Tiered link building, explained for agencies that resell links
Tier 2 is the most oversold idea in the trade. It can make sense in narrow cases, but most small client budgets do better spent on tier 1.
Our view
Spend on tier 1 first, tier 2 only with a reason
Tier 1 links point at the client's page. Tier 2 links point at the pages carrying those tier 1 links. For a retainer under a few hundred dollars, the second layer rarely earns its cost.
- Tier 2 helps tier 1 pages get discovered and seen. It does not make a weak page strong.
- Pointing low-quality links at a placement can taint what you built.
- No reseller can prove what a tier 2 link did, so do not sell it as a line item with a promised effect.
What the layers mean
Tier 1 is the placement on a donor site, with a link to your client. Tier 2 links to that placement. Tier 3 links to tier 2, and so on, down a chain nobody can fully see.
People build the second layer for two reasons. One is to help the first-layer page get crawled and indexed. The other is to pass extra strength through it to the client site, which is where abuse crept in.
The first reason is sound and cheap to test: if a placement is not indexed after a few weeks, one extra link to it may help. The second reason attracted cheap spam aimed at the first layer, and that pattern is what Google's systems target. Be selective.
A quality tier 2 link is a normal editorial link, not a blast of automated links. The marketplace is built for individual, vetted placements, so it can cover both layers, but we would not use it for bulk volume.
For a reseller the question is practical: where does the next $100 do the most? Usually on another relevant tier 1 placement, as the margin tables show for typical retainers.
Dates behind the debate
Penguin launches
Google began targeting link schemes with a named update, and tiered spam became risky.
Penguin 4.0
Penguin became part of the core algorithm and worked in real time, mostly devaluing spam instead of demoting whole sites.
rel sponsored and ugc
Google introduced rel=sponsored and rel=ugc next to nofollow, and began treating them as hints.
SpamBrain link spam update
Google used its AI-based SpamBrain system to neutralise unnatural links.
Core and spam updates
Google announced stronger spam policies, including scaled content abuse.
A cautious way to test tier 2
- 1
Wait for the first layer
Give a tier 1 placement a few weeks. Check whether the page is indexed.
- 2
Fix the cheap causes
Add an internal link from a relevant page and make sure the page is not blocked.
- 3
Add one quality link
A single, relevant placement pointing to the tier 1 page. Note the date.
- 4
Measure the page, not the rank
Look at indexing and referral data for the tier 1 URL. Stop if nothing changes, and write the result in the monthly report.
Tier questions
- What is tier 2 link building?
- It is building links to the pages that already link to your client, rather than to the client's own site. The aim is to strengthen or help discover the first-layer page. Results vary, and Google gives no guarantees either way.
- Is tiered link building safe?
- Not automatically. Done with a few relevant, editorial links it is low-profile. Done with automated volume it matches patterns Google's spam systems were built to catch. Keep tiers shallow and quality high.
- Should I charge clients extra for tier 2?
- Only if you can describe the work and its limits in the scope. Bundling it as a vague extra invites disputes. Many agencies just fold one or two supporting links into the package cost.
- Can I do tier 2 with this marketplace?
- You can point a placement's target URL at any page, including a donor page that carries your tier 1 link. Do it sparingly and keep each link to a real, relevant article.