Second-Tier Links. The Black Sheep of Link Building

Have you ever tried tiered linking?

For the uninitiated, tiered linking is when you share content that has links to a post with links to your website.

That sounds a bit confusing, isn’t it?

Say, for example, that A has links to your client’s website. You create a social media post, B, with links to A. You then go on to make another post with links to B.

Link Building is a valid strategy to increase authority, whereas tiered linking may have its problems.

This isn’t to say that tiered links don’t deliver. They absolutely do. But if you don’t take care, things can quickly go south.

In this article, I have only discussed second-tier links because you run the risk of getting penalized by Google if you go above second-tier linking.

 

What Are Second-Tier Links?

As said earlier, tiered linking is when you create posts or websites with the intention of linking to posts that have links to your actual website.

First-tier links are the links you find in posts (social media or blogs) that redirect the visitor to your website.

Second-tier links boost first-tier links. These are the links that point to pages with links to your website, aka first-tier links.

You can find second-tier links in just about anything, from social media posts, articles, and emails to directories and forums.

So, what benefit do second-tier links provide?

The main advantage of second-tier links is that they improve your website’s backlink profile. A better backlink profile increases the authoritativeness of your website. The more domain authority your website has, the better its search ranking.

And finally, a better search ranking means more visibility, which means increased traffic.

This is why you shouldn’t ignore second-tier links when building a backlink profile.

Tiered linking follows the concept of link equity, which is explained below.

Link Equity

When one webpage links to another, some of the first page’s authority is passed on to the second page. This is called link equity.

In simple terms, when page A links to page B, page B gets some of page A’s authority.

This is why marketers go after websites with high domain authority (DA) to build a website’s backlink profile.

Another name for link equity is “link juice,” since the DA flows from one page to another, improving the rankings of everything along the way.

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the ideal spots to place second-tier links.

 

Guest Posts

Guest posts are created for two reasons alone: one, to post your links, and two, to educate visitors on a certain topic.

Guest posts are the most commonly used tools when it comes to link building. You find a website relevant to your niche, request that they post an article with a link to your website, and, if they agree, post an article with a link back to your website.

You can also promote your guest posts this way. Just create additional posts that link back to your original guest post with a link to your website.

 

Secondary Website

You can place links to your main website on your secondary website(s). In other words, just create a blog post on your secondary website and include a link to your primary website.

You must also make sure that the websites that link to your primary website belong to the same niche, as Google will find it fishy if your website has multiple backlinks from sites that are irrelevant to your niche.

 

Social Bookmark Links

Social bookmarking is a phenomenon where websites have dedicated, organized forums for discussions and resource sharing. Social bookmarking sites allow visitors to engage with people with similar interests or professions.

Social bookmarking websites are great for sharing your second-tier links, considering the exorbitant number of people who use them.

 

Social Media

Just a heads up, social media links are nofollow, meaning they don’t contribute anything in terms of SEO.

But links in social media posts are great for one thing, exposure. They’re great at promoting guest posts with first- and second-tier links.

And, on top of that, social media links also help Google index content better.

 

Link Exchanges

It is exactly what it sounds like. Link exchanges are when two websites agree to link to each other with the objective of improving SEO rankings.

Google guidelines have given the green light for link exchanges, but only to a certain extent.

The link exchange strategy is great for second-tier links since you won’t directly link your website but to a post with the link, considerably reducing the chances of a Google penalty.

 

Forums

Forums are private, heavily moderated, and come with their own set of rules. The reason I say this is because if you’re directly promoting a post with your link, the moderators will flag you. Even if the moderators miss it, the members will report you.

At times like this, second-tier links are a lifesaver. Because, you’re not directly linking your website.

Another thing to keep in mind when posting in forums is relevance. Post your second-tier links on relevant forums, as most forums have strict rules against spamming and self-promotion.

Now that you’ve read what you can (or should) do, here are a few things you shouldn’t do.

 

Link Schemes

A Link Scheme is a strategy where marketers create websites, relationships, and processes for backlinking.

This is problematic because the websites that link to your pages don’t have any other purpose. They’re there only to post your links.

Also, Google penalizes websites that are involved in link schemes.

