Are you tired of spending too much time and money on SEO for your Shopify store? Do you want to get more organic traffic without relying on paid ads? You should also be aware of tiered link building. This SEO strategy can help you rank higher on Google and beat your competitors.

What is Tiered Link Building?

It's a strategy where you build a network of links, each pointing to the next, to increase the value of the final link that points to your website. When most people think about backlinks, they think about Tier 1 links. A Tier 1 link is when another website links directly to your website. It's simple: the more websites that link to yours, the better your website will rank.

But what about the websites that link to those websites? And what about the websites that link to those websites? This is where Tier 2 and Tier 3 links come in.

• Tier 2 Link: Website 2 links to Website 1, which then links to your website.

• Tier 3 Link: Website 3 links to Website 2, which links to Website 1, which finally links to your website.

While tiered link building may sound intricate, it's a strategic SEO approach. Tiered links, being more affordable and more straightforward to construct than Tier 1 backlinks, put the power of SEO in your hands.

When to Use Tiered Link Building

Tiered link building is helpful for:

• Guest posts

• Niche edits

• PR links

• Unlinked mentions

Let's examine each of these and see how Tier 2 links can assist.

Guest Posts

Guest posting is when you write a blog post for another website in your niche. The post includes a link back to your website. This is a Tier 1 link.

However, there's a problem with guest posts: if your guest post doesn't generate any traffic or get indexed by Google, the backlink is essentially useless. You've wasted your time and money.

Tiered links can help. By building Tier 2 links to your guest post, you increase its value to your site. The more links that point to a page, the faster it will get indexed and the higher it will rank. It's like building guest posts for your guest post.

How many Tier 2 links should you build? It depends on your budget and the website. It could be as few as four or five, or as many as 50 to 100.

Niche Edits

Niche edits, also called link insertions, are similar to guest posts. Instead of writing a new post, you find an existing page on another website and add a link to your website. This is also a Tier 1 link.

Niche edits have some benefits over guest posts:

• They're faster because you don't have to write a new post.

• They're cheaper.

• The pages already get traffic.

But what if the page with your niche edit only ranks on page two of Google or doesn't get much traffic? Tier 2 links can also aid in this process. By building Tier 2 links to the page with your niche edit, you can help it rank higher and get more traffic. This makes your backlink much more valuable.

PR Links and Unlinked Mentions

PR links are links from news websites or other high-authority sites. Obtaining a link from a reputable site, such as Forbes or MSN, is beneficial for SEO. If these sites link directly to your website, this is a Tier 1 link.

But even a link from a big website like MSN doesn't guarantee that you'll rank number one on Google. MSN publishes many articles every year, and not all of them are equally valuable. Some of them don't get any traffic, which makes your backlink useless.

Tier 2 links can help. If you get a link from a site like MSN, you should build Tier 2 links to that specific URL. This will enable the article to rank higher and attract more traffic, which will, in turn, drive more value to your website.

The same goes for no-follow links or unlinked mentions. These Tier 1 links are not very valuable on their own. However, if you build Tier 2 links to the article, you can help it rank higher in Google search results. This will make Google pass value to your site, even if the link is no-follow or unlinked.

Do You Need Tier 3 Links?

Tier 2 links are often enough, but Tier 3 links can act as an insurance policy. If your Tier 2 links don't get much traffic or links, they won't add much value to your Tier 1 links. Tier 3 links help ensure the entire chain works as intended.

Tier 3 links are usually no-follow links, and that's okay. You don't need them to pass a lot of value. Your goal is to draw attention to the Tier 2 links, which in turn point to the Tier 1 links, which ultimately direct users to your site.

Tier 3 links don't need to be as high quality as Tier 1 or Tier 2 links. You don't need to check them as carefully. Common types of Tier 3 links include:

• Social profiles

• Forums and discussion boards

• Blog comments

• Directories

How to Build Tier 2 and Tier 3 Backlinks

Tier 2 and Tier 3 backlinks are significantly less expensive than Tier 1 links. They're also of lower quality, but that's okay because they're not directly linking to your website.

You can use platforms like Fiverr to build Tier 2 and Tier 3 backlinks. Just don't buy the cheapest packages that promise too many links for too little money. These links are often spammy and can hurt your website.

If you have a larger team, you can build an in-house team of virtual assistants or create your private blog network (PBN).

When building Tier 2 links, point them to the specific URL of your guest post, niche edit, or PR link. Don't just point them to the root domain of the website; instead, provide a specific URL.

For Tier 3 links, point them to your Tier 2 links. Ensure that you diversify the types of links you're building for each tier. For Tier 2, use legitimate websites. For Tier 3, use social profiles, blog comments, and other lower-quality links.

Also, vary your anchor text for both Tier 2 and Tier 3 links. Use a mix of:

• Branded anchors

• Contextual anchors

• Plain URLs

• Calls to action (like "read more")

Ethical Considerations

It's crucial to consider the ethical implications of building low-quality Tier 2 and Tier 3 backlinks to other websites. This could potentially put them at risk for a penalty or loss of traffic, and as responsible SEO practitioners, we should avoid such practices.

That's up to you to decide. Here are a few rules to follow:

• If you've interacted with the owner of a website, refrain from building Tier 2 links to their site.

• For large websites like MSN, Forbes, and Yahoo, you're free to build as many Tier 2 links as you want.

• If a publisher refuses to add internal links to your guest post or is rude to you, you can build a few Tier 2 links to their site.

Conclusion

Tiered link building is a powerful SEO strategy that can help you rank higher on Google and get more organic traffic to your Shopify store. By building Tier 2 and Tier 3 links to your Tier 1 backlinks, you can enhance their value and increase their effectiveness. Just be sure to follow ethical guidelines and avoid building low-quality links to websites that you don't want to harm.

Ready to take your SEO to the next level? Start building tiered links today and see the difference it can make for your Shopify store.