Powering Up Tier 1 Links - Best Practices Thread

[hvazquez07]

Hey guys!

I just landed a new consulting client (for SEO and Conversions) that has tons of authority and sexy ass natural links (the type of Washington Post, WSJ, Mens Mag, etc). The owner happens to love writing, he's a bestseller author and a heavy hitter in the entrepreneurial space, so he has the contacts to pump out even more editorial links like these.

However, his site doesn't do that well on the search engines. I mean, he does decently well, but he could absolutely dominate his space with the proper optimization. Nowadays has average-low quality on-page SEO (which I'm focusing on first and foremost) and I think that optimizing this will give his site some edge. I also think that the best way to gain rankings initially for a site that has some authority and history already, is by powering up its entire Tier 1 profile (which could have lost links in the past, etc.).

Do you guys have any recommendations? I want to keep the Tier 1 as pristine as possible, so I was intending to send a handful of high quality PBN links / hand picked SAPE / Aged Web 2.0s (10-20 to each link) to these Tier 1 and then make a linkbuilding campaign with GSA on Tier 3 and Tier 4. Volume will be on Tier 4, but I want to be careful not to burn these Tier 1 links.

Thanks for your input. It'd be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tucky]

I'd be interested to hear how the pro's go about this, especially when dealing with a long-term money site or a client's site. I'd imagine you have to be very careful not to let Google catch on with what you're doing. Quality over quantity.

 

[c4yrslf12]

Have his Tier 1's link to his other Tier 1's, when possible. If he's a writer at, say, WSJ, have him write and then link to his other links over at Washington Post, etc. Cross linking these jacks up the PA of each Tier 1.

Secondly, use these Tier 1's to deep link, and have his internal link juice flowing correctly.

 

[built]

Have his Tier 1's link to his other Tier 1's, when possible. If he's a writer at, say, WSJ, have him write and then link to his other links over at Washington Post, etc. Cross linking these jacks up the PA of each Tier 1.

Secondly, use these Tier 1's to deep link, and have his internal link juice flowing correctly.

Isn't that kind of like a link wheel?

 

[stackcash]

Money Site < Tier 1 Links < parasites / web 2.0s / DA stacks / high quality blog comments / profiles < spam.

I wish you great success! Bai!

 

[Ryuzaki]

How old is this site?

 

[Golan]

Isn't that kind of like a link wheel?

WashP links to WSJ which links to NYT which links to Huff? C'mon. Link wheel is when your dumb parasites and pumpers link to each other, i don't think this term could be ever applied to the world best sites.

 

[hvazquez07]

Have his Tier 1's link to his other Tier 1's, when possible. If he's a writer at, say, WSJ, have him write and then link to his other links over at Washington Post, etc. Cross linking these jacks up the PA of each Tier 1.

Secondly, use these Tier 1's to deep link, and have his internal link juice flowing correctly.

This is a great idea. I'm doing a syndication network around the site with the websites that they don't already own and interlinking them together. This will give them some deep linking as well as using them as semantic hubs to power up the structure. Adding these networks to G Plus profile, YouTube Channel, About,me, etc.

Money Site < Tier 1 Links < parasites / web 2.0s / DA stacks / high quality blog comments / profiles < spam.

I wish you great success! Bai!

I was thinking on doing some high quality PBN posts and manually done Web 2.0s, as well as some manual blog comments from high quality blogs as well. Then RankerX, then SPAM. Though I'd like to have in mind long term strategies as well (if such thing exists).

How old is this site?

The domain is 7 years old. And the brand has been around for that long as well.

Thanks a lot for your input guys. Truly appreciated.

 

[Ryuzaki]

At 7 years old, it seems like fixing up the on-page is definitely in order. That should be the biggest needle mover I think.

As far as the tiering goes, the way I like to do this when I want to play it as safe as possible while still tiering (safest is obviously not doing this at all), is to make the largest spread possible.

Let me make up some numbers. I see a lot of people building... 25 Tier 1 links, spraying them with 100,000 links... waiting on results, then spraying them with more again. That's a ticket to disaster.

What I like to do is create a spread of 25 Tier 1 links and lightly dust them with the kind of links you've mentioned. But I'm talking about 10 links max, if not less. And then I move on to the next set of 25 Tier 1 links instead of hitting the first set again. This keeps you flying under the radar and gets a lot more direct links being built that are safe and gaining age instead of being deleted by webmasters noticing you're slamming them with a million links.

 

[ddasilva]

Few options to consider....

1. Take an aged 301 domain (with good TF, quality links) and 301 that to a Tier 1. If you can find relevance or Topical Trust Flow, even better.

2. Create hubs wherever you can (about.me, flavors.me, web 2.0, etc...) linking to your Tier 1s, and then hit each hub with 10+ PBN links to power them up.

3. Create a web 2.0 buffer behind each tier 1, then juice that buffer with sape, FCS, PBNs, syndwire blast, social signals, or whatever else you can get your hands on.

Basically keeping it quality on tier 1 and tier 2, and bringing in the power on tier 3. Let the juice snowball through the tiers, picking up more and more steam along the way.

 

[hvazquez07]

At 7 years old, it seems like fixing up the on-page is definitely in order. That should be the biggest needle mover I think.

As far as the tiering goes, the way I like to do this when I want to play it as safe as possible while still tiering (safest is obviously not doing this at all), is to make the largest spread possible.