 

Relevance

Although Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are important factors to measure the strength of a website’s backlinks, you can’t ignore relevance.

Google will find out if your website has multiple links from websites that are outside your niche. And when that happens, your website will be handed a Google Manual Penalty.

 

Spamming

Spamming is, was, and will never be a good strategy for anything, especially SEO. That’s why it’s recommended to include links to your original post just once in your secondary post.

Take the case of email. You’re using an email for second-tier link building and have mentioned the links twice; Gmail will happily group your email under the promotions tab.

 

To wrap things up, link building is a viable strategy for SEO. Not only does it contribute to better website traffic, but it also improves your page and domain authority.

Just like every other thing, there are ways to speed up the process for quick results. But their consequences make them not worth it.

Second-tier links are something like that. Use it just the right amount, and you’re fine. Abuse it and face the consequences.

When executed correctly, second-tier links can do a world of good for your primary website, both in terms of traffic and ranking.

Expert Tricks and Tips: Link Building Resources and Strategies of 2023

 

Ranking on the first page of a search engine without effective backlinks is extremely challenging. That’s one of the main reasons link building is important in order to increase search visibility and organic traffic for digital marketers and businesses. Link building is well-known to increase the number of visitors to your website through SERP ranking, as it allows the search engines to decide if your content is reliable and relevant. There are several link-building strategies that you can use to create high-quality backlinks, and you can make use of off-page SEO techniques such as Image Submission, Blog commenting, and video submission to develop backlinks.

Are you ever looking for secret tips, tricks, and expert insights for link building? Have you ever wanted to improve your rankings and domain authority? If you ever decided to create authoritative backlinks for your site, then keep reading this blog post to know about link building completely, why it is necessary, what type of links to create and how, and which tools can support you in enhancing effectiveness and get more backlinks in 2023.

Here, we have given you the information that will help you learn the link-building tactics, how they works, and how to implement them on your website.

 

What exactly is Link Building?

Link building is a method of getting hyperlinks (backlinks) from other authoritative websites and related sites. The main objective is to notify Google that your website is a reliable information source and make sure that your web pages rank higher on the SERP for related keywords.

 

Take a look at white-hat link building strategies and tips below:

Here, we are going to discuss some of the most organic and effective link building strategies that help you speed up the receiving backlinks process on a regular basis. A great way to do so is to ensure the visibility of your website’s content.

 

Begin with Keyword Research:

Keyword Research may seem basic, even though suppose you need others to see your content and link to it, then you should have to gather what keywords people may regularly search on Google. Generally, professionals use premium tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush to find relevant keywords. Free tools like Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner are also available to get the relevant keywords. Using long-tail keywords will help you rank better and add more value.

 

Include Keywords in the Anchor Text:

Doing backlinks for your website is the most important thing ever. It is essential to ensure that while you create links to your site, you should have to add the keywords in the anchor text. So, the hyperlinked text leads to your content. It enhances your website’s relevancy. Moreover, it also ranks higher on Google and other search engines. It improves the chances of other websites linking to your web pages, resources, and articles.

 

Do Link Building Regularly:

Link building is a necessary criteria for your SEO strategy. Whether you are expecting an outstanding outcome, then it is essential to do the link building on a regular basis. After you begin developing your link portfolio, your website will improve and reach the world. Most professionals use special SEO tools to enhance their link portfolio effectively and quickly. For instance, Sitechecker is a familiar tool that allows you to get more backlinks and perform a detailed analysis of your backlink portfolio. Therefore, your site will get more links and rank higher.

 

Create Links from Related Websites:

You have to concentrate on the two main factors, which are as follows:

  1. How relevant is the article’s topic that you are linking to? It is essential that the sites you are linking to have content that is relevant to your site’s topic. Therefore, people clicking from those sites can easily understand why they are viewing content related to your site on their screens.
  2. How relevant should a website link to? You should check the topic’s relevance and also the domain authority of the website. So, it adds more value to the search engine of your site. By getting a higher DA, your link value will also be higher.

It is important to note that you should never add more paid links. Why? because Google penalizes sites that have too many paid links.

 

Build Visual Assets and Infographics:

Videos and infographics are always famous on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Because it can be easily inserted and easy to share into the websites and blog posts. In order to popularize your brand, then it is essential to build a video explaining a relevant topic or infographic.

