Tiered Link Building: 4 Benefits, Risks and Tactics That Work
Jul 11, 2025
Tiered link building is a strategy that creates backlinks for your backlinks, building layers of support that raise the power of your most valuable connections. Instead of letting your premium links stand alone, you create supporting structures that channel additional authority through them.
Similarly, websites like Forbes maintain a domain rating of 94/100 and pull in over 74 million organic visitors monthly. Google considers these backlink profiles among the most important ranking factors.
You can diversify your backlink profile by generating links from various sources, creating a more natural-looking link structure. This blog explains exactly how tiered link building works, its benefits, and the risks you should avoid.
What Is Tiered Link Building?
Tiered link building creates backlinks for your backlinks. Instead of building links directly to your website, you create multiple layers of interconnected links that work together to boost your site's authority.
Picture a pyramid with your website at the top. Each layer below represents a different tier of backlinks supporting the layers above:
Tier 1: High-quality, authoritative backlinks pointing directly to your website
Tier 2: Supporting links pointing to your Tier 1 pages
Tier 3: Volume-based links pointing to your Tier 2 pages
How It Differs from Traditional Link Building
Traditional link building focuses on getting direct backlinks to your website. Each link stands alone in contributing to your site's authority. Whereas, a tiered link building strategy creates an ecosystem of interconnected links.
This approach strategically channels link equity through multiple levels, creating a more diverse backlink profile. The cost difference is important. Traditional link building requires considerable investment for each quality link. Whereas, tiered link building allows you to use lower-cost links at lower tiers to amplify your premium Tier 1 connections.
What is The Concept of Link Equity?
Link equity, formerly known as "link juice," represents the search engine ranking value passed from one page to another through links. This value flows through your tiered structure, strengthening each level along the way.
When a high-authority page links to another page, it passes authority through that followed link. As this link juice flows through the tiers, Tier 3 links boost Tier 2, which enhances Tier 1, ultimately increasing the authority passed to your main site.
Breaking Down the Tiers: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
Think of tiered link building like a pyramid. Your website sits at the top, and each level below supports the one above it. Each tier has a specific job in channelling authority to your site. Here's how the three tiers work together:
Tier 1: High-authority backlinks to your site
Tier 1 links are your premium connections, pointing directly to your website. These must come from authoritative sources that search engines trust. We're talking about websites with domain ratings above 90, like HubSpot (DA92), Forbes (DA94), or Search Engine Land (DA91). These are the links that improve rankings. These links should appear naturally within relevant, unique content, as editorial placement carries significantly more weight.
Tier 2: Supporting links to Tier 1 pages
Tier 2 links don't point to your website. Instead, they point to the pages that contain your Tier 1 links. Their job is to boost the authority of those Tier 1 connections. These don't need to be as high-quality as your Tier 1 connections, but they still need reasonable relevance and authority. Common Tier 2 sources include:
Personal blogs
Quality directories
Web 2.0 platforms
Press releases
Article directories
Tier 3: Volume-based links to Tier 2
Tier 3 forms the base of your pyramid. These links point to your Tier 2 content, and quantity becomes more important than quality. You might need as many as 1,000 Tier 3 links for each Tier 2 backlink to create a meaningful impact. That sounds like a lot because it is. Tier 3 sources typically include:
Social media platforms
Forum posts
Blog comments
Social bookmarks
Low-authority directories
4 Benefits of Tiered Link Building
When executed properly, tiered link building delivers several powerful advantages that transform your SEO performance. Here's what makes this strategy worth considering:
1. Boosts the power of your best backlinks
Your expensive Tier 1 links become stronger through strategic support. When you create supporting layers of links pointing to your top-tier connections, you incrementally pass link equity through multiple levels.
This creates a multiplier effect where authority flows from Tier 3 to Tier 2, then amplifies your Tier 1 links before reaching your site. Instead of relying solely on the direct authority from one high-cost link, you're channelling authority from dozens or even hundreds of supporting connections.
2. Improves indexing and crawlability
Search engines discover your content faster when you create clear pathways for crawlers to follow. This structured network enhances the visibility and crawlability of each backlink in your profile. Many link builders report that tiered indexing provides a strong crawl path, increasing the likelihood that your backlinks get indexed and stay indexed.
3. Creates a more natural backlink profile
Real websites earn links to various pages, which then link to other relevant content across the web. Tiered link building mimics this organic pattern by creating a web-like network of directly and indirectly related backlinks.