Let me make up some numbers. I see a lot of people building... 25 Tier 1 links, spraying them with 100,000 links... waiting on results, then spraying them with more again. That's a ticket to disaster.

What I like to do is create a spread of 25 Tier 1 links and lightly dust them with the kind of links you've mentioned. But I'm talking about 10 links max, if not less. And then I move on to the next set of 25 Tier 1 links instead of hitting the first set again. This keeps you flying under the radar and gets a lot more direct links being built that are safe and gaining age instead of being deleted by webmasters noticing you're slamming them with a million links.

Thanks a lot Ryu. I was thinking about keeping the Tier 1 completely pristine, and taking care of them. I think Tier 1 (even further on these cases) are extensions of the brand. So aiming 100k links to a Washington Post Article or a Twitter Profile is pretty much the same than doing it to the very money site. So I was thinking on 10-15 contextual links PER Tier 1, and then backing those contextuals with Spam. So Spam and volume will be on Tier 3, Tier 4, etc.

Few options to consider....

1. Take an aged 301 domain (with good TF, quality links) and 301 that to a Tier 1. If you can find relevance or Topical Trust Flow, even better.

2. Create hubs wherever you can (about.me, flavors.me, web 2.0, etc...) linking to your Tier 1s, and then hit each hub with 10+ PBN links to power them up.

3. Create a web 2.0 buffer behind each tier 1, then juice that buffer with sape, FCS, PBNs, syndwire blast, social signals, or whatever else you can get your hands on.

Basically keeping it quality on tier 1 and tier 2, and bringing in the power on tier 3. Let the juice snowball through the tiers, picking up more and more steam along the way.

The Topical TF Aged 301 is a great idea. I'll fire up Bluechip Backlinks for that, scraping some big ass newspapers and go from there. They already have some hubs in place, but I do intent to build more (500px, Behance, Gravatar, Disqus, etc.), and then powering them up with the techniques you also recommend.

Thanks D!

 

[Broland]

IDK this whole thing seems very sketch to me man...

Your like: "want to keep the Tier 1 as pristine as possible, so I was intending to send a handful of high quality PBN links / hand picked SAPE" and: "and then make a linkbuilding campaign with GSA on Tier 3 and Tier 4"

How about no PBN, SAPE, or GSA then? This is your idea of pristine? smh

and then: "by powering up its entire Tier 1 profile (which could have lost links in the past, etc.)."

So fast forward to the future when your GSA and SAPE links are falling off... isn't that the same factor of link loss you are talking about above? That's if the PBN junk doesn't get you a penalty first.

There are better ways bros.. but good luck.

 

[Ryuzaki]

How about no PBN, SAPE, or GSA then?

I agree with this totally and apologize if I misspoke above. What I would use to your Tier 1 is manually created links in places where they would naturally appear. Blog comments, forums, articles on platforms that accept user generated content.

However, if you're talking about top-tier level editorial links, I wouldn't bother hitting them with anything. There's going to be zero issue with indexation and they ought to be passing far more than enough juice and authority.

What I'd focus on is getting more of those and normal guest posts to key places. Rather than a giant campaign that's spread across the whole site, I'd work on determining which pages are already ranking near the first page for great terms and boosting those with new links and interlinking. Then I'd target new terms with new content and laser focus on easily measurable metrics (mainly rankings).

 

[hvazquez07]

Update: Been seeing some good movements by doing this.

I'd work on determining which pages are already ranking near the first page for great terms and boosting those with new links and interlinking

I'm working like crazy on the On Site right now, interlinking, adding embedded tweets and outbound authority links. Also added Json LD for data markup for the articles. So it's looking good without any extra linkjuice.

 

[jstover77]

Is the site news worthy? Have you considered submitting to Google News? I've seen sites absolutely explode if they get accepted. Obviously it has to fit the mold, but shit, you'll get all kinds of really nice natural links this way as well.

How was his on page? I'm curious to know if you found any issues on that end?

 

[hvazquez07]

Is the site news worthy? Have you considered submitting to Google News? I've seen sites absolutely explode if they get accepted. Obviously it has to fit the mold, but shit, you'll get all kinds of really nice natural links this way as well.

How was his on page? I'm curious to know if you found any issues on that end?

That's probably a good idea my friend since they churn out A TON of content every day.

On site was poor at best. I've been tweaking some of the internal linkings and rich media and results have been amazing.

 

[hvazquez07]

** Update **

Since they keep on generating content the on site and optimization is an ongoing process. So we're still at it, but we have done a ton of things to the old articles, pushing linkjuice back to some of the main categories, etc. The rankings have been increasing steadily.

They had a small PBN which I'm using to power up Tier 1s (the ones that I was talking about from Inc.com, etc.) results are starting to come in and we're receiveing some nice spikes of traffics.

Also we have added an IFTTT network and automated social posting to all of the accounts that they already had. That's still in process of being themed, because the network is fairly new (it takes anywhere from 1 to 3 months for the networks to be really responsive).

I'm also looking for guest posting opportunities. These guys have the budget so if you know of any good service, let me know!

Thanks a ton for your support guys! I trully appreciate it!

 

[bopeep]

When you guys ( @ddasilva ) say use PBNs to fire up tier 1, what kinds of PBNs you talking about about?
PBN links that you buy in the marketplaces or your own good quality PBNs. I meant wouldn't you point your good quality PBNs to your money sites, or you guys avoid PBNs to money sites altogether?

So what comprises your tier 1 links unless they are natural?