The end of tiered link building - are tools like GSA, Magic submitter, UD, Senuke doomed?

I am seeing mixed results, couple of sites for which i ordered tiered link building service dropped in ranking after latest penguin 2.1 update where as other sites which also has tiered links improved in ranking. The only difference may be quality of content which was used for link building.

What I have noticed with most of the tiered backlinks is that spun content (and same content) and distribution of that content on several blogs lead to de-indexing of almost all links. And when any new algorithm change kicks in you lose ranking.

--Plus I am still not sure if and when all the old backlinks are deindexed and you get hit/penalty the first time, will the webpage (in my case only single internal webpage not the whole website) keep getting penalty, for just previously having those old links, after every new algorithm change.

After analyzing my website's internal URL ---> example . com/page1
Keyword competition: Medium

Before Penguin - 2.0
Ranking Page 2
Backlink Profile:
(a) Article Directories (same content spread everywhere around 10 articles)
(b) Social Bookmarking
(c) Forum Posts
(d) Tiered Link Building ( Spun content as well as similar content)
Anchor Text: 70% Exact Match

After Penguin - 2.0
Dropped Ranking to Page 7-8
Link Analysis: 80% Links de-indexed including links with spun and similar contents.

Note: links from famous article directories (e.g. goarticles), Forums, and social bookmarks (e.g. digg) NOT de-indexed.


What I did after the Penguin 2.0


Well, I made more links (number of Tier 1 links very few 5) this time only using tiered link building method (super spun content in Tier 2 layer only). What happened? Believe it or not, My site jumped back to page 2, stayed here until penguin 2.1. (regained old position) .
Anchor Text: 30% exact match.


Present - After Penguin 2.1


Same Internal Page

Page hit! ranking dropped jumping around 7-9-10 page

Backlink Analysis in webmaster tools:

None of the Tier 1 links ( I made after penguin 2.0 that lead to the ranking increase were deindexed. Only few of the Tier 2 links were deindexed, not significant enough, in my opinion, to cause a complete ranking loss.
Additionally, maybe some of the links that were left by penguin 2.0 were de indexed. Again, I don't believe they were that many to cause such a sudden drop in ranking.

Not completely sure what caused it.

(1) Maybe google detected Spun Content in Tier 2- did not de-index all but gave a penalty. however it did deindex few of them!

(2) As I said in the beginning of post -- I am still not sure, Maybe, if and when all the old backlinks are deindexed and you get hit/penalty the first time, the webpage (in my case not the whole website) keep getting penalty, for just previously having those old links, after every new algorithm change.
A Big Maybe: Got hit during Penguin 2.0, well will be hit again with Penguin 2.1 and the 3.0, then 6.0.....just a theory from someone who is not expert in seo.

Important Side Note:

(1) Believe it OR Not! ( I like saying this phrase) -- One of the Tier 1 properties is ranking around page 4 & 5 for the keyword I was targeting. Higher ranking than my money site internal URL, which is dropped to page 7-10 as said earlier.

No, these tools still work in the future if you use it right. I tried all of the tools listed above, but without any success. I doubted these tools at my perspective. However, one of my form colleagues used such tools with a decent success rate. So the problem is not the tool, it is problem who use it.

Link building tools are not yet dead for some websites like youtube and other High authority sites.

up till now there a lot of success stories from using these tools when optimizing youtube video url's and i am using them too and they're working.

but using these tools to blast links to your site, will not work.

You have to look at the long term trend to get the answers. Ask yourself...

Is it harder to rank with these tools now than it was 12 months ago? What about 24 months ago?

There is your answer. It's not getting easier, the writing is on the wall.

It's kind of like saying, when will the bubble pop (economics), no one knows the exact time, but it's going to pop. I can guarantee you that.

Unless you are ranking shit using these methods, almost effortlessly, it's not worth getting involved. You need to be concentrating on something much more long term. Ask yourself: "Am i comfortable putting in all this effort knowing that my reward will be short lived?".

Speaking from experience, i used to be able to rank almost anything by spamming. Now it is much more hit and miss, and approximately 90% of the stuff i do, doesn't stick more than 12 months.

Needless to say, most of my effort is now on long term ventures.

I think we all know the answer. Build good sites. Get good links. Simples!

I still use tiered link building, but the tools & methods specified are truly the armpit of the concept.

Just an example: this idea of spun content. A few years ago I used it heavily, maybe as recently as 18 months ago give or take. But the advantages of algorithmically assembled content was undeniable then, and not to step on your toes MMN but it remains just as effective today.

Lets look at tiered link building very briefly ...

GSA is an interesting tool, but every veteran xrumer user saw the writing on the wall with it. Having watched targeted action against platforms or a specific CMS in the past it was easily apparent what would happen.

Does that mean TLB is dead? Well, sort of... But only the bottom feeder, cheapest and laziest form of it. Does that mean the writing is on the wall for it? Well, if you are cheap and lazy, sure.

Starting around the same time I moved to algorithmically assembled content I also began to invest in the linking infrastructure of the sites I 'could' lose but still valued. Without getting too long winded - I began to "own my tiers."

This required a variety of new expenses (domain reg., hosting, development time...) but I wasn't touched by Penguin 2.1 and still used tiered link building.

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What I'm saying is this: Mike in the specific scope of the criteria you put forth, yes I think you are correct that it is a dying art. But your example is only of the lowest investment level and most poorly thought out plan of action.