This approach helps you build diversity with links from various sources: high-authority websites, social media platforms, discussion forums, and more. Search engines prefer this natural linking pattern over obvious link schemes.
4. Reduces direct risk to your main site
With two or three degrees of separation between your website and potentially risky lower-tier links, your main site stays safer. Even if Google points problematic links at the lower tiers, it becomes much harder to establish a direct connection to your site.
This protection allows you to supplement your link equity with connections that might otherwise attract search engine penalties. Your site gets the authority boost without the direct risk exposure.
Risks and Challenges You Should Know
Tiered link strategy comes with risks that could damage your SEO efforts if you're not careful. Understanding these challenges is important before investing time and money into building complex link structures.
Google penalties for manipulative patterns: Google’s guidelines state that "any links intended to manipulate PageRank will lead to ranking drops or complete removal from search results.
Low ROI if not executed properly: Building multiple tiers of links requires investment with no guarantee of returns. Even after indexing, the impact on your Tier 1 links might not show up for up to a year.
Overuse of automation and spun content: SEOs turn to automation tools like GSA or RankerX to generate thousands of lower-tier links quickly. This creates identifiable patterns that Google can easily spot. Similarly, spun content uses synonyms and paraphrases to create "unique" versions, producing low-quality material that risks penalties.
Footprint issues and unnatural link patterns: Creating a believable backlink profile takes careful planning. Footprints occur when your link-building efforts follow obvious patterns like using only guest posts or maintaining identical anchor text distribution across all links.
4 Smart Tactics That Work
Tiered link building isn't the only way to build authority for your website. If the complexity and risks seem overwhelming, or you want to diversify your approach, several proven strategies can deliver excellent results with less hassle.
1. Guest posting for Tier 1 links: Guest blogging is reliable for securing high-quality backlinks.
Create valuable content for relevant websites in your niche, showcasing your expertise while earning authoritative links that search engines trust.
Research target publications in your industry
Study their content style and audience preferences
Pitch unique, valuable topics they haven't covered
Follow their submission guidelines exactly
2. Use HARO for natural mentions: Help a Reporter Out (HARO) connects subject matter experts with journalists seeking insights for their stories.
This platform can help you earn natural backlinks from prestigious publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and Newsweek.
The process works through daily email digests containing journalist queries that you can respond to with your expertise.
Explore alternatives like Qwoted, Featured (formerly Terkel), PressPlugs, and Help a B2B Writer.
3. Creating linkable assets like infographics: Linkable assets form sustainable link building.
These content pieces attract backlinks because they provide genuine value that others want to reference.
Create detailed guides that become go-to resources
Add original research studies with unique data
Use infographics that explain complex concepts visually
Use interactive tools and calculators
4. Broken link building as a strategy: Broken link building turns website maintenance issues into link opportunities.
The process involves finding broken links on relevant websites, creating replacement content, and suggesting your resource as an alternative.
Find broken links using tools like Check My Links and Dead Link Checker.
Research the original content using the Wayback Machine.
Create superior replacement content on your site.
Reach out to the website owner with a helpful solution.
Wrapping Up Tiered Link Building
Tiered link building offers advantages, from amplifying your premium connections to creating backlink profiles that look more natural to search engines. If you're just starting with link building, focus on simpler approaches first. Guest posting, HARO outreach, and creating valuable content that naturally attracts links will serve you better.
These methods carry less risk and often deliver more predictable results. However, if you already have a solid link-building foundation and the resources to execute tiered strategies properly, it could amplify your existing efforts. Search engines reward websites that earn their authority through helpful content and legitimate relationships.
FAQ
What is tier link building?
Tiered link building is a strategy used in SEO where backlinks are created in a hierarchical structure to amplify link equity (ranking power) to your main site.
What are the three types of backlinks?
Three types of backlinks are:
Natural Backlinks: Earned organically when others link to your content because it’s valuable.
Manual Backlinks: Built through deliberate outreach or submissions.
Self-Created Backlinks: Made by adding your link in forums, comments, directories, or profile bios.
How to build Tier 2 links?
These links point to your Tier 1 backlinks, not your site directly. Here are ways to build them:
Social Shares: Share Tier 1 links on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.
Web 2.0 Blogs: Create mini blogs on platforms like Medium, Blogger, WordPress.com.
Social Bookmarking: Use sites like Mix, Scoop.it, or Pocket to bookmark Tier 1 links.
Forum/Comment Links: Comment on relevant forums or blogs and reference your Tier 1 link when relevant.