Fatrank Podcast

James Dooley:
So I'm here with Karl, the founder of Search Ar. Today's topic is about tier 2 backlinks. So what is a tier 2 backlink. A tier 1 backlink, if we start at number one, is a link that goes through to your website. A tier 2 is what would come through to the links that are going to your website. So a tier 2 backlink is a link that's going to a tier one backlink. So why would you build a tier 2 backlink if it's not linking directly to your site. Because many years ago Google had the PageRank algorithm and we now believe that is still part of the core algorithm today even though the patents expired. If you build links it should pass trust and power. If it's passing trust and power, you want to be building links to almost every asset. So if you're building a tier 1 link, you should be then building links through to that. Obviously there's a degree where it might stop because you used to have seven or eight tiers back in the day. But it's like diminishing returns almost. We typically advise tier 2 is a good tier to hit.

James Dooley:
Quick fire questions. Would you build a tier 2 to a no follow citation.

Karl Hudson:
Yes.

James Dooley:
To a tier 2 no follow citation, would you build a tier 2 to a do follow guest post.

Karl Hudson:
Yes.

James Dooley:
Would you build a tier 2 to a niche edit.

Karl Hudson:
Maybe. With a niche edit it should already have a lot of links to it. If it's quite updated and recently edited I'd probably avoid building a tier 2 because it shouldn't need it. But if it's quite aged and struggling to get the crawler to come back, using a signal boost or social signal blast and then maybe some tier 2s would definitely help.

James Dooley:
What about press releases. Would you ever do tier 2s to a press release.

Karl Hudson:
I would probably do it to some of them. With press releases you get some better sites and some really poor sites. I would probably be hitting the better sites with it.

James Dooley:
So our strategy is that we build quite a lot of tier 2s to our guest posts because it's a new page so we're trying to power up that page. We actually do some to our niche edits even though niche edits should already have some power whether it's internal links or existing links going through to that page. We might tap it with one or two extra tier 2 links. And then only to the do follow press releases. We don't normally do it to the citations. We might load the citations through an indexing tool or occasionally a big GSA blast just to try to get them indexed. But we don't normally do it to the no follows which is interesting. Maybe we should.

James Dooley:
We probably should be doing some tier 2s to digital PR when it's a Telegraph or Mirror link and stuff like that because it's no follow. At present we don't do it. But actually, to try get more crawlers around, from what you're saying we should probably be doing that as well. With regards to relevance, are you bothered much on relevance at tier 2.

Karl Hudson:
Not really. We try to make the anchor text a bit relevant or at least relevant. What you have to remember with a tier 2 is it's linking to the site that's linking to you. So if we do a branded anchor text, some people get confused. Why are you doing a branded anchor to website A, B and C when my website is D, E and F. It's because we're linking to website A, B and C at this stage. Not your website. That passes relevance to that page which passes relevance back to your site. So you could do some branded at tier 2 or some exact match anchors for keywords because it's not going directly to your money site. You can be more aggressive.

James Dooley:
What about cost. How much do tier 2s cost. Is there a variation.

Karl Hudson:
It definitely varies. Various vendors charge between 20 and 30 dollars at the minute which is cheap for the industry. They are niche edit style links. They are actual people reaching out to webmasters and getting links placed. They are not PBNs which are quite popular for tier 2s.

James Dooley:
Could I build any tier 2s directly to my money site.

Karl Hudson:
We have seen this before. We don't advise it because the sites aren't the greatest quality. We believe in toxic thresholds. We don't offer pre-approval. You get what you get. We'd prefer to give you something you can sign off with. But yes, some clients have done it. We had one case where he built 500 links, wanted them live within a month, we did it, and he ranked in three or four weeks. He still ranks today. But that's local only. It won't work nationally.

James Dooley:
With regards to the tier 2s coming through, you're not bothered about relevance. Costs seem cheaper than a normal niche edit. You don't recommend doing them directly to the money site. Do you think every guest post should have some power within a tier 2 market.

Karl Hudson:
I would say usually yes if you're doing it on a budget. Pick sites that have a lot of ranking keywords. Almost like parasite SEO. Pick ones that already have authority and then hit them with tier 2s because it stands a chance of ranking with the tier 2 links.

James Dooley:
Great conversation. I might have to adjust my strategies by sending one or two to digital PR campaigns. Anyone not leveraging tier 2 backlinks is missing a lot. You're leaving money on the table by not powering your tier 1 backlinks. Any do follow backlink should be leveraged. If you can add more power to the page linking to you, you get more link juice passed through. I agree with you on relevance. Tier 1 should be relevant, but tier 2 I'm bothered about power not relevance. If you're not leveraging tier 2s you're missing out on improved rankings whether that's Bing or Google search results.