Going behind the Infographics is an awesome option because they can be widely used on social media platforms and in blog posts. Additionally, they are understandable and easier to read. Simply put, it is necessary to ensure that the infographic includes the links back to your site.

 

Write Valuable Content:

Content marketing is an affordable option to create links for your website. It will effectively reach your message to the world. Whether you are looking to get more leads and revenue, then you should have to implement content marketing in your business plan. Your content relevance is important. When making the link building campaign, your content quality is essential. It is always necessary to publish content which is readable by the people. It is a crucial factor in the link building process.

 

Guest Posting:

Guest blogging is one of famous ways to gain links back to your site from all other relevant websites. The great thing about guest posting is that it does not need any programming skills or technical knowledge from your side. Simply choose a site that publishes content related to the topic and also mail them your article ideas. Suppose they like it and check for their audience benefits; they will post it on their website and share your credit for writing it. Generally, a normal website supports two backlinks for one article.

 

Outreach:

Outreach is the latest SEO link building technique that is used by new start-ups and leading companies like Google and Apple. In this process, you have to contact the relevant websites and request them to link your website or blog. Most SEO experts use the link building tool to identify their potential prospects and handle their link building campaigns.

 

Wrapping Up

We hope our article will help you learn the tips and tricks of link building. There are plenty of ways to create link building to your sites presently. If you want to implement link building, all you have to do is simply stay up-to-date on the link building strategies, tools, and methods.

 

10+ Link Building Promises You Can Expect From Us

Backlinks play a vital role in a website’s rank. And search rankings are essential for businesses to edge out the competition.

Building a backlinking profile isn’t difficult if you use strategies like private blog networks (PBNs), blog comment spamming, and cloaking. But here’s the catch: these are unethical black hat techniques and will have the opposite effect on your client’s website.

The ethical strategies, aka “White Hat methods,” take time and effort. This is something most businesses either don’t have or don’t give much preference to.

This is where the need for outsourcing arises. Outsourcing a business’ link building gives them the time and resources to concentrate on other essential tasks.

But not all digital marketing agencies are the same. Some use the aforementioned black hat techniques and can land your website in hot water.

As a white hat link building agency, Orange Outreach has stringent guidelines to meet your client’s expectations. There are 13 metrics in total. They are discussed in detail below.

High DA

Domain Authority (DA) is a score that rates how a website will be ranked in the search engine result pages (SERPs). These scores range from 0 to 100. Higher the score, higher the probability of your website ranking higher in the search results.
The DA score of a website increases as it gains more authoritative backlinks.
The DA of websites that Orange Outreach uses for your client’s website is 30 and above. This means that the lowest DA rating you can expect from Orange Outreach is 30, which is above average and is a sign of a reliable website.

High DR

Domain rating (DR) determines the strength of a website’s backlink profile. This metric goes from 0 to 100 and is pretty effective in determining whether a marketing strategy is producing the expected results or not.
Orange Outreach will ensure your client’s links are present on websites with a DR of over 30. This helps improve your client website’s backlink profile and its authoritativeness.

High Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is the traffic a website receives through unpaid means, such as search engine results. Apart from the obvious increase in footfalls, organic traffic is also scalable and improves the trustworthiness of a website.
Having Orange Outreach build your client’s backlinking profile comes with the advantage of including your client’s links on websites that have organic traffic of over 500. The value is calculated using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, which are reliable tools for website analysis.

High Referring Domains

A referring domain is an external website that links to your client’s website. It benefits your client’s website by directing traffic to it.
Alongside backlinks, Orange Outreach provides over 100 referring domains to your client’s website, increasing its reliability and authority in the SERPs.

Trust Flow 10+

Devised by Majestic, Trust Flow (TF) is the level of a website’s trustworthiness. This metric is calculated based on the quality of a website’s backlinks.
TF scores range from 1 to 100. Any score above 10 is considered preferable in terms of website authority, quality, and trustworthiness.
Orange Outreach will place your clients’ links on websites that have a TF rating of over 10. The more backlinks from a site with a high TF score, the higher your client website’s TF score will be.

