speakeasy602
Junior Member
- Aug 4, 2009
- 126
- 40
A few years ago, I was doing subcontracted SEO for one of my friends who was an affiliate, but still had real clients. He promised his clients only white hat SEO, but instructed me to structure my links in a way that would mask any blackhat methods.
The way he explained it to me was like this:
Think of your links in tiers. You have links that point to your site (tier 1), and the links that point to those back links (tier 2). Of course this could go on forever, but for the sake of explanation, we'll keep it at 2 tiers.
Tier 1:
You focus white hat efforts on your tier 1 links as much as you can. You do a small amount of directory submissions (to quality directories: DMOZ, Yahoo, BOTW, etc.). You get blogroll links from some of the sites in your niche, and you focus on quality, anchor text, authority, etc. Set up your ping.fm account, set up your social profiles, and make it look as natural and legit as possible. Keep it clean, and don't look at link quantity, focus on quality.
Keep in mind that you don't want to do anything spammy on your tier 1 social profiles. Just keep them updated a couple times a day through ping.fm.
Tier 2:
Tier 2 is where you start introducing some of your blackhat methods. Social bookmarking, lower quality directories, etc. Keep in mind, you never want to use any of these methods on your original tier 1 links, these are all to support your existing back links ONLY. A method that we called "link fortification."
Link fortification works very well for a couple reasons: 1) You give your link partners the impression that somehow, their link-trade was a huge success because now they're getting more backlinks. and 2) You can ensure that if any spammy-looking or broken links happen, they do not happen directly to your site, which is a win.
You get links that appear to be more authority than they actually are. You just have to be careful to spread out your link spamming so that you don't create a mass amount of cross linking patterns. The way I do it, is I dedicate one tier to each type of submission.
Tier 2 - Directory Submissions
Tier 3 - Bookmarking Links
Tier 4 - Xrumer
This method has worked well for me for years, and I just wanted to share. It's super easy to manage because you break up all of your linking campaigns into tiers. We had a client that couldn't figure out why he was ranking #2 for a topic where everyone around him had LITERALLY 10's-of-thousands of links more than him in an insanely competitive vertical. I chalk it up to the fact that almost every back link we had, had thousands of back links, creating a false vision of authority and superiority. It's like saying "every link that points to this guys site has a huge level of influence, therefore, this site really knows what they're talking about." (That's why you spend so much time on your tier 1s).
Do any of you guys use this method? I don't really read a lot about link building methods because I am pretty set in my ways, and my ways consist of constantly covering my ass to make sure I'm not perceived as a spammer. If this method is something that everyone already knows and does, then I apologize for wasting your time...
The way he explained it to me was like this:
Think of your links in tiers. You have links that point to your site (tier 1), and the links that point to those back links (tier 2). Of course this could go on forever, but for the sake of explanation, we'll keep it at 2 tiers.
Tier 1:
You focus white hat efforts on your tier 1 links as much as you can. You do a small amount of directory submissions (to quality directories: DMOZ, Yahoo, BOTW, etc.). You get blogroll links from some of the sites in your niche, and you focus on quality, anchor text, authority, etc. Set up your ping.fm account, set up your social profiles, and make it look as natural and legit as possible. Keep it clean, and don't look at link quantity, focus on quality.
Keep in mind that you don't want to do anything spammy on your tier 1 social profiles. Just keep them updated a couple times a day through ping.fm.
Tier 2:
Tier 2 is where you start introducing some of your blackhat methods. Social bookmarking, lower quality directories, etc. Keep in mind, you never want to use any of these methods on your original tier 1 links, these are all to support your existing back links ONLY. A method that we called "link fortification."
Link fortification works very well for a couple reasons: 1) You give your link partners the impression that somehow, their link-trade was a huge success because now they're getting more backlinks. and 2) You can ensure that if any spammy-looking or broken links happen, they do not happen directly to your site, which is a win.
You get links that appear to be more authority than they actually are. You just have to be careful to spread out your link spamming so that you don't create a mass amount of cross linking patterns. The way I do it, is I dedicate one tier to each type of submission.
Tier 2 - Directory Submissions
Tier 3 - Bookmarking Links
Tier 4 - Xrumer
This method has worked well for me for years, and I just wanted to share. It's super easy to manage because you break up all of your linking campaigns into tiers. We had a client that couldn't figure out why he was ranking #2 for a topic where everyone around him had LITERALLY 10's-of-thousands of links more than him in an insanely competitive vertical. I chalk it up to the fact that almost every back link we had, had thousands of back links, creating a false vision of authority and superiority. It's like saying "every link that points to this guys site has a huge level of influence, therefore, this site really knows what they're talking about." (That's why you spend so much time on your tier 1s).
Do any of you guys use this method? I don't really read a lot about link building methods because I am pretty set in my ways, and my ways consist of constantly covering my ass to make sure I'm not perceived as a spammer. If this method is something that everyone already knows and does, then I apologize for wasting your time...