MMN - your train of thought is beyond dispute, but only in the same narrow framework of the laziest, cheapest methodology possibly. It would be like me saying that all tiered link building is flawless because my method of implementation has only proven more successful with each new update. I would be just as wrong for me to say that as it is to say the writing is on the wall for the entire system of thought.

Basically i have read everything and my rebutle is this:

And again, its purely anecdotal based on my observations..

Obviously not all tiered link building is dead, i still see sites doing it and ranking. And just because i have had sites penalized (and some rank) using tiers, does not mean i am any good at it or am "doing it correctly". Anyway, here are my observations:

1) Less tiered link building is ranking. That is a fact, more and more people with sentance spun content is no longer getting indexed. With every update more and more people are getting penalized. By definition, if Google brings out an update and it penalizes people who are using certain tactics, it MAKES IT HARDER. Both in the short term in order to rank and long term in order to stay ranked. That much is undeniable right? If you look at the last few years things have gotten more difficult for spammers. That should be self explanatory, you used to be able to pump whatever links at a site and now you can't. The hoops you have to jump through are getting stricter and stricter. So that is where my "writing on the wall" statement comes from. Its clearly not getting easier is it?

My argument isn't that its impossible (its possible), its that more and more people are struggling with this. And hence, it is become a less viable business model. Especially to newbies, because they are clearly not going to get every single thing right with link spamming.

2) The build good content and get good links is a valid strategy, no matter how you put it. Again, from observing what is ranking and what is not ranking. The sites with the most good links and good content are ranking the best over the long term. This does not mean poor sites with auto content are not ranking. But it is quite obvious that these sites are getting pruned at every update. In my niche, between update my whitehat site constantly gets outranked, i always sit on the first page. Then spammers rank up above me, they last a couple months, then they are gone, i always stay. Anecdotal, but at the end of the day, i am the one laughing to the bank because i am not having to churn and burn, im creatting assets every day and the more i get, the more money i make. I am not comfortable just churning and burning to just keep the same search traffic.

Now, the extraction i get from all of this is, its easier and a better business model to create sites with massive amount of high quality long tail content and do things by the book. This does not mean that other strategies are valid or less valid. Up until this year, i have been a big proponent of mini sites, aggressive link building but the lifespan of such sites is less on the whole over the entire industry. This is undeniable, if loads of sites are going with each update that should be unquestionable. At the same time, it doesn't mean good sites don't get taken down by Google.. they do. But on the whole the sites that are getting ****ed are using manipulative practices, and the ones that are standing are using less manipulative tactics or less aggressive tactics.

I strongly believe the most viable SEO business model is changing. Thats just my opinion, obviously not fact.

Finally, its actually quite hard to assertain what content and what links are 100% responsible for this. For example, the vast majority of people are employing a variety of tactics and a variety of link sources, and pointing them at different sites with different kinds of content. All i can do is observe general patterns of sites that are tanking, from what i can see general patterns of around 50 sites i saw tank were as follows:

- Links from web 2.0's.
- Links from spun content.
- "pillowing" with low qualiity links
- Link from obvious blog networks
- Links from obvious paid links

Now you could say that these people were "doing it wrong", but a lot of these tactics such as web 2.0, spun content and pillowing are very mainstream and advocated by a lot of people in the industry.

I am not saying things have changed forever, but you know... its not getting easier, and thats the only point i wanted to make. People can make their own decisions. Thats what i think and have seen.

Here's just a real quick snip - most people are idiots.

What they *Should* be calling their version of tiered link building is actually parasitic link building. That dates back to 2008 via a post by Brad on WPBH.

Like I said Mike, you're right in a sense. I can't/won't debate that.

MMN, we aren't talking about the same thing. I can see you're passionate about what you're talking about and I respect that.

Most tiered link building uses spun content to inflate the page "quality" but now spun content is being targeted as low quality.

It's alive and well. I build network links (tier 2) to existing links (tier 1), then send campaigns to the network posts (tier 3).

Well, I would like to share my own method here which I am not sure did any changes. One of my client site was hit after first penguin update, it was ranking No.1 but then it went to No.8 and then to 2nd page and then 3rd page.

I have then fined tuned some of low quality links, specially I removed directory listings and unrelated blog review posting which was done using BuyBlogReviews. Then I got heard about tiered links, I tried I wrote 100% unique content and published on top 4 web 2.0 platforms like Wordpress, Hubpages, Blogger, Livejournal. I just used only 4 with 4 unique articles, I placed link to main site and then blasted these web 2.0 with blog comments, social bookmark and few others.

After Humingbird update, the site was back on first page and positioned at 6th position. Till now it is on the same spot. However, I used the strategy for another client but did not got any success.

Now it is pretty confusing as to what conclusion should I make. But based on my experiement I am thinking to follow the link building startegy as follows,:
1) Write 4 unique articles and publish on wordpress, blogger, livejournal, hubpages with one link to your main site.
2) Blast with tier2 links to the above web2.0 sites on random basis.
3) Convert the written articles into video and submit to video sites.
4) Convert the same article to PDF and submit to doc sharing sites.
5) Building further tier2 links to video and doc sharing sites.

I hope this would give good natural flow and may be good in terms of penuin2.1 and later. But as I told even I have not yet tested it, I am thinking to test.

I still think that tier2 backlinks are useful to get a good mix of BOTH dofollow and nofollow backlinks! However, just be sure to use good content in your "blogs" and do NOT spam...

Hopeless man, just hopeless! And I see some of you offering seo services man that's just scarrrryyyyy.

Starting in about April 2013, I certainly saw sites penalized for blog comment spam to the second tier.