Citation Flow 10+

Citation Flow (CF) is another metric from Majestic. Unlink TF, CF relies more on the popularity of a link on a website than its quality.
The CF score should be something between 0 and 100. CF scores are often used alongside TF scores. A ratio of 1 indicates that the links on the website are of high quality and influential.
Orange Outreach includes your client’s links on websites that have citation scores of over 10 and that are similar to TF scores. This ensures that the websites that hold your client’s links are not just influential but authoritative in their respective niches as well.

Low Spam Score

Spam Score determines how spammy a website is. A website’s spam score is essential to its trustworthiness. The more reliable a website, the more opportunities for backlinks it gets.
Moz takes 17 unique factors into consideration when calculating spam scores. Satisfying 3 of these 17 factors accounts for a good spam score. Meeting 6 of these factors results in an intermediate spam score, and anything above 10 is problematic.
Orange Outreach makes sure your client links are on websites with low spam scores, i.e., 3 out of 17. This accounts for high-quality backlinks, which, in turn, directly contribute to better rankings.

Niche Blogs

Niche blogs refer to blogs written for a specific geographical location or a specific category of people. These groups are also known as the target audience.
Finding blogs for categories that are not mainstream can be difficult. But that’s not the case with Orange Outreach.
Irrespective of your niche, you can find high-quality, plagiarism-free blogs for your links. This is a great way to increase traffic to your website and improve rankings in the SERPs.

No PBN Blogs

PBN stands for Private Blog Networks. The sole purpose of PBNs is to provide backlinks to other websites, trying to manipulate Google for better rankings.
Google considers PBNs as link spam, and it will have the opposite effect on your website.
Orange Outreach follows clean, white hat methods to build your backlinking profile without using unethical methods like PBNs.

3-Year-Old Domains

Domain age is vital in backlinking. What this means is that the longer a website has been online, the more credible it is.
Orange Outreach posts your links on websites that are at least 3 years old. This makes sure that the backlinks for your clients are from reliable, well-established websites that Google prefers over websites that are more recently registered.

Hosting Location Advantage

A blog’s hosting location becomes an important point when talking about the target audience. The average person prefers to trust local websites. “Local” here refers to the country the website is based in.


Orange Outreach understands this. That’s why 90% of the websites provided by Orange Outreach for your client’s backlinking profile are from the U.S. This means more trust in the websites and the data shared on them.

Blogs with Contact Information

A vital factor that distinguishes blogs that are from PBNs and those that are not is contact information. Blogs with additional data, like contact information and links to the writer’s or blogger’s social media handles, are genuine. Blogs from PBN will mask contact information to hide their identity.
The blogs in which Orange Outreach includes your client’s links will carry contact information to prove their authenticity.

No Link Farm Networks

A link farm is a shady tactic some marketers use to create a backlink catalog. In layman’s terms, these are sites that are created with the intention of creating backlinks between each other.

Google penalizes sites that use link farms by lowering their rank in the SERPs.
The backlinks you receive from Orange Outreach will be devoid of links from link farms. They rely on increasing your client website’s ranking, the clean, white hat way.

These 13 factors exist so that Orange Outreach can provide high-quality backlinks to your clients.

Additionally, Orange Outreach uses generic, branded anchor text over location-based ones to eliminate the chances of Google footprint penalties.
Though there are multiple strategies for link building, the ones that Orange Outreach follows are ethical and time-tested techniques that Google prefers. These strategies have produced results for countless clients and will continue to do so.

11 Awesome Link Building Strategies For 2023 

So, you finally got a website for your business up and running. It’s been a few months, and isn’t performing as expected. In fact, it isn’t performing at all. Odds are, you don’t have any backlinks to your website. Building high-quality links isn’t easy, but it isn’t difficult either. After all, impossible says I’m possible. Here are some link building strategies that come with our Tested, OK seal.

 

Keyword Research 

A good way that others (not just people from your target audience) could find your blog is to add keywords. Note that keywords need to be relevant to the blog, and they shouldn’t feel forced when someone is reading the content. Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Uberuggest are quite handy to find popular keywords. Another tip is to add keywords to your anchor texts. The more relevant the content is, the higher it appears in the search engine. The higher it appears in the search engine results, the more people from your niche will want to link to it. 

