to your Tier 1 links to make them stronger.
• Tier 3 links then back up those Tier 2 links.

This creates a chain of link equity that funnels to your site.

Is tiered link building a white hat or black hat strategy?

Mostly grey hat. When tiered link building involves low-quality or spammy links, it violates search engine rules and risks penalties. If done carefully with high-quality links, it lands in a gray area—but it’s tricky to get right.

What types of links are used in the second and third tiers?

Second-tier links are usually mid-level ones like from Web 2.0 platforms or niche blogs, aimed at supporting your Tier 1 links. Third-tier links tend to be lower-quality, coming from places like forum posts, blog comments, or even social media profiles.

Is tiered link building safe for SEO?

Not really. It’s risky, and search engines don’t like manipulative linking schemes. If they catch on, your rankings could tank—or worse, your site could get deindexed. Focus on quality over shortcuts for long-term success.

Are there alternatives to tiered link building?

Absolutely! You can:

• Create content that naturally attracts links.
• Guest blog on reputable sites.
• Use HARO to connect with journalists for backlinks.
• Build partnerships and relationships in your industry for organic links.

These white hat strategies are safer, more sustainable, and keep you in good standing with search engines.

Final Words

Tiered link-building used to be a popular link-building strategy because it allowed SEOs to quickly boost the performance of their sites in no time.

However, the current reality is more complex.

Search engine algos have evolved, and for this approach to work, you need to build quality links to T1 sites with decent metrics:

Considering how much effort it takes, you might as well spend your time and money developing relationships, growing your topical authority and building links via different methods, like editorial links.

Having said that there’s no reason not to exploit opportunities to build tier 2 links when an ‘organic’ opportunity presents itself.

Do you need help building a healthy and natural backlink profile for your site? Contact the Editorial Link team?