Tiered Link Building with Guest Blogging
Posted by Ben Sibley on May 21, 2012 | 47 commentsTiered link building is synonymous with link spam. For those who don’t know, tiered link building is building backlinks to your backlinks. Usually these are low quality links such as profile links, social bookmarks, RSS links, and article directory links that lead to crappy web 2.0 properties which then link directly to the main website.
However, tiered link building can also be white-hat. For example, I didn’t build but rather naturally acquired a few very high quality tiered links from guest blogging.
I wrote a guest post on broken link building for Gab Goldenberg at SEO ROI a couple months ago which has since been linked to by SEOMoz here and Citation Labs here.
Another example, my post (2nd place woot!) for the recent SEO blogging contest held at My SEO Community was included in a SearchCap over at Search Engine Land.
What you may not think of right away is “tiered links”, but that’s exactly what they are. They are links to a page that is linking to my site, and there was absolutely no spam or software involved. While my site isn’t directly getting a link from SEO Moz, I’m still benefitting indirectly from it.
To put it in perspective, I would rather get one link to a guest post from the most popular SEO blog in the world than XX,XXX spam links
While I don’t have complete control over obtaining these links, it is not based on luck.
There is a strategy and it is very simple:
Create great content and get it visibility
Creating Great Content
Many webmasters started making “better” content to appeal to Google after Panda. For instance, including more images and writing longer posts because they think that’s what Google wants.
If you do this, you are writing for the search engines.
Websites don’t link to websites. People link to people. Write content for people and you will get links from them.
This doesn’t mean to ignore keywords and SEO altogether. Here are a few guest blogging tips to get even more SEO benefit from every post you write and publish.
Getting Your Content Visibility
A common worry that bloggers have is getting their best content published on other sites instead of theirs.
Here’s the way I see it:
1) I post content here that fits in with my site. I only publish posts about SEO – I will never do a “best wordpress themes” post here. Guest blogging gives me the opportunity to write & publish content on other websites that doesn’t quite fit in here.
2) I DO use some of my best content that would fit in here for guest posts. Why? Because I know it will get better visibility on a more popular website. This is a legitimate and tactical method for building brand awareness and receiving links from popular sites
I never would have received a link from Search Engine Land for example by publishing that same post here. SEO Discovery just isn’t popular enough yet to naturally acquire those links (at least for now… 
).
While the idea here is to naturally get these links, you can always build your second-tier links to guest posts.
Why not target a keyword with your guest post and get it ranked in Google? If you are publishing content on authoritative sites, they will rank very easily. With the help of some additional backlinking they can rank highly and send recurring traffic to your site.
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I think it’s similar to submitting articles to directories, when their are published by other sites. Taking into account that most article directories don’t have the same power as before, I think guest blogging is definitely a great opportunity to build valuable backlinks.
Jack Sander recently posted..Patio table plans
Hey Jack,
They’re similar, but the major difference in this case is the large, niche-focused visibility that a popular blog can get for your content.
I haven’t thought of this link building tactic before. I tried to avoid “tiered linking” at all costs but I guess when its done right it can actually benefit the website greatly. Writing what people see as “good content” is easier said than done though. Even if you write your best piece there is still no guarantees that it will be linked to by major websites or high ranking blogs.
You’re right about that, there aren’t any guarantees. That being said, you can vastly improve your odds of obtaining natural links by concentrating on providing the content your audience is yearning for and spending time improving your writing skills.
I am a new blogger and haven’t yet started guest posting. I am very confused as i wanted to write content for people but how search engines will find my content without SEO.
Zeeshan recently posted..10 Unique Free Ways To Get Traffic To a New Blog
Hey Zeeshan,
Don’t worry the search engines will find your content – that’s what they’re made to do
If you need help getting started with SEO you can check out my free SEO course. It should get you up to speed with the basics.
I think it’s a legit way to build links nowadays. As long as they’re relevant and the contents are good, I don’t see any problem with them.
Guest blogging is great way to reach new audience and build brand name, Of course blog owner has also benefits.
audrey abbey recently posted..Top 6 Local Link Building Tips for Australian Businesses
As an active guest blogger and a blogger who accepts guest posts I can verify this for sure. Both parties win with guest blogging.
Well done for Building links the Google-Natural way. Guest Blogging are one of the best ways to get a follow through link from a site with high authority – and the advantages of gust blogging is you can choose to approach a site (of the same market, Business or keywords driven) when wanting to blog for them, and can be idealistic for driving key targeted traffic to your website or Online Profile. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Anton Koekemoer recently posted..Using LinkedIn for social media marketing
Absolutely, thanks for stopping by to drop some knowledge Anton
Thank you for the tips regarding your link building tactic. From my experience as a new blogger who can write interesting/good contents, it was hard to approach other websites to become a guest blogger. What will you suggest the best way to become a guest blogger?
To start out with I would write for blogs that have a link in their nav bar for guest posting guidelines. These bloggers are openly advertising that they accept guest posts so you don’t have any convincing to do. As you grow your site and read other blogs in your niche, keep a list of who you’d like to write for and what kind of content would perform best on their site.
Well I for example don’t write guest posts for other websites, maybe because I am too lazy for that,but I allow guest posting in my blog. Anyway I still don’t know is it really a good idea to let someone to post something to your blog. Ben, what do you think about that? As an expert I guess you know more than I do. Does the guest posting has more advantages than disadvantages?
Karolina recently posted..The Best Ways to Treat Acne Naturally
Hey Karolina,
The only reason I wouldn’t accept guest posts is if I wanted to maintain a very strict type of content on the site and keep it very personal. Allowing other people to write quality content for the site gives me a break from writing and exposes my site to their social following when they share it.