 

Find Your Mentions 

Based on how big or useful your brand is, someone on the internet may be talking about it. The trick here is to find out the places where your brand has been mentioned and ask them to link your website.  That sounds a bit too simple. Chances are, people have forgotten they mentioned your brand, so the response time to these requests may vary. Practice patience while waiting for a response, and don’t be pushy with the follow-ups. 

 

Write To Your Strengths 

Identify your niche and target audience and stick to them. Some research about your target audience could go a long way in identifying what’s currently trending. Writing content relevant to your target audience opens opportunities for relevant links to and from your website. 

 

Create Testimonials 

This is a rather simple strategy to build links. Just write positive testimonials on products and services that you use. You just have to create a list of the products/services you use and reach out to them, 

stating your willingness to post a testimonial. You could also ask the brand to draft a testimonial on your behalf. (Some brands do that) The product/service will post your testimonial on their website along with your name and brand. Some websites post your testimonials and include a “Learn More” button that redirects the visitor to your website. Some brands also share testimonials on their social media handles. 

 

Use The Tools

First things first. You need to know where you currently stand before you start talking about action. Fortunately, there are tools for that. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools like Ahrefs and MOZ offer information that’s more than just about your backlinks. You also get to see additional details, like

  • Information on lost or broken backlinks
  • Domains that are linking to your competitor
  • The pages that are linked the most
  • Quality of backlinks pointing to your website
  • How your existing keywords are performing
  • New keyword suggestions

Hopefully, with all this data, you’d get a clear picture of the areas of your website that need attention.

 

You don’t have to be worried about SEO getting outdated. The future of SEO is bright, with Google updating its guidelines regularly to keep up with the ever-changing search trends.

 

Competitor Analysis

There’s no harm in checking out what your competitor is getting right and what you aren’t. Conduct a study on the types of posts your competitor has, their level of engagement, and other metrics to give you a general idea of what you must do. Also, don’t forget to run your competitors’ backlinks through SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to learn more about their strategy.

 

Guest Posting

Guest posting is among the most-used techniques for link building. It goes like this. You create a piece of content that is informative and has links to your website. You then publish this content on a website with high domain authority (DA). The posts can be anything, from simple how-to articles to interviews and explainers.

 

Internal Links

Internal linking is when one of your posts has a link to another post in the same domain. Meaning you are linking your webpages among the different webpages of your website. Is this effective? Of course, it is. Internal links are great at redirecting traffic and page authority to a particular page. Not just that, internal linking also helps Google discover new content and is a great tool to manipulate Google’s crawler.

 

Check for Broken Links

It helps to periodically check the backlinks that are pointing to your website. You may find one or two broken, either because the page was removed or due to other technical reasons. You can use a free Chrome extension called Check My Links to search for broken links.

 

 

Once you’ve found a broken link, the only thing left to do is to contact the page owner and inform them about the broken link. You can ask them to fix the original post or re-add a link to your website.

 

Crowdfunding & Organizing Events

People use crowdfunding when they have an idea but no money. You can use that to your advantage. Find people raising money for projects related to your niche and donate. You’ll be featured on their donors page with all your details, including a link to your website. Based on the donation amount, some projects may even publish details about your brand along with links to your website and social media handles. Another unique way to attract backlinks is to organize events related to your brand/niche. You can either host a sponsored event or sponsor an event in its entirety. Both options give you the opportunity to increase brand awareness.

 

Influencer Marketing

Irrespective of your opinion about influencers, using them as backlinking tools is a good strategy. All you have to do is mention an influencer, someone who discusses products or topics in your niche, in your article. They will be compelled to share the article with their followers even if you don’t contact them. It can be anything, from a simple mention saying that they were featured in an article to sharing the article link on their social media handles. This is a super-easy method to drive up website traffic and increase rankings.

Those were 11 of the easiest link building strategies you can follow with little to no knowledge of SEO. Some of the tools mentioned in the article are free to use as well. There are more link building strategies out there. Some ethical, some not so ethical. Remember that link building is more than just driving people to your website. You should always prioritize providing value to your readers/visitors and establishing trust